Chapter 17

17:1An oracle against Damascus:
Look, Damascus is no longer a city.
It has become a ruined heap.
2The cities of Aroer are forsaken;
they will be places for flocks.
They will lie down without fear.
3The fortress disappears from Ephraim,
and a kingdom from Damascus.
The remnant of Aram will be
like the splendor of the Israelites.

This is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts.
4On that day
the splendor of Jacob will fade,
and his healthy body will become emaciated.
5It will be as if a reaper had gathered standing grain-
his arm harvesting the heads of grain-
and as if one had gleaned heads of grain
in the Valley of Rephaim.
6Only gleanings will be left in Israel,
as if an olive tree had been beaten-
two or three berries at the very top of the tree,
four or five on its fruitful branches.

This is the declaration of the Lord,


the God of Israel.
7On that day people will look to their Maker and will turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel. 8They will not look to the altars they made with their hands or to the Asherahs and incense altars they made with their fingers.
9On that day their strong cities will be
like the abandoned woods and mountaintops
that were abandoned because of the Israelites;
there will be desolation.
10For you have forgotten the God of your salvation,
and you have failed to remember
the rock of your strength;
therefore you will plant beautiful plants
and set out cuttings from exotic vines.
11On the day that you plant,
you will help them to grow,
and in the morning
you will help your seed to sprout,
but the harvest will vanish
on the day of disease and incurable pain.
12Ah! The roar of many peoples-
they roar like the roaring of the seas.
The raging of the nations-
they rage like the raging of mighty waters.
13The nations rage like the raging of many waters.
He rebukes them, and they flee far away,
driven before the wind like chaff on the hills
and like tumbleweeds before a gale.
14In the evening-sudden terror!
Before morning-it is gone!
This is the fate of those who plunder us
and the lot of those who ravage us.

Chapter 18

18:1Ah! The land of buzzing insect wings
beyond the rivers of Cush
2sends couriers by sea,
in reed vessels on the waters.
Go, swift messengers,
to a nation tall and smooth-skinned,
to a people feared far and near,
a powerful nation with a strange language,
whose land is divided by rivers.
3All you inhabitants of the world
and you who live on the earth,
when a banner is raised on the mountains, look!
When a trumpet sounds, listen!
4For, the Lord said to me:
I will quietly look out from My place,
like shimmering heat in sunshine,
like a rain cloud in harvest heat.
5For before the harvest, when the blossoming is over
and the blossom becomes a ripening grape,
He will cut off the shoots with a pruning knife,
and tear away and remove the branches.
6They will all be left for the birds of prey on the hills
and for the wild animals of the land.
The birds will spend the summer on them,
and all the animals, the winter on them.
7At that time a gift will be brought to Yahweh of Hosts from a people tall and smooth-skinned, a people feared far and near, a powerful nation with a strange language, whose land is divided by rivers-to Mount Zion, the place of the name of Yahweh of Hosts.