Prophecy about Damascus

1The pronouncement concerning Damascus:

“Behold, Damascus is about to be removed from being a city

And will become a fallen ruin.

2“The cities [a]of Aroer are abandoned;

They will be for herds [b]to lie down in,

And there will be no one to frighten them.

3“The [c]fortified city will disappear from Ephraim,

And [d]sovereignty from Damascus

And the remnant of Aram;

They will be like the glory of the sons of Israel,”

Declares the LORD of armies.

4Now on that day the glory of Jacob will [e]fade,

And the fatness of his flesh will become lean.

5It will be like the [f]reaper gathering the standing grain,

As his arm harvests the ears,

Or it will be like one gleaning ears of grain

In the Valley of Rephaim.

6Yet gleanings will be left in it like the [g]shaking of an olive tree,

Two or three olives on the topmost branch,

Four or five on the branches of a fruitful tree,

Declares the LORD, the God of Israel.

7On that day man will look to his Maker

And his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel.

8And he will not look to the altars, the work of his hands,

Nor will he look to that which his fingers have made,

Even the [h]Asherim and incense altars.

9On that day [i]their strong cities will be like [j]abandoned places in the forest,

Or like branches which they abandoned before the sons of Israel;

And [k]the land will be a desolation.

10For you have forgotten the God of your salvation

And have not remembered the rock of your refuge.

Therefore you plant delightful plants

And set them with vine shoots of a strange god.

11On the day that you plant it you carefully fence it in,

And in the morning you bring your seed to blossom;

But the harvest will flee

On a day of illness and incurable pain.

12Oh, the uproar of many peoples

Who roar like the roaring of the seas,

And the rumbling of nations

Who rush on like the rumbling of mighty waters!

13The nations rumble on like the rumbling of many waters,

But He will rebuke them, and they will flee far away,

And be chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind,

Or like whirling dust before a gale.

14At evening time, behold, there is terror!

Before morning they are gone.

This will be the [l]fate of those who plunder us

And the lot of those who pillage us.