1The burden of Damascus . Behold , Damascus is taken away from being a city , and it shall be a ruinous heap . 2The cities of Aroer are forsaken ; they shall be for flocks , which shall lie down , and none shall make them afraid . 3And the fortress shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus , and the remnant of Syria; they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel , saith Jehovah of hosts .
The Desolation of Israel
4And it shall come to pass in that day , that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin , and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean . 5And it shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the standing grain , and his arm reapeth the ears ; yea, it shall be as when one gleaneth ears in the valley of Rephaim . 6Yet there shall be left therein gleanings , 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 , saith Jehovah , the God of Israel .
The Remnant of Israel
7In that day shall men look unto their Maker , and their eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel . 8And they shall not look to the altars , the work of their hands ; neither shall they have respect to that which their fingers have made , either the Asherim, or the sun-images. 9In that day shall their strong cities be as the forsaken places in the wood and on the mountain top, which were forsaken from before the children of Israel ; and it shall be a desolation .
The Judgment on Nations
10For thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation , and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength ; therefore thou plantest pleasant plants , and settest it with strange slips . 11In the day of thy planting thou hedgest it in , and in the morning thou makest thy seed to blossom ; but the harvest fleeth away in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow . 12Ah , the uproar of many peoples , that roar like the roaring of the seas ; and the rushing of nations , that rush like the rushing of mighty waters ! 13The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters : but he shall rebuke them , and they shall flee far off , and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind , and like the whirling dust before the storm . 14At eventide , behold , terror ; and before the morning they are not . This is the portion of them that despoil us, and the lot of them that rob us.