Isaiah 17

1 The burden of Damascus. “Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it will be a ruinous heap.

有關大馬士革的神諭：看，大馬士革不再成為城市，將變為一堆廢墟。

2 The cities of Aroer are forsaken. They will be for flocks, which shall lie down, and no one shall make them afraid.

她的城邑將永被遺棄，成為羊群的牧場；牠們偃臥在那裏，無人驚擾。

3 The fortress shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria. They will be as the glory of the children of Israel,” says the LORD of Armies.

厄弗辣因的保壘將被撤除，大馬士革的主權將要消失，阿蘭的遺民將如以色列子民的光榮－－萬軍上主的斷語。

4 “It will happen in that day that the glory of Jacob will be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh will become lean.

到那天，雅各 伯的光榮必要衰落，他肥滿的身軀必要消瘦。

5 It will be like when the harvester gathers the wheat, and his arm reaps the grain. Yes, it will be like when one gleans grain in the valley of Rephaim.

將如收割的人一手在抱麥稈，一手在割麥穗；又如人摘取葡萄，或在勒法因山谷採打橄欖樹，

6 Yet gleanings will be left there, like the shaking of an olive tree, two or three olives in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outermost branches of a fruitful tree,” says the LORD, the God of Israel.

上面總有些殘粒剩下，或兩三粒留在樹梢，或四五個留在果樹的枝梢上－－上主，以色列的天主的斷語。

7 In that day, people will look to their Maker, and their eyes will have respect for the Holy One of Israel.

到那天，人必仰望自己的造主，眼睛必要注視以色列的聖者。

8 They will not look to the altars, the work of their hands; neither shall they respect that which their fingers have made, either the Asherah poles or the incense altars.

再不願觀看他親手所造的祭壇；也不再顧盼他手指所製的「阿舍辣」和太陽柱。

9 In that day, their strong cities will be like the forsaken places in the woods and on the mountain top, which were forsaken from before the children of Israel; and it will be a desolation.

到那天，你的堅城，將如希威人和阿摩黎人在以色列子民前所放棄的地域，成為一片荒野，

10 For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not remembered the rock of your strength. Therefore you plant pleasant plants, and set out foreign seedlings.

因為你忘卻了拯救你的天主，不懷念作你避難所的磐石。為此，你雖栽種阿多尼花木，種植異鄉的枝條；

11 In the day of your planting, you hedge it in. In the morning, you make your seed blossom, but the harvest flees away in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.

你縱然在一日之間使你所栽種的生長，清晨使你所種植的開花，但是收穫卻消失在患難和絕望痛苦的日子中。

12 Ah, the uproar of many peoples who roar like the roaring of the seas; and the rushing of nations that rush like the rushing of mighty waters!

靜聽！許多民族在喧嚷，喧嚷得有如海嘯；好多百姓在咆哮，咆哮得有如汪洋的怒號。

13 The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters, but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far off, and will be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like the whirling dust before the storm.

然而上主一叱責，他必飄逸遠逃，有如為颶風捲去山上的禾湝，有如旋風前的薊絮。

14 At evening, behold, terror! Before the morning, they are no more. This is the portion of those who plunder us, and the lot of those who rob us.

晚間盡是恐怖；天還未亮，已無蹤影！這是掠奪我們者的份子，搶劫我們者的命運。