Isaiah, 17

1. Proclamation about Damascus: Damascus will soon cease to be a city, it will become a heap of ruins.

1. An oracle concerning Damascus. Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city, and will become a heap of ruins.

2. Its towns, abandoned for ever, will be pastures for flocks; there they will rest with no one to disturb them.

2. Her cities will be deserted for ever; they will be for flocks, which will lie down, and none will make them afraid.

3. Ephraim will be stripped of its defences and Damascus of its sovereignty; and the remnant of Aram will be treated like the glory of the Israelites -- declares Yahweh Sabaoth.

3. The fortress will disappear from E'phraim, and the kingdom from Damascus; and the remnant of Syria will be like the glory of the children of Israel, says the LORD of hosts.

4. When that day comes, Jacob's glory will diminish, from being fat he will grow lean;

4. And in that day the glory of Jacob will be brought low, and the fat of his flesh will grow lean.

5. as when a reaper gathers in the standing corn, harvesting the ears of corn with his arm, or when they glean the ears in the Valley of Rephaim,

5. And it shall be as when the reaper gathers standing grain and his arm harvests the ears, and as when one gleans the ears of grain in the Valley of Reph'aim.

6. nothing will remain but pickings, as when an olive tree is beaten; two or three berries left on the topmost bough, four or five berries on the branches of the tree -- declares Yahweh, God of Israel.

6. Gleanings will be left in it, as when an olive tree is beaten -- two or three berries in the top of the highest bough, four or five on the branches of a fruit tree, says the LORD God of Israel.

7. That day, a man will look to his Creator and his eyes will turn to the Holy One of Israel.

7. In that day men will regard their Maker, and their eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel;

8. He will no longer look to altars, his own handiwork, or to what his own fingers have made: the sacred poles and incense-altars.

8. they will not have regard for the altars, the work of their hands, and they will not look to what their own fingers have made, either the Ashe'rim or the altars of incense.

9. That day, its cities of refuge will be abandoned as were the woods and heaths at the Israelites' advance: there will be desolation.

9. In that day their strong cities will be like the deserted places of the Hivites and the Amorites, which they deserted because of the children of Israel, and there will be desolation.

10. Since you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and failed to keep the Rock, your refuge, in mind, you plant pleasure-gardens, you sow exotic seeds;

10. For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge; therefore, though you plant pleasant plants and set out slips of an alien god,

11. the day you plant them, you get them to sprout, and, next morning, your seedlings are in flower; but the harvest will vanish on the day of disease and incurable pain.

11. though you make them grow on the day that you plant them, and make them blossom in the morning that you sow; yet the harvest will flee away in a day of grief and incurable pain.

12. Disaster! The thunder of vast hordes, a thunder like the thunder of the seas, the roar of nations roaring like the roar of mighty floods,

12. Ah, the thunder of many peoples, they thunder like the thundering of the sea! Ah, the roar of nations, they roar like the roaring of mighty waters!

13. of nations roaring like the roar of ocean! He rebukes them and far away they flee, driven like chaff on the mountains before the wind, like an eddy of dust before the storm.

13. The nations roar like the roaring of many waters, but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away, chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind and whirling dust before the storm.

14. At evening all is terror, by morning all have disappeared. Such will be the lot of those who plunder us, such, the fate of our despoilers.

14. At evening time, behold, terror! Before morning, they are no more! This is the portion of those who despoil us, and the lot of those who plunder us.