Isaiah 17

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

The oracle on Damascus, —Lo! Damascus, is to be removed from being a city, And shall become a heap of ruins:

2 Her cities will be abandoned forever. They will be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid.

Forsaken, are the desolate cities, —For flocks, shall they serve, Which shall lie down and have none to make them afraid.

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

Then shall the fortress cease from Ephraim, And the kingdom from Damascus and the remnant of Syria, —Like the glory of the sons of Israel, shall they be, —Declareth Yahweh 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.

And it shall come to pass in that day, That the glory of Jacob, shall be diminished, And, the fatness of his flesh, shall be wasted;

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 come to pass—That, as the harvestman gathereth standing corn, And with his arm—the ears, he reapeth, Yea it shall come to pass—That, so, shall he be who gleaneth ears, in the vale of Rephaim;

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.

Yet shall there be left therein, a gleaning. As in the beating of an olive-tree, —Two-three berries in the head of the tree-top, —Four—five, among her fruitful boughs, Declareth Yahweh 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, shall the son of earth look to him that made him, —And his eyes unto the Holy One of Israel, be turned;

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 Asherim, or the incense altars.

And he shall not look unto the altars the work of his own hands, —Nor to what his own fingers have made, shall his eye be turned, Whether Sacred Stems or Sun-pillars.

9 In that day, their strong cities will be like the forsaken places of the Hivites and the Amorites, which were forsaken from before the children of Israel; and it will be a desolation.

In that day, shall his fortified cities become Like a neglected bough and a topmost branch, Which they neglected because of the sons of Israel, —So shall there be desolation.

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 didst forget the God of thy salvation, And thy Rock of refuge, thou didst not remember, For this cause, shalt thou plant very pleasant plants, And, the slip of a stranger, shalt thou set:

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 when thou plantest, fence thou in, And in the morning, cause thou, thy slip, to blossom, —A harvest will have waved in the day of destiny, and mortal pain.

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.

Alas! the booming of many peoples, Like the booming of the seas, shall they boom, —And the rushing of nations! Like the rushing of mighty waters, shall they rush.

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.

Though nations like the rushing of many waters, shall rush, Yet shall one rebuke him, And he shall flee far away, —And be chased As the chaff of the mountains before a wind, And as whirling stubble before a storm!

14 At evening, look, 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.

At eventide, lo! terror, Before morning, he is not! This, is the portion of them who plunder us, And the lot of them who make of us a prey.