Isaiah 17

Prophecy about Damascus

1 The pronouncement concerning Damascus:

"Behold, Damascus is about to be removed from being a city

And will become a fallen ruin.

2 "The cities *17:2 LXX forever and everof Aroer are abandoned;

They will be for herds *17:2 Lit and they will lie downto lie down in,

And there will be no one to frighten them.

3 "The *17:3 Or fortificationfortified city will disappear from Ephraim,

And *17:3 Or royal powersovereignty from Damascus

And the remnant of Aram;

They will be like the glory of the sons of Israel,"

Declares the Lord of armies.

4 Now on that day the glory of Jacob will *17:4 Lit become littlefade,

And the fatness of his flesh will become lean.

5 It will be like the *17:5 Lit gathering of the harvest, the standing grainreaper gathering the standing grain,

As his arm harvests the ears,

Or it will be like one gleaning ears of grain

In the Valley of Rephaim.

6 Yet gleanings will be left in it like the *17:6 Lit strikingshaking of an olive tree,

Two or three olives on the topmost branch,

Four or five on the branches of a fruitful tree,

Declares the Lord, the God of Israel.

7 On that day man will look to his Maker

And his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel.

8 And he will not look to the altars, the work of his hands,

Nor will he look to that which his fingers have made,

Even the *17:8 I.e., wooden symbols of a female deity (Asherah)Asherim and incense altars.

9 On that day *17:9 Lit his; i.e., mankind’stheir strong cities will be like *17:9 LXX the deserted places of the Amorites and the Hivites which they abandonedabandoned places in the forest,

Or like branches which they abandoned before the sons of Israel;

And *17:9 Lit itthe land will be a desolation.

10 For you have forgotten the God of your salvation

And have not remembered the rock of your refuge.

Therefore you plant delightful plants

And set them with vine shoots of a strange god.

11 On the day that you plant it you carefully fence it in,

And in the morning you bring your seed to blossom;

But the harvest will flee

On a day of illness and incurable pain.

12 Oh, the uproar of many peoples

Who roar like the roaring of the seas,

And the rumbling of nations

Who rush on like the rumbling of mighty waters!

13 The nations rumble on like the rumbling of many waters,

But He will rebuke them, and they will flee far away,

And be chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind,

Or like whirling dust before a gale.

14 At evening time, behold, there is terror!

Before morning they are gone.

This will be the *17:14 Lit portionfate of those who plunder us

And the lot of those who pillage us.