CHAPTER 17
This is an oracle
concerning Damascus:
“Behold,
Damascus
is no longer
a city;
it has become
a heap
of ruins.
The cities
of Aroer
are forsaken;
they will be left
to the flocks,
which will lie down
with no one
to fear.
The fortress
will disappear
from Ephraim,
and the sovereignty
from Damascus.
The remnant
of Aram
will be
like the splendor
of the Israelites,”
declares
the LORD
of Hosts.
as
the reaper
gathers
the standing grain
and harvests
the ears
with his arm,
as one gleans
heads of grain
in the Valley
of Rephaim.
Yet gleanings
will remain,
like an olive tree
that has been beaten—
two
or three
berries
atop the tree,
four
or five
on its fruitful
branches,”
declares
the LORD,
the God
of Israel.
They will not
look
to
the altars
they have made
with their hands
or to the Asherahs
and incense altars
they have made
with their fingers.
In that
day
their strong
cities
will be like
forsaken
thickets
and summits,
abandoned
to the Israelites
and to utter
desolation.
For
you have forgotten
the God
of your salvation,
and failed
to remember
the rock
of your strength.
Therefore,
though you cultivate
delightful
plots
and set out cuttings
from exotic
vines—
though on the day
you plant
you make them grow,
and on that morning
you help your seed
sprout—
yet the harvest
will vanish
on the day
of disease
and incurable
pain.
Alas,
the tumult
of many
peoples—
they rage
like the roaring
seas;
the uproar
of the nations—
they rumble
like the crashing
of mighty
waters.
The nations
rage
like the rush
of many
waters.
He rebukes
them,
and they flee
far away,
driven
before
the wind
like chaff
on the hills,
like tumbleweeds
before
a gale.
In the evening,
there is
sudden terror!
Before
morning,
they are no more!
This
is the portion
of those who loot us
and the lot
of our plunderers.