The Burden against Damascus
(Jeremiah 49:23–27)

1The burden of Damascus:

“Behold, Damascus is being turned aside as a city,

and it has become a heap of ruins.

2The cities of Aroer are forsaken;

they will be for flocks to lie down,

and no one will frighten them.

3The fortress will cease from Ephraim,†

and the kingdom from Damascus;

and the remnant of Aram will become

like the glory of the sons of Israel,”

a declaration of YHWH of hosts.

4“And it will come to pass in that day, that the glory of Jacob will hang low,

and the fatness of his flesh will become lean;

5and it will be as the gathering of the harvester of the standing grain,

when his arm harvests the ears;

and it will be as the gathering of the ears

in the Valley of Rephaim;

6and there will be left over in it gleanings,

like the shaking of an olive tree,

two or three berries at the top of the bough,

four or five bearing fruit in its branches.”

A declaration of YHWH God of Israel.

7In that day man will gaze upon his Maker,

and his eyes will look unto the Holy One of Israel.

8And he will not look to the altars,

the work of his hands,

and that which his fingers have made

he will not see—

the Asherahs and incense altars.

9In that day the cities of his strength will be

like the abandoned forest and summit

that they abandoned before the faces of the sons of Israel;

and it will be a desolation.

10For you have forgotten the God of your salvation,

and the Rock of your refuge you have not remembered.

Upon thus you may plant plants of pleasantness,

and you may sow vines of a stranger,

11on the day you plant

you make it grow,

and in the morning of your sowing,

you make it sprout;

the harvest will flee

on the day of the coming of sickness and pain that cannot be cured.

12Woe to the multitude of many peoples—

like the roaring of seas they roar! And the rumble of nations—

like the rumbling of mighty waters they are crashing!

13The peoples—like the rumbling of many waters they are crashing,

and He will rebuke them, and they will flee far away,

and they will be chased like chaff on the mountains before the face of the wind,

and like a wheel of dust before the face of the whirlwind.

14And at the time of evening, behold the terror;

before the morning he is no more!

This is the portion of those plundering us

and the lot of those preying on us.