Prophecy concerning Damascus and Northern Israel

The destruction of Damascus

17 Oracle on Damascus

See! Soon will Damascus no more be a city,

but only ruin, forsaken for ever.

2 To the grazing of flocks will her cities be given,

and there will they lie, with not one to affright them.

3 The fortress will vanish from Ephraim,

and the dynasty from Damascus.

The remnant of Aram will perish,

their fate will be Israel’s fate,

says the Lord of Hosts.

The doom of Israel

4 That day it will come to pass

that the glory of Jacob will pale,

and the fat of his flesh will be wasted;

5 or like gleanings it will be,

when a reaper gathers the corn,

and his arm reaps the ears –

the ears of corn that are gleaned

in the valley of Rephaim;

6 or the gleanings that are left

when an olive-tree has been beaten –

a berry or two on the uppermost branch,

four of five on the boughs of a fruit tree:

thus says the Lord, the God of Israel.

7 In that day men will look to their maker,

and turn their eyes unto Israel’s Holy One;

8 not to the work of their hands will they look,

nor to things that their fingers have made will they turn.

9 That day will your cities deserted be

like the derelict cities of Hivite and Amorite.

10 Because you forgot the God who had helped you,

and did not remember the rock of your refuge;

though you planted Adonis’ gardens,

and stocked them with foreign slips;

11 though you fence them the day they are set,

and next morn bring your seedlings to blossom:

your harvest will vanish away

in the day of your sickness and desperate pain.