[1] An oracle concerning Damascus. Behold, Damascus will cease to be a
city, and will become a heap of ruins. [2] Her cities will be deserted for
ever; they will be for flocks, which will lie down, and none will make them
afraid. [3] The fortress will disappear from E'phraim, and the kingdom from
Damascus; and the remnant of Syria will be like the glory of the children
of Israel, says the LORD of hosts. [4] And in that day the glory of Jacob
will be brought low, and the fat of his flesh will grow lean. [5] And it
shall be as when the reaper gathers standing grain and his arm harvests the
ears, and as when one gleans the ears of grain in the Valley of Reph'aim.
[6] Gleanings will be left in it, as when an olive tree is beaten-- two or
three berries in the top of the highest bough, four or five on the branches
of a fruit tree, says the LORD God of Israel. [7] In that day men will
regard their Maker, and their eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel; [8]
they will not have regard for the altars, the work of their hands, and they
will not look to what their own fingers have made, either the Ashe'rim or
the altars of incense. [9] In that day their strong cities will be like the
deserted places of the Hivites and the Amorites, which they deserted
because of the children of Israel, and there will be desolation. [10] For
you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not remembered the
Rock of your refuge; therefore, though you plant pleasant plants and set
out slips of an alien god, [11] though you make them grow on the day that
you plant them, and make them blossom in the morning that you sow; yet the
harvest will flee away in a day of grief and incurable pain. [12] Ah, the
thunder of many peoples, they thunder like the thundering of the sea! Ah,
the roar of nations, they roar like the roaring of mighty waters! [13] The
nations roar like the roaring of many waters, but he will rebuke them, and
they will flee far away, chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind
and whirling dust before the storm. [14] At evening time, behold, terror!
Before morning, they are no more! This is the portion of those who despoil
us, and the lot of those who plunder us.
