| Chapter
17 |
| 1 | The
burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it
shall be a ruinous heap. |
| 2 |
The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks, which shall lie
down, and none shall make them afraid. |
| 3 | The fortress also 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 the LORD of hosts. |
|
4 | And in that day it shall come to pass, that the glory
of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean. |
| 5 | And it shall be as when the
harvestman gathereth the corn, and reapeth the ears with his arm; and it shall
be as he that gathereth ears in the valley of Rephaim. |
| 6 | Yet gleaning grapes shall be 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 fruitful branches thereof, saith
the LORD God of Israel. |
| 7 |
At that day shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to
the Holy One of Israel. |
| 8 |
And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall
respect that which his fingers have made, either the groves, or the images. |
| 9 | In that day shall his
strong cities be as a forsaken bough, and an uppermost branch, which they left
because of the children of Israel: and there shall be desolation. |
| 10 | Because thou hast forgotten the
God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength,
therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and shalt set it with strange
slips: |
| 11 | In the day
shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed
to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of
desperate sorrow. |
| 12 | Woe
to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas;
and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty
waters! |
| 13 | The nations
shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they
shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before
the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind. |
| 14 | And behold at eveningtide trouble; and
before the morning he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and
the lot of them that rob us. |
