An Oracle Concerning Damascus

1The [†]oracle concerning Damascus.

“Behold, Damascus is about to be removed from being a city

And will become a fallen ruin.

2The cities [†]of Aroer are forsaken;

They will be for flocks, and they will lie down in them;

And there will be no one to cause them to tremble.

3And the [†]fortified city will cease from Ephraim,

And [†]sovereignty from Damascus

And the remnant of Aram;

They will be like the glory of the sons of Israel,”

Declares Yahweh of hosts.

4Now it will be in that day, that the glory of Jacob will [†]wane,

And the fatness of his flesh will become lean.

5And it will be even like the [†]reaper gathering the standing grain,

As his arm harvests the ears of grain,

Or it will be like one gleaning ears of grain

In the valley of Rephaim.

6Yet gleanings will remain in it like the [†]shaking of an olive tree,

Two or three olives on the topmost branch,

Four or five on the twigs of a fruitful tree,

Declares Yahweh, the God of Israel.

7In that day man will have regard for his Maker

And his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel.

8He will not have regard for the altars, the work of his hands,

Nor will he look to that which his fingers have made,

Even the [†]Asherim and [†]incense stands.

9In that day [†]their strong cities will be like [†]forsaken places in the forest,

Or like [†]branches which they forsook before the sons of Israel;

And [†]the land will be a desolation.

10For you have forgotten the God of your salvation

And have not remembered the rock of your strong defense.

Therefore you plant delightful plants

And set them with vine branches of a strange god.

11In the day that you plant it you carefully fence it in,

And in the morning you cause your seed to flourish;

But the harvest will be a heap

In a day of sickliness and incurable pain.

12Alas, the uproar of many peoples

Who roar like the roaring of the seas,

And the rumbling of nations

Who rumble on like the rumbling of mighty waters!

13The nations rumble on like the rumbling of many waters,

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

And be pursued like chaff in the mountains before the wind,

Or like whirling dust before a whirlwind.

14At evening time, behold, there is terror!

Before morning they are no more.

[†]Such will be the portion of those who pillage us

And the lot of those who plunder us.