Esias 17

1 THE WORD AGAINST DAMASCUS. Behold, Damascus shall be taken away from amongst cities, and shall become a ruin;

The word about Damascus. See, they have made Damascus a town no longer; it has become a waste place.

2 abandoned for ever, to [be] a fold and resting-place for flocks, and there shall be none to go after them.

Her towns are unpeopled for ever; there the flocks take their rest in peace, without fear.

3 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.

The strong tower has gone from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus: the rest of Aram will come to destruction, and be made like the glory of the children of Israel, says the Lord of armies.

4 There shall be in that day a failure of the glory of Jacob, and the riches of his glory shall be shaken.

And it will be in that day that the glory of Jacob will be made small, and the strength of his body will become feeble.

5 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;

And it will be like a man cutting the growth of his grain, pulling together the heads of the grain with his arm; even as when they get in the grain in the valley of Rephaim.

6 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.

But it will be like a man shaking an olive-tree, something will still be there, two or three berries on the top of the highest branch, four or five on the outside branches of a fertile tree, says the Lord, the God of Israel.

7 In that day a man shall trust in him that made him, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel.

In that day a man's heart will be turned to his Maker, and his eyes to the Holy One of Israel.

8 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.

He will not be looking to the altars, the work of his hands, or to the wood pillars or to the sun-images which his fingers have made.

9 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.

In that day your towns will be like the waste places of the Hivites and the Amorites which the children of Israel took for a heritage, and they will come to destruction.

10 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.

For you have not given honour to the God of your salvation, and have not kept in mind the Rock of your strength; for this cause you made a garden of Adonis, and put in it the vine-cuttings of a strange god;

11 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.

In the day of your planting you were watching its growth, and in the morning your seed was flowering: but its fruit is wasted away in the day of grief and bitter sorrow.

12 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;

Ah! the voice of peoples, like the loud sounding of the seas, and the thundering of great nations rushing on like the bursting out of waters!

13 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.

But he will put a stop to them, and make them go in flight far away, driving them like the waste of the grain on the tops of the mountains before the wind, and like the circling dust before the storm.

14 Towards 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.

In the evening there is fear, and in the morning they are gone. This is the fate of those who take our goods, and the reward of those who violently take our property for themselves.