Read the Bible

Prophecy about Damascus

¹ The mournful, ^(C1)inspired oracle (^(F1)a burden to be carried) concerning ^(C2)Damascus capital of Aram (Syria), and Israel's defense against Assyria.

"Listen carefully, Damascus will ^(C3)cease to be a city
And will become a ^(C4)fallen ruin.

² "The cities of ^(C1)Aroer east of the Jordan are deserted;
They will be only a refuge for ^(C2)flocks to lie down in,
And there will be ^(C3)no one to make them afraid.

³ "The ^(C1)fortified city will disappear from Ephraim,
And the kingdom from Damascus
And the remnant of Aram (Syria);
They will be like the departed ^(C2)glory of her ally the children of Israel,"
Declares the LORD of hosts.

⁴ "Now in that day the former ^(C1)glory of Jacob Israel—his might, his population, his prosperity will fade,
And ^(C2)the fatness of his flesh will become lean.

⁵ "And it will be ^(C1)like the reaper gathering the standing grain,
As his arm harvests the ears of grain;
Yes, it will be like one gleaning ears of grain
In the fertile ^(C2)Valley of Rephaim.

⁶ "Yet ^(C1)gleanings will be left in the land of Israel like the shaking of the olive tree,
Two or three olives on the topmost branch,
Four or five on the outermost branches of the fruitful tree,"
Declares the LORD, the God of Israel.

⁷ In that day man will ^(C1)have regard for his Maker,
And his eyes will regard the Holy One of Israel with awe-inspired reverence.

⁸ And he will not have regard for the idolatrous ^(C1)altars, the work of his hands,
Nor will he look to that which his ^(C2)fingers have made,
Neither the ^(C3)Asherim (symbols of the goddess Asherah) nor the incense altars.

⁹ In that day the strong cities of Aram and Israel will be like ^(F1)deserted places in the forest,
Or like branches which they abandoned before the children of Israel;
And the land will be a desolation.

¹⁰ Because ^(C1)you Judah have forgotten the ^(C2)God of your salvation
And have not remembered the ^(C3)Rock of your Stronghold—
Therefore you plant ^(F1)lovely plants
And set the grounds with vine slips of a strange god,

¹¹ In the day that you plant it you carefully fence it in,
And in the ^(C1)morning you bring your seed to blossom;
Yet promising as it is the harvest will ^(C2)be a heap of ruins that passes away
In the day of sickness and incurable pain.

¹² Oh, the uproar of many peoples
^(C1)Who roar like the roaring of the seas,
And the noise of nations
Who roar like the ^(C2)rumbling of mighty waters!

¹³ The ^(C1)nations roar on like the roaring of many waters,
But God will ^(C2)rebuke them and they will flee far away,
And be chased ^(C3)like chaff on the mountains before the wind,
Or like whirling dust before the storm.

¹⁴ At evening time, now look, sudden terror!
Before ^(F1)morning ^(C1)the Assyrians are no more.
This is the portion (fate) of those who plunder us,
And the lot of those who pillage us.