Esias 17

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

The doom of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is deprived of being a city, and it shall become decaying ruins.

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

Forsaken are the cities of 'Aro'er: they shall be [given up] to flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid.

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.

And there shall cease the fortress from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria: like the glory of the children of Israel shall they be, saith the Lord of hosts.

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 shall come to pass on that day, that the glory of Jacob shall vanish, and the fatness of his flesh shall become lean.

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 shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the standing-corn, and reapeth the ears with his arm; and it shall be as when one gleaneth ears 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.

And there shall be left on it gleaning-fruit, as one shaketh an olive-tree, two or three berries on the top of the uppermost bough, four or five on the outmost branches of a fruitful tree, saith 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.

On that day shall a man turn his regard up to his Maker, and his eyes shall look toward 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.

And he shall not turn his regard to the altars, the work of his hands; and he shall not look at what his fingers have made, both the groves and the sun-images.

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.

On that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken ruin in a forest, and on a mountain-peak, which they left because of the children of Israel: and the land shall be desolate.

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.

Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and the rock of thy strength thou hast not remembered; therefore wouldst thou plant luxuriant plantings, and wouldst set out the shoots of the stranger therein.

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.

[Already] on the day that thou plantedst thou causedst to grow, and in the morning thou madest thy seed to blossom; but now fleeth the harvest on the day of disease and of incurable pain.

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;

Woe to the raging of many people, who rage like the raging of the seas; and to the noise of nations, that make a noise like the roar of mighty 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.

The nations will make a noise like the roaring of many waters; but He will rebuke it, and it shall flee afar off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and as thistle-down before the tempest.

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.

At eveningtide, behold, there is trouble; before yet it is morning it is no more. This is the portion of our spoilers, and the lot of those that plunder us.