Isaiah
Isaiah 17
The Message against Damascus
1 “The message against Damascus. Look, Damascus will be removed from among cities and become a ruin.”
2 “It will be abandoned forever, a resting place and fold for flocks, with no one to chase them away.”
3 “Ephraim will no longer have a fortress to flee to, Damascus will no longer have a kingdom, and those Syrians who remain will perish. You are no better than Israel’s people or their glory. This is what the Lord of armies says.”
4 “On that day Jacob’s glory will fail, and the richness of his glory will be shaken.”
5 “It will be like a person gathering standing grain, reaping heads of grain into his arm, or gathering ears in a fertile valley.”
6 “Only stubble will remain, like two or three olives on the highest branch or four or five left among the limbs. This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says.”
7 “On that day a person will trust the one who made him, and his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel.”
8 “They will no longer trust their altars or the things their own fingers made. They will not look to their trees or detestable things.”
9 “On that day your cities will be abandoned, as the Amorites and Hivites abandoned theirs before the people of Israel, and they will become desolate.”
10 “You abandoned God, the one who rescues you, and did not remember the Lord, your helper. Therefore you will plant an unfaithful plant and sow unfaithful seed.”
11 “On the day you plant, you will be deceived. If you sow in the morning, the seed will bloom for harvest on the day you receive your inheritance, like a father who passes an inheritance to his sons.”
12 “Woe to the multitude of many nations! You will be thrown into confusion like a surging sea, and many nations will roar like water.”
13 “Many nations are like a mass of rushing water. He will drive them away and pursue them far off, like chaff dust winnowed before the wind or wheel dust driven by a storm.”
14 “Grief comes toward evening, but before morning he is gone. This is the share of those who plundered you and the inheritance of those who robbed your inheritance.”