Isaiah 17

1 The burden of Damascus. “Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it will be a ruinous heap.

THE WORD AGAINST DAMASCUS. Behold, Damascus shall be taken away from among cities, and shall become a ruin;

2 The cities of Aroer are forsaken. They will be for flocks, which shall lie down, and no one shall make them afraid.

abandoned for ever, to [be] a fold and resting-place for flocks, and there shall be none to go after them.

3 The fortress shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria. They will be as the glory of the children of Israel,” says the LORD of Armies.

And she shall no longer be a strong place for Ephraim to flee to, and there shall no longer be a kingdom in Damascus, or a remnant of Syrians; for thou art no better than the children of Israel, [even] than their glory; thus saith the Lord of hosts.

4 “It will happen in that day that the glory of Jacob will be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh will become lean.

There shall be in that day a failure of the glory of Jacob, and the riches of his glory shall be shaken.

5 It will be like when the harvester gathers the wheat, and his arm reaps the grain. Yes, it will be like when one gleans grain in the valley of Rephaim.

And it shall be as if one should gather standing corn, and reap the grain of the ears; and it shall be as if one should gather ears in a rich valley;

6 Yet gleanings will be left there, like the shaking of an olive tree, two or three olives in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outermost branches of a fruitful tree,” says the LORD, the God of Israel.

and [as if] there should be left stubble therein, or [as it were] the berries of an olive tree, two or three on the topmost bough, or [as if] four or five should be left on their branches; thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel.

7 In that day, people will look to their Maker, and their eyes will have respect for the Holy One of Israel.

In that day a man shall trust in him that made him, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel.

8 They will not look to the altars, the work of their hands; neither shall they respect that which their fingers have made, either the Asherah poles or the incense altars.

And they shall not at all trust in their altars, nor in the works of their hands, which their fingers made; and they shall not look to the trees, nor to their abominations.

9 In that day, their strong cities will be like the forsaken places in the woods and on the mountain top, which were forsaken from before the children of Israel; and it will be a desolation.

In that day thy cities shall be deserted, as the Amorites and the Evaeans deserted [theirs], because of the children of Israel; and they shall be desolate.

10 For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not remembered the rock of your strength. Therefore you plant pleasant plants, and set out foreign seedlings.

Because thou hast forsaken God thy Saviour, and hast not been mindful of the Lord thy helper; therefore shalt thou plant a false plant, and a false seed.

11 In the day of your planting, you hedge it in. In the morning, you make your seed blossom, but the harvest flees away in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.

In the day wherein thou shalt plant thou shalt be deceived; but if thou sow in the morning, [the seed] shall spring up for a crop in the day wherein thou shalt obtain an inheritance, and as a man's father, thou shalt obtain an inheritance for thy sons.

12 Ah, the uproar of many peoples who roar like the roaring of the seas; and the rushing of nations that rush like the rushing of mighty waters!

Woe [to] the multitude of many nations, as the swelling sea, so shall ye be confounded; and the force of many nations shall sound like water;

13 The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters, but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far off, and will be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like the whirling dust before the storm.

many nations like much water, as when much water rushes violently: and they shall drive him away, and pursue him afar, as the dust of chaff when men winnow before the wind, and as a storm whirling the dust of the wheel.

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

Toward evening, and there shall be grief; before the morning, and he shall not be. This is the portion of them that spoiled you, and the inheritance to them that robbed you of your inheritance.