Isaiah

“Look! Damascus will cease to be a city,

And it will become a heap of ruins.+

 2 The cities of A·roʹer+ will be abandoned;

They will become places for flocks to lie down

With no one to make them afraid.

 3 Fortified cities will disappear from Eʹphra·im,+

And the kingdom from Damascus;+

And those remaining of Syria

Will be like the glory of the Israelites,”* declares Jehovah of armies.

 4 “In that day the glory of Jacob will diminish,

And his healthy body* will grow thin.

 5 It will be as when the harvester is gathering the standing grain

And his arm harvests the ears of grain,

Like when one gleans grain in the Valley* of Rephʹa·im.+

 6 Only gleanings will be left,

As when an olive tree is beaten:

Only two or three ripe olives remain on the highest branch,

Only four or five on its fruit-bearing branches,”+ declares Jehovah the God of Israel.

 9 In that day his fortress cities will become like an abandoned site in the woodland,+

Like a branch that was abandoned before the Israelites;

It will become a wasteland.

10 For you have forgotten the God+ of your salvation;

You have failed to remember the Rock+ of your fortress.

That is why you plant beautiful* plantations

And set it with the shoot of a stranger.*

11 In the day you carefully fence in your plantation,

In the morning you make your seed sprout,

But the harvest will vanish in the day of disease and incurable pain.+

12 Listen! There is a commotion of many peoples,

Who are as boisterous as the seas!

There is an uproar of nations,

Whose sound is like the roar of mighty waters!

He will rebuke them, and they will flee far away,

Chased like the chaff of the mountains before a wind,

Like a whirling thistle* before a storm wind.

This is the share of those pillaging us

And the lot of those plundering us.