1 ¶ God’s sentence on Damascus. Behold, Damascus will cease being a city, and it will be a heap of ruins.

2 The cities of Aroer will be forsaken: they will be a place for flocks to lie down, and no one will frighten them.

3 The fortress will disappear from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus: and the rest of Syria will be like the departed glory of the children of Israel, says the LORD of hosts.

4 And in that day it will come to pass, that the glory of Jacob will fade, and the fat of his flesh will become lean.

5 And it will be as if a reaper had gathered the grain, harvesting the ears with his arm; and like one gleaning heads of grain in the valley of Rephaim.

6 ¶ Only gleanings will be left to them, as after the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries at the top of the uppermost bough, four or five on its fruitful branches, says the LORD God of Israel.

7 On that day a man will turn to his Maker for help, and his eyes will have respect for the Holy One of Israel.

8 He will no longer look to the altars, made with his hands, or honor the posts and images that his fingers have made.

9 ¶ On that day his strong cities will be like a neglected bough, and an uppermost branch, that was deserted because of the children of Israel: and there will be a barren waste.

10 Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have failed to remember the rock that sheltered you, therefore you will plant fine plants, and will set out exceptional cuttings:

11 At the time you plant them you will care for them, and will help your seed sprout in the morning: but the harvest will vanish in a day of grief and of desperate sorrow.

12 ¶ Woe to the large company of people, who make a noise like the noise of the sea; and to the sound of nations, who make a roar like the rushing of mighty waters!

13 The nations will rage like the raging of many waters: but God will rebuke them, and they will flee far away, and will be driven like chaff before a mountain wind, and like whirling dust before a storm.

14 Behold there will be terror in the evening; and before morning it will be gone. This is the fortune of those who plunder us, and the destiny of those who rob us.