XVII.--1. The burden of Damascus.
Behold, Damascus is removed from (being) a city, and is a heap, a
ruin. 2. Forsaken are the cities of Aroer; for flocks shall they be,
and they shall lie down, and there shall be no one making (them)
afraid. 3. Then shall cease defence for Ephraim and royalty from
Damascus and the rest of Syria. Like the glory of the children of
Israel shall they be, with Jehovah of hosts.
4. And it shall come to pass in that day, the glory of Jacob shall be
brought low, and the fatness of his flesh shall be made lean. 5. And
it shall be as one gathers the harvest, the standing corn, and his
arm reaps the ears. And it shall be like one collecting ears in the
valley of Rephaim. 6. And gleanings shall be left therein like the
shaking of an olive-tree, two (or) three berries in the top of a high
bough, four (or) five in the branches of the fruit-tree, saith
Jehovah, God of Israel.
7. In that day man shall turn to his Maker, and his eyes to the Holy
One of Israel shall look. 8. And he shall not turn to the altars, the
work of his own hands, and that which his own fingers have made shall
he not regard, and the groves of Ashtoreth and the pillars of the sun.
9. In that day shall his fortified cities by like what is left in the
thickets and the lofty branch, which they leave (as they retire) from
before the children of Israel, and (the land) shall be a waste.
10. Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and the
rock of thy strength hast not remembered, therefore thou wilt plant
plants of pleasantness, and with a strange slip set it. 11. In the
day of thy planting thou wilt hedge it in, and in the morning thou
wilt make thy seed to blossom, (but) away flies the crop in a day of
grief and desperate sorrow.
12. Hark! the noise of many nations! Like the noise of the sea they
make a noise. And the rush of peoples! Like the rush of many waters
they are rushing. 13. Nations, like the rush of many waters, rush;
and he rebukes it, and it flees from afar, and is chased like the
chaff of hills before a wind, and like a rolling thing before a
whirlwind. 14. At evening-tide, and behold terror; before morning he
is not. This be the portion of our plunderers, and the lot of our
spoilers.
XVIII.--1. Ho! land of rustling wings, which art beyond the rivers of
Cush, 2. sending by sea ambassadors, and in vessels of papyrus on the
face of the waters. Go, ye light messengers, to a nation drawn and
shorn, to a people terrible since it existed and onwards, a nation of
double strength and tramplings, whose land the streams divide. 3. All
ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, shall see as
it were the raising of a standard on the mountains, and shall hear as
it were the blowing of a trumpet.
4. For thus said Jehovah to me, I will rest and look on in My
dwelling-place, like a serene heat upon herbs, like a cloud of dew in
the heat of harvest. 5. For before the harvest or the bloom is
finished, and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he cuts down the
branches with the pruning-knives, and the tendrils he removes, he
cuts away. 6. They shall be left together to the wild birds of the
mountains, and to the wild beasts of the earth, and the wild birds
shall summer thereon, and every wild beast of the earth thereon shall
winter.
7. At that time shall be brought a gift to Jehovah of hosts, a people
drawn out and shorn, and from a people terrible since it hath been
and onward, a nation of double power and trampling, whose land
streams divide, to the place of the name of Jehovah of hosts, mount
Zion.