Isaiah 17

¹An oracle concerning Damascus . Behold , Damascus will cease to be a city and will become a heap of ruins .

²The cities of Aroer are deserted ; they will be for flocks , which will lie down , and none will make them afraid .

³The fortress will disappear from Ephraim , and the kingdom from Damascus ; and the remnant of Syria will be like the glory of the children of Israel , declares the Lord of hosts .

⁴And in that day the glory of Jacob will be brought low , and the fat of his flesh will grow lean .

⁵And it shall be as when the reaper gathers standing grain and his arm harvests the ears , and as when one gleans the ears of grain in the Valley of Rephaim .

⁶Gleanings will be left in it, as when an olive tree is beaten — two or three berries in the top of the highest bough , four or five on the branches of a fruit tree , declares the Lord God of Israel .

⁷In that day man will look to his Maker , and his eyes will look on the Holy One of Israel .

⁸He will not look to the altars , the work of his hands , and he will not look on what his own fingers have made , either the Asherim or the altars of incense .

⁹In that day their strong cities will be like the deserted places of the wooded heights and the hilltops , which they deserted because of the children of Israel , and there will be desolation .

¹⁰For you have forgotten the God of your salvation and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge ; therefore , though you plant pleasant plants and sow the vine-branch of a stranger ,

¹¹though you make them grow on the day that you plant them, and make them blossom in the morning that you sow , yet the harvest will flee away in a day of grief and incurable pain .

¹²Ah , the thunder of many peoples ; they thunder like the thundering of the sea ! Ah, the roar of nations ; they roar like the roaring of mighty waters !

¹³The nations roar like the roaring of many waters , but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away , chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind and whirling dust before the storm .

¹⁴At evening time , behold , terror ! Before morning , they are no more ! This is the portion of those who loot us, and the lot of those who plunder us.