Isaiah 17
1 This is the burden against Damascus: “Behold, Damascus is no longer a city; it has become a heap of ruins.
THE WORD AGAINST DAMASCUS. Behold, Damascus shall be taken away from among cities, and shall become a ruin;
2 The cities of Aroer are forsaken; they will be left to the flocks, which will lie down with no one to fear.
abandoned for ever, to [be] a fold and resting-place for flocks, and there shall be none to go after them.
3 The fortress will disappear from Ephraim, and the sovereignty from Damascus. The remnant of Aram will be like the splendor of the Israelites,”
And she shall no longer be a strong place for Ephraim to flee to, and there shall no longer be a kingdom in Damascus, or a remnant of Syrians; for you are no better than the children of Israel, [even] than their glory; thus says the Lord of hosts.
4 “In that day the splendor of Jacob will fade, and the fat of his body will waste away,
There shall be in that day a failure of the glory of Jacob, and the riches of his glory shall be shaken.
5 as the reaper gathers the standing grain and harvests the ears with his arm, as one gleans heads of grain in the Valley of Rephaim.
And it shall be as if one should gather standing corn, and reap the grain of the ears; and it shall be as if one should gather ears in a rich valley;
6 Yet gleanings will remain, like an olive tree that has been beaten— two or three berries atop the tree, four or five on its fruitful branches,”
and [as if] there should be left stubble therein, or [as it were] the berries of an olive tree, two or three on the topmost bough, or [as if] four or five should be left on their branches; thus says the Lord, the God of Israel.
7 In that day men will look to their Maker and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.
In that day a man shall trust in him that made him, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel.
8 They will not look to the altars they have fashioned with their hands or to the Asherahs and incense altars they have made with their fingers.
And they shall not at all trust in their altars, nor in the works of their hands, which their fingers made; and they shall not look to the trees, nor to their abominations.
9 In that day their strong cities will be like forsaken thickets and summits, abandoned to the Israelites and to utter desolation.
In that day your cities shall be deserted, as the Amorites and the Evaeans deserted [theirs], because of the children of Israel; and they shall be desolate.
10 For you have forgotten the God of your salvation and failed to remember the Rock of your refuge. Therefore, though you cultivate delightful plots and set out cuttings from exotic vines—
Because you have forsaken God your Saviour, and have not been mindful of the Lord your helper; therefore shall you plant a false plant, and a false seed.
11 though on the day you plant you make them grow, and on that morning you help your seed sprout— yet the harvest will vanish on the day of disease and incurable pain.
In the day wherein you shall plant you shall be deceived; but if you sow in the morning, [the seed] shall spring up for a crop in the day wherein you shall obtain an inheritance, and as a man's father, you shall obtain an inheritance for your sons.
12 Alas, the tumult of many peoples; they rage like the roaring seas and clamoring nations; they rumble like the crashing of mighty waters.
Woe [to] the multitude of many nations, as the swelling sea, so shall you be confounded; and the force of many nations shall sound like water;
13 The nations rage like the rush of many waters. He rebukes them, and they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweeds before a gale.
many nations like much water, as when much water rushes violently: and they shall drive him away, and pursue him afar, as the dust of chaff when men winnow before the wind, and as a storm whirling the dust of the wheel.
14 In the evening, there is sudden terror! Before morning, they are no more! This is the portion of those who loot us and the lot of those who plunder us.
Toward evening, and there shall be grief; before the morning, and he shall not be. This is the portion of them that spoiled you, and the inheritance to them that robbed you of your inheritance.
