< Isaiah 17 >
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from [being] a city, And it has been a heap—a ruin.
2 The cities of Aroer are forsaken, They are for droves, and they have lain down, And there is none troubling.
3 And the fortress has ceased from Ephraim, And the kingdom from Damascus, And the remnant of Aram are as the glory of the sons of Israel, A declaration of YHWH of Hosts!
4 And it has come to pass in that day, The glory of Jacob waxes poor, And the fatness of his flesh waxes lean.
5 And it has come to pass, As the gathering of the standing grain by the reaper, And his arm reaps the ears, And it has come to pass, As the gathering of the ears in the Valley of Rephaim,
6 And gleanings have been left in him, As the surrounding of an olive, Two—three berries on the top of a branch, Four—five on the fruitful boughs, A declaration of YHWH, God of Israel!
7 In that day man looks to His Maker, Indeed, his eyes look to the Holy One of Israel,
8 And he does not look to the altars. The work of his own hands, And that which his own fingers made, He does not see—the Asherim and the images.
9 In that day the cities of his strength are As the forsaken thing of the forest, And the branch that they have left, Because of the sons of Israel, It has also been a desolation.
10 Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation, And have not remembered the Rock of your strength, Therefore you plant plants of pleasantness, And sow it with a strange shoot,
11 You cause your plant to become great in the day, And make your seed to flourish in the morning, The harvest [is] a heap in a day of overflowing, And of mortal pain.
12 Woe [to] the multitude of many peoples, They sound as the sounding of seas; And the roaring of nations, As the roaring of mighty waters [that] make a crashing.
13 Nations crash as the roaring of many waters, And He rebuked them, And they fled far off, And were pursued as chaff of hills before wind, And as a rolling thing before a windstorm.
14 At evening, behold, terror, before morning it is not, This [is] the portion of our spoilers, And the lot of our plunderers!
