 1 The burden against Damascus: Indeed+ Damascus is taken away from being a city and it will be a heap of ruins. 2 The cities of Aroer are forsaken. Now they are for flocks. They will lie down and no one terrifies them. 3 The fortress will cease from Ephraim and the kingdom from Damascus and the rest of Syria. They will be the glory of the children of Israel, says the Lord of hosts. 4 In that day, the glory of Jacob will be made thin and the fatness of his flesh will become lean. 5 It will be like reaping of the harvest grain and his arm reaps the ears. It will be like one who gathers ears in the valley of the giants. 6 Yet gleaning grapes will be left in it like the shaking of an olive tree. Two or three ripe olives in the top of the uppermost branch. Four or five in the fruit tree branches of it, says the Lord God of hosts. 7 In that day, a man will look to his maker and his eyes will respect the Holy One of Israel. 8 He will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, nor respect what his fingers have made, either the Asherahs or the images. 9 In that day, his strong cities will be like a forsaken branch and an uppermost branch that they left because of the children of Israel and it will become a ruin. 10 Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not been mindful of the rock of your strength, therefore you shall plant pleasant plants and shall sow it a fresh shoot. 11 In the day of your planting, you fence it in. In the morning you make your seed sprout. But the harvest will be a heap in that day of grief and dying pain. 12 Woe to the multitude of many people, who make a noise like the noise of the seas. And to the rushing of nations who make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters. 13 The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters. But God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind. 14 At evening time, behold, terror. Before the morning, he is not. This is the lot of those who plunder us, and the lot of those who rob us.
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