1The burden against Damascus: "Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a heap of ruins.

2The cities of Aroer are forsaken; now they shall be for flocks; they shall lie down, and no one terrifies them.

3And the fortress shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the rest of Syria. They shall be as the glory of the children of Israel," says the LORD of hosts.

4"And it shall come to pass in that day, the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall become lean.

5And it shall be as the reaping of the harvest grain--with his arm one reaps the ears. And it shall be as he who gathers ears in the Valley of the Giants.

6Yet a gleaning of grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three ripe olives in the top of the uppermost branch, four or five in the branches of the fruitful tree," says the LORD, God of Israel.

7In that day a man shall look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel.

8And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, nor respect that which his fingers have made, neither the groves or the images.

9In that day his strong cities shall be like forsaken places in the forest, or like branches, which they left because of the children of Israel; and it will become a desolation.

10Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not remembered the Rock of your strength, therefore you shall plant pleasant plants and shall sow it a fresh shoot.

11In the day of your planting you fence it in; and in the morning you make your seed sprout. But the harvest shall be a heap of boughs in the day of grief and incurable pain.

12Oh the uproar of many people, who roar like the roaring of the seas; and the rushing of nations who rush on like the rushing of mighty waters!

13The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters; but He shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like whirling dust before a gale.

14At evening time, behold, terror! Before the morning, they are not! This is the lot of those who plunder us, and the lot of those who rob us.