Isaiah 17

1The burden of Damascus. Lo, Damascus is taken away from <FI>being<Fi> a city, And it hath been a heap--a ruin.

1The word about Damascus. See, they have made Damascus a town no longer; it has become a waste place.

2Forsaken are the cities of Aroer, For droves they are, and they have lain down, And there is none troubling.

2Her towns are unpeopled for ever; there the flocks take their rest in peace, without fear.

3And ceased hath the fortress from Ephraim, And the kingdom from Damascus, And the remnant of Aram are as the honour of the sons of Israel, The affirmation of Jehovah of Hosts!

3The strong tower has gone from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus: the rest of Aram will come to destruction, and be made like the glory of the children of Israel, says the Lord of armies.

4And it hath come to pass, in that day, Wax poor doth the honour of Jacob, And the fatness of his flesh doth wax lean.

4And it will be in that day that the glory of Jacob will be made small, and the strength of his body will become feeble.

5And it hath come to pass, As the gathering by the reaper of the standing corn, And his arm the ears reapeth, And it hath come to pass, As the gathering of the ears in the valley of Rephaim,

5And it will be like a man cutting the growth of his grain, pulling together the heads of the grain with his arm; even as when they get in the grain in the valley of Rephaim.

6And left in him have been gleanings, As the compassing of an olive, Two--three berries on the top of a branch, Four--five on the fruitful boughs, The affirmation of Jehovah, God of Israel!

6But it will be like a man shaking an olive-tree, something will still be there, two or three berries on the top of the highest branch, four or five on the outside branches of a fertile tree, says the Lord, the God of Israel.

7In that day doth man look to His Maker, Yea, his eyes to the Holy One of Israel look,

7In that day a man's heart will be turned to his Maker, and his eyes to the Holy One of Israel.

8And he looketh not unto the altars. The work of his own hands, And that which his own fingers made He seeth not--the shrines and the images.

8He will not be looking to the altars, the work of his hands, or to the wood pillars or to the sun-images which his fingers have made.

9In that day are the cities of his strength As the forsaken thing of the forest, And the branch that they have left, Because of the sons of Israel, It also hath been a desolation.

9In that day your towns will be like the waste places of the Hivites and the Amorites which the children of Israel took for a heritage, and they will come to destruction.

10Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, And the rock of thy strength hast not remembered, Therefore thou plantest plants of pleasantness, And with a strange slip sowest it,

10For you have not given honour to the God of your salvation, and have not kept in mind the Rock of your strength; for this cause you made a garden of Adonis, and put in it the vine-cuttings of a strange god;

11In the day thy plant thou causest to become great, And in the morning thy seed makest to flourish, A heap <FI>is<Fi> the harvest in a day of overflowing, And of mortal pain.

11In the day of your planting you were watching its growth, and in the morning your seed was flowering: but its fruit is wasted away in the day of grief and bitter sorrow.

12Woe <FI>to<Fi> the multitude of many peoples, As the sounding of seas they sound; And <FI>to<Fi> the wasting of nations, As the wasting of mighty waters they are wasted.

12Ah! the voice of peoples, like the loud sounding of the seas, and the thundering of great nations rushing on like the bursting out of waters!

13Nations as the wasting of many waters are wasted, And He hath pushed against it, And it hath fled afar off, And been pursued as chaff of hills before wind, And as a rolling thing before a hurricane.

13But he will put a stop to them, and make them go in flight far away, driving them like the waste of the grain on the tops of the mountains before the wind, and like the circling dust before the storm.

14At even-time, lo, terror, before morning it is not, This <FI>is<Fi> the portion of our spoilers, And the lot of our plunderers!

14In the evening there is fear, and in the morning they are gone. This is the fate of those who take our goods, and the reward of those who violently take our property for themselves.