Isaiah 17:1-14
17 The pronouncement against Damascus:+ “Look! Damascus removed from being a city, and she has become a heap, a decaying ruin.+
2 The cities of A·roʹer+ that have been left behind become mere places for droves, where they actually lie down, with no one to make [them] tremble.+
3 And the fortified city has been made to cease out of Eʹphra·im,+ and the kingdom out of Damascus;+ and those of Syria remaining over will become just like the glory of the sons of Israel,” is the utterance of Jehovah of armies.+
4 “And it must occur in that day that the glory of Jacob will become lowly,+ and even the fatness of his flesh will be made lean.+
5 And it must occur that when the harvester* is gathering the standing grain and his own arm harvests the ears of grain,+ he must even become like one gleaning ears of grain in the low plain of Rephʹa·im.+
6 And there must remain in it a gleaning as when there is a beating off of the olive tree: two [or] three ripe olives in the top of the branch; four [or] five on the fruit-bearing boughs thereof,” is the utterance of Jehovah the God of Israel.+
7 In that day earthling man* will look up to his Maker, and his own eyes will gaze at the Holy One of Israel himself.+
8 And he will not look to the altars,+ the work of his hands;+ and at what his fingers have made he will not gaze, either at the sacred poles* or at the incense stands.+
9 In that day his fortress cities will become like a place left entirely in the woodland, even the branch that they have left entirely on account of the sons of Israel; and it must become a desolate waste.+
10 For you* have forgotten+ the God of your salvation;+ and the Rock+ of your fortress you have not remembered. That is why you plant pleasant plantations, and with the shoot of a stranger* you set it.
11 In the day you may carefully fence about the plantation of yours, and in the morning you may cause the seed of yours to sprout, [but] the harvest will certainly flee in the day of the disease* and incurable pain.+
12 Ha for the commotion of many peoples, who are boisterous as with the boisterousness of the seas! And for the noise of national groups, who make a din just like the noise of mighty waters!+
13 The national groups+ themselves will make a din just like the noise of many waters. And He will certainly rebuke it,+ and it must flee far away and be chased like the chaff of the mountains before a wind and like a thistle whirl before a storm wind.+
14 At evening time, why, look! there is sudden terror. Before morning—it is no more.+ This is the share of those pillaging us, and the lot belonging to those plundering us.+
Footnotes
^ “Harvester,” by a slight correction; M, “harvest.”
^ Or, “mankind.” Heb., ha·ʼa·dhamʹ.
^ Or, “the Asherim.”
^ “You,” fem., referring to the city of God’s worship.
^ Or, “a strange [god].”
^ “Disease,” by a slight correction; M, “possession.”
