Isaiah 17
1A declaration about Damascus. 1
2The cities of Aroer will be abandoned. 1 They will be places for flocks to lie down, and no one will frighten them. 1
3Fortified cities will disappear from Ephraim, the kingdom from Damascus, 1 and the remnant of Aram—they will be like the glory of the people of Israel—this is the declaration of Yahweh of hosts. 1
4It will come about on that day 1 that the glory of Jacob will become thin, and the fatness of his flesh will become lean. 1
5It will be as when a harvester gathers the standing grain, and his arm reaps the heads of grain. 1 It will be as when one gleans heads of grain in the Valley of Rephaim. 1
6Gleanings will be left, however, as when the olive tree is shaken: 1 two or three olives in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the highest branches of a fruitful tree—this is the declaration of Yahweh, the God of Israel. 1
7On that day men will look toward their Maker, and their eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel. 1
8They will not look to the altars, the work of their hands, nor will they look to what their fingers have made, the Asherah poles or the sun images. 1
9On that day their strong cities will be like the abandoned wooded slopes on the hill summits, 1 that were forsaken because of the people of Israel and that will become a desolation. 1
10For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have ignored the rock of your strength. 1 So you plant pleasant plants, and set out vine branches received from a stranger, 1
11on the day you plant and hedge and cultivate. Soon your seed will grow, 1 but the harvest will fail on a day of grief and of desperate sorrow. 1
12Woe! The uproar of many peoples, that roar like the roaring of the seas, 1 and the rushing of nations, that rush like the rushing of mighty waters! 1
13The nations will roar like the rushing of many waters, 1 but he will rebuke them and they will flee far away, 1 they will be chased before the wind like chaff on the mountains, 1 and like weeds whirling before a storm. 1
14In the evening, see, terror! Before the morning they will be gone! 1 This is the portion of those who loot us, the lot of those who rob us.