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An Oracle Concerning Damascus

¹ The ^(F1)(C1)oracle concerning ^(C2)Damascus.

"Behold, Damascus is about to be ^(C3)removed from being a city
And will become a ^(C4)fallen ruin.

² "The cities ^(F1)of ^(C1)Aroer are forsaken;
They will be for ^(C2)flocks, and they will lie down in them;
And there will be ^(C3)no one to cause them to tremble.

³ "And the ^(F1)(C1)fortified city will cease from Ephraim,
And ^(F2)sovereignty from Damascus
And the remnant of Aram;
They will be like the ^(C2)glory of the sons of Israel,"
Declares Yahweh of hosts.

⁴ Now it will be in that day, that the ^(C1)glory of Jacob will ^(F1)wane,
And ^(C2)the fatness of his flesh will become lean.

⁵ And it will be ^(C1)even like the ^(F1)reaper gathering the standing grain,
As his arm harvests the ears of grain,
Or it will be like one gleaning ears of grain
In the ^(C2)valley of Rephaim.

⁶ Yet ^(C1)gleanings will remain in it like the ^(F1)shaking of an olive tree,
Two or three olives on the topmost branch,
Four or five on the twigs of a fruitful tree,
Declares Yahweh, the God of Israel.

⁷ In that day man will ^(C1)have regard for his Maker
And his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel.

⁸ He will not have regard for the ^(C1)altars, the work of his hands,
Nor will he look to that which his ^(C2)fingers have made,
Even the ^(F1)(C3)Asherim and ^(F2)incense stands.

⁹ In that day ^(F1)their strong cities will be like ^(F2)forsaken places in the forest,
Or like ^(F3)branches which they forsook before the sons of Israel;
And ^(F4)the land will be a desolation.

¹⁰ For ^(C1)you have forgotten the ^(C2)God of your salvation
And have not remembered the ^(C3)rock of your strong defense.
Therefore you plant delightful plants
And set them with vine branches of a strange god.

¹¹ In the day that you plant it you carefully fence it in,
And in the ^(C1)morning you cause your seed to flourish;
But the harvest will ^(C2)be a heap
In a day of sickliness and incurable pain.

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

¹³ The ^(C1)nations rumble on like the rumbling of many waters,
But He will ^(C2)rebuke them, and they will flee far away,
And be pursued ^(C3)like chaff in the mountains before the wind,
Or like whirling dust before a whirlwind.

¹⁴ At evening time, behold, there is terror!
Before morning ^(C1)they are no more.
^(F1)Such will be the portion of those who pillage us
And the lot of those who plunder us.