1 An Oracle Concerning Damascus The 17:1 Or burden of oracle concerning Damascus.“Behold, Damascus is about to be removed from being a cityAnd will become a fallen ruin.
2 “The cities 17:2Gr forever and ever of Aroer are forsaken;They will be for flocks, and they will lie down inthem;And there will be no one to causethemto tremble.
3 “And the 17:3Or fortification fortified city will cease from Ephraim,And 17:3Or royal power, kingdom sovereignty from DamascusAnd the remnant of Aram;They will be like the glory of the sons of Israel,”Declares Yahweh of hosts.
4 ¶Now it will be in that day,thatthe glory of Jacob will 17:4Lit become thin wane,And the fatness of his flesh will become lean.
5 And it will be even like the 17:5Lit gathering of the harvest, the standing grain reaper gathering the standing grain,As his arm harvests the ears of grain,Or it will be like one gleaning ears of grainIn the valley of Rephaim.
6 Yet gleanings will remain in it like the 17:6Lit striking shaking of an olive tree,Twoorthree olives on the topmost branch,Fourorfive on the twigs of a fruitful tree,Declares Yahweh, the God of Israel.
7 In that day man will have regard for his MakerAnd his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel.
8 He will not have regard for the altars, the work of his hands,Nor will he look to that which his fingers have made,Even the 17:8Wooden symbols of a female deity Asherim and 17:8Or sun pillars incense stands.
9 In that day 17:9Man’s their strong cities will be like 17:9Gr the deserted places of the Amorites and the Hivites which they abandoned forsaken places in the forest,Or like 17:9Or the treetop branches which they forsook before the sons of Israel;And 17:9Lit it the land will be a desolation.
10 For you have forgotten the God of your salvationAnd have not remembered the rock of your strong defense.Therefore you plant delightful plantsAnd set them with vine branches of a strangegod.
11 In the day that you plantityou carefully fenceitin,And in the morning you cause your seed to flourish;Butthe harvest willbea heapIn a day of sickliness and incurable pain.
12 ¶Alas, the uproar of many peoplesWho roar like the roaring of the seas,And the rumbling of nationsWho rumble on like the rumbling of mighty waters!
13 The nations rumble on like the rumbling of many waters,But He will rebuke them, and they will flee far away,And be pursued like chaff in the mountains before the wind,Or like whirling dust before a whirlwind.
14 At evening time, behold,there isterror!Before morning they are no more. 17:14Lit This Suchwill bethe portion of those who pillage usAnd the lot of those who plunder us.