Isaiah 17 An oracle of Damascus: "Look! Damascus will cease being a city and will become a heap of ruins.

VIN⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ An oracle of Damascus: "Look! Damascus will cease being a city and will become a heap of ruins. ² The cities of Aroer are forsaken. They will be for flocks, which will lie down and none will make them afraid. ³ And the fortified city will disappear from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus; and the remnant of Aram will be like the glory of the children of Israel," declares the LORD Almighty. ⁴ And it was in that day the glory of Jacob shall be feeble, and the fatness of his flesh shall waste away. ⁵ It will be like reapers gathering the standing grain. Their arms harvest the ears, and as when one gleans the ears of grain in the Valley of Rephaim. ⁶ And gleanings will be left over in it, as when an olive tree is beaten, two or three ripe olive berries in the top of a branch, four or five on its fruitful branches," declares the LORD, the God of Israel. ⁷ In that day men will look to their maker and their eyes will have respect for the Holy One of Israel. ⁸ He will not be looking to the altars, the work of his hands, or to the wood pillars or to the sun-images which his fingers have made. 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. 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. ¹¹ On your planting day you make them grow, and in the morning of your sowing you bring them into bloom, yet the harvest will flee in a day of sickness and incurable pain. ¹² Ah! The noise of many peoples, they make a noise like the noise of the seas! And the roar of nations, they roar like the roar of mighty waters! ¹³ The nations roar like the roar of many waters, but he will rebuke him, and he will flee far away. And they are chased like chaff of the mountains before the wind and like tumbleweed before the storm. ¹⁴ In the evening, sudden terror! Before the morning, they are gone! This is the portion of those who loot us, the lot of those who rob us.