| NET Bible | International Standard Version |
| 1Here is a message about Damascus: "Look, Damascus is no longer a city, it is a heap of ruins! | 1A message about Damascus: "Look! Damascus will cease to be a city. Instead, it will become a pile of ruins. |
| 2The cities of Aroer are abandoned. They will be used for herds, which will lie down there in peace. | 2The cities of Oraru will be deserted— they will be devoted to herds that will lay at rest, and terrorism will be no more. |
| 3Fortified cities will disappear from Ephraim, and Damascus will lose its kingdom. The survivors in Syria will end up like the splendor of the Israelites," says the LORD who commands armies. | 3The fortress will disappear from Ephraim, and royal authority from Damascus; the survivors from Aram will be like the glory of the Israelis," declares the LORD of the Heavenly Armies. |
| 4"At that time Jacob's splendor will be greatly diminished, and he will become skin and bones. | 4"At that time, Jacob's glory will have become weakened, and his strong flesh will turn gaunt; |
| 5It will be as when one gathers the grain harvest, and his hand gleans the ear of grain. It will be like one gathering the ears of grain in the Valley of Rephaim. | 5it will be as if harvesters gather standing grain, reaping the ears by hand, or it will be as if grain is harvested in the valley of Rephaim. |
| 6There will be some left behind, like when an olive tree is beaten--two or three ripe olives remain toward the very top, four or five on its fruitful branches," says the LORD God of Israel. | 6Nevertheless, gleanings will remain in Israel, as when an olive tree is beaten— two or three ripe olives left in the topmost branches, four or five left among the branches of a fruit-filled tree," declares the LORD God of Israel. |
| 7At that time men will trust in their creator; they will depend on the Holy One of Israel. | 7At that time, men will look upon their Maker, and their eyes will honor the Holy One of Israel. |
| 8They will no longer trust in the altars their hands made, or depend on the Asherah poles and incense altars their fingers made. | 8They will not look upon the altars, the products that their own fingers have made, and they will have no regard for Asherah poles or incense altars. |
| 9At that time their fortified cities will be like the abandoned summits of the Amorites, which they abandoned because of the Israelites; there will be desolation. | 9"At that time, their fortified cities that they abandoned because of the Israelis will be like desolate places of the forests and hilltops— there will be desolation. |
| 10For you ignore the God who rescues you; you pay no attention to your strong protector. So this is what happens: You cultivate beautiful plants and plant exotic vines. | 10For you have forgotten the God of your salvation and have not remembered the Rock that is your strength. Therefore even though you plant delightful plants, sowing them with imported vine-seedlings, |
| 11The day you begin cultivating, you do what you can to make it grow; the morning you begin planting, you do what you can to make it sprout. Yet the harvest will disappear in the day of disease and incurable pain. | 11at the time that you plant them, carefully making them grow, the very morning you make your seed to sprout, your harvest will be ruined in a time of grief and unbearable pain." |
| 12The many nations massing together are as good as dead, those who make a commotion as loud as the roaring of the sea's waves. The people making such an uproar are as good as dead, those who make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves. | 12"How terrible it will be for many peoples, who rage like the roaring sea! Oh, how the uproar of nations is like the sound of rushing, mighty water— How they roar! |
| 13Though these people make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves, when he shouts at them, they will flee to a distant land, driven before the wind like dead weeds on the hills, or like dead thistles before a strong gale. | 13The nations roar like the rushing of many waters, but the LORD will rebuke them, and they will run far away, chased like chaff blown down from the mountains or like thick dust that rolls along, blown along by a wind storm. |
| 14In the evening there is sudden terror; by morning they vanish. This is the fate of those who try to plunder us, the destiny of those who try to loot us! | 14When the evening arrives, watch out—sudden terror! By morning they will be there no longer! So it will be for those who plunder us and what will happen to those who rob us." |
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