1A prophecy about Damascus: “Look, Damascus will no longer be a city; it will become a pile of ruins.
2The cities of Aroer are abandoned. They will become places for flocks to lie down, with no one to frighten them.
3The fortress will vanish from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus. The rest of Syria will share the same fate as the glory of the people of Israel,” says Yahweh of Armies.
4“On that day, the glory of Jacob will fade, and his body will become thin.
5It will be like a harvester gathering grain, or like someone gleaning grain in the valley of Rephaim.
6But some gleanings will be left, like when an olive tree is shaken, and only two or three olives remain on the highest branch, or four or five on the outermost branches of a fruitful tree,” says Yahweh, the God of Israel.
7On that day, people will look to their Creator and show respect for the Holy One of Israel.
8They will not look to the altars made by their own hands, nor will they show respect for what their fingers have crafted—neither the Asherah poles nor the incense altars.
9On that day, their fortified cities will be like the deserted places in the forests and on the mountaintops that were abandoned long ago by the people of Israel; they will become a wasteland.
10Because you have forgotten the God who saves you and have not remembered the rock of your strength. Therefore, you plant pleasant plants and set out foreign seedlings.
11On the day you plant, you protect it; in the morning, you make your seed bloom. But the harvest will disappear on the day of grief and desperate sorrow.
12Ah, the uproar of many peoples, roaring like the sea! And the rush of nations, surging like mighty waters!
13The nations will surge like many waters, but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away. They will be chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind, and like swirling dust before a storm.
14In the evening, there is sudden terror! Before morning, they are gone. This is what happens to those who rob and plunder us.