The burden concerning Damascus: See, Damascus-turned from being a city, It will become a heap of ruin.

The cities of Aroer will be forsaken; They will be for flocks That lie down with no one to frighten them.

And fortified cities will cease to be in Ephraim, As well as the kingdom in Damascus; And the remnant of Syria Will be like the glory of the children of Israel, Declares Jehovah of hosts.

In that day the glory of Jacob will fade, And the fat of his flesh will become lean.

And it will be as when the reaper gathers the standing grain, And his arms reap the ears; And it will be as when one gleans the ears In the valley of Rephaim.

Yet gleanings will be left in it, Like at the shaking of an olive tree-Two or three fruit at the very top, Four or five in the boughs of the fruiting tree-Declares Jehovah the God of Israel.

In that day man will look to his Maker, And his eyes will behold the Holy One of Israel.

And he will not look to the altars, the works of his hands; And what his fingers have made he will not regard, That is, the Asherahs and the images to the sun.

In that day his cities of protection will be Like abandoned places of the forest and like the mountaintop Which was abandoned before the children of Israel; And there will be desolation.

For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, And the Rock of your stronghold you have not remembered. Therefore you plant plants of delight And set them with plant cuttings to a strange god.

On the day that you plant them you fence them in carefully, And in the morning you bring your seed to blossom; But the harvest is a heap on a day of sickness And incurable pain.

Woe! The roar of many peoples, Who roar like the roaring of the seas; The din of nations, Who crash like the crashing of mighty waters!

The nations crash like the crashing of many waters. But He will rebuke them; And they will flee far away, And will be chased like mountain chaff before the wind And like a whirlwind of dust before storm wind.

At evening time, indeed, there is calamity; Before the morning they are no more. This is the portion of those who plunder us, And the allotment of those who take us as spoil.