MLV(i)
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city and it will be a ruinous heap.
2 The cities of Aroer are forsaken. They will be for flocks, which will lie down and none will make them afraid.
3 And the fortress will cease from Ephraim and the kingdom from Damascus. And the remnant of Syria, they will be as the glory of the sons of Israel, says Jehovah of hosts.
4 And it will happen in that day, that the glory of Jacob will be made thin and the fatness of his flesh will grow lean. 5 And it will be as when the harvestman gathers the standing grain and his arm reaps the ears. Yes, it will be as when he gleans ears in the valley of Rephaim. 6 Yet there will be gleanings left in it, as the shaking of an olive tree–two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost branches of a fruitful tree, says Jehovah, the God of Israel.
7 In that day men will look to their maker and their eyes will have respect for the Holy One of Israel. 8 And they will not look to the altars, the work of their hands, nor will they have respect for what their fingers have made, either the Asherim or the sun-images.
9 In that day their strong cities will be as the forsaken places in the woodland and on the mountain top, which were forsaken from before the sons of Israel and it will be a desolation. 10 For you have forgotten the God of your salvation and have not been mindful of the rock of your strength.
Therefore you plant pleasant plants and set it with foreign slips. 11 In the day of your planting you hedge it in and in the morning you make your seed to blossom. But the harvest flees away in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow. 12 Ah, the uproar of many peoples, who roar like the roaring of the seas and the rushing of nations, that rush like the rushing of mighty waters! 13 The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters, but he will rebuke them. And they will flee far off and will be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind and like the whirling dust before the storm. 14 At eventide, behold, terror, and before the morning they are not. This is the portion of those who despoil us and the lot of those who rob us.
4 And it will happen in that day, that the glory of Jacob will be made thin and the fatness of his flesh will grow lean. 5 And it will be as when the harvestman gathers the standing grain and his arm reaps the ears. Yes, it will be as when he gleans ears in the valley of Rephaim. 6 Yet there will be gleanings left in it, as the shaking of an olive tree–two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost branches of a fruitful tree, says Jehovah, the God of Israel.
7 In that day men will look to their maker and their eyes will have respect for the Holy One of Israel. 8 And they will not look to the altars, the work of their hands, nor will they have respect for what their fingers have made, either the Asherim or the sun-images.
9 In that day their strong cities will be as the forsaken places in the woodland and on the mountain top, which were forsaken from before the sons of Israel and it will be a desolation. 10 For you have forgotten the God of your salvation and have not been mindful of the rock of your strength.
Therefore you plant pleasant plants and set it with foreign slips. 11 In the day of your planting you hedge it in and in the morning you make your seed to blossom. But the harvest flees away in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow. 12 Ah, the uproar of many peoples, who roar like the roaring of the seas and the rushing of nations, that rush like the rushing of mighty waters! 13 The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters, but he will rebuke them. And they will flee far off and will be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind and like the whirling dust before the storm. 14 At eventide, behold, terror, and before the morning they are not. This is the portion of those who despoil us and the lot of those who rob us.