CHAPTER 17

1 The burden of Damascus.
Behold, Damascus is taken away, that it be not a city;
For it shall be a heap of ruins.

2 The cities of Aroer are forsaken;
They shall be changed into sheepfolds;
They shall lie down,
And there shall be none to terrify them.

3 And the fortress shall cease from Ephraim,
And the kingdom from Damascus;
And the remnant of Syria shall be
As the glory of the children of Israel,
Saith Jehovah of hosts.

4 And it shall be in that day,
The glory of Jacob shall be diminished,
And the fatness of his flesh shall become lean.

5 And it shall be as he who gathereth the harvest of the corn,
Who reapeth the ears with his arm,
Like as one gleaneth grapes in the valley of Rephaim.

6 And in thee shall be left a gleaning, as the shaking of an olive-tree;
There two or three berries remain on the top of the highest branch,
Four or five on the spreading branches of its fruit,
Saith Jehovah, the God of Israel.

7 In that day shall a man look to his Maker,
And his eyes shall be fixed on the Holy One of Israel.

8 And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his own hands.
Nor view the things which his fingers have made,
Nor the groves,
Nor the graven images.

9 In that day the cities of his strength shall be
As the forsaking of a thicket and of a branch,
In like manner as they left before the children of Israel;
And there shall be desolation.

10 Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation,
And hast not been mindful of the God of thy strength;
Therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants,
And thou shalt ingraft a foreign shoot.

11 In the day of thy plantation shalt thou make it to grow,
And in the morning thou shalt make thy seed to sprout;
But in the day of enjoying shall the harvest fail,
And the grief shall be desperate.

12 Alas! the multitude of many peoples;
Like the sound of many peoples shall they sound,
And like the noise of nations;
Like the noise of mighty waters shall they rush.

13 Like the noise of mighty waters
Shall the peoples make a noise,
And he will rebuke them,
And will drive them far away;
They shall be chased
As the chaff of the mountains before the wind,
And as a rolling thing before the whirlwind.

14 In the evening time, behold! trouble:
Ere it be morning, it shall not at all be.
This is the portion of them that tread us down,
And the lot of them that plunder us.