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Prophecy about Damascus

¹ The ^(C1)pronouncement 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 abandoned;
They will be for ^(C2)herds ^(F2)to lie down in,
And there will be ^(C3)no one to frighten them.

³ "The ^(F1)(C1)fortified city will disappear 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 the LORD of armies.

⁴ Now on that day the ^(C1)glory of Jacob will ^(F1)fade,
And ^(C2)the fatness of his flesh will become lean.

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

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

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

⁸ And he will not look to 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 incense altars.

⁹ On that day ^(F1)their strong cities will be like ^(F2)abandoned places in the forest,
Or like branches which they abandoned before the sons of Israel;
And ^(F3)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 refuge.
Therefore you plant delightful plants
And set them with vine shoots of a strange god.

¹¹ On the day that you plant it you carefully fence it in,
And in the ^(C1)morning you bring your seed to blossom;
But the harvest will ^(C2)flee
On a day of illness and incurable pain.

¹² Oh, the uproar of many peoples
^(C1)Who roar like the roaring of the seas,
And the rumbling of nations
Who rush 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 chased ^(C3)like chaff on the mountains before the wind,
Or like whirling dust before a gale.

¹⁴ At evening time, behold, there is terror!
Before morning ^(C1)they are gone.
This will be the ^(F1)fate of those who plunder us
And the lot of those who pillage us.