1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away, that it be not a city; For it shall be a heap of ruins.

2 The cities of Aroer are forsaken; They shall be changed into sheepfolds; They shall lie down, And there shall be none to terrify them.

3 And the fortress shall cease from Ephraim, And the kingdom from Damascus; And the remnant of Syria shall be As the glory of the children of Israel, Saith Jehovah of hosts.

4 And it shall be in that day, The glory of Jacob shall be diminished, And the fatness of his flesh shall become lean.

5 And it shall be as he who gathereth the harvest of the corn, Who reapeth the ears with his arm, Like as one gleaneth grapes in the valley of Rephaim.

6 And in thee shall be left a gleaning, as the shaking of an olive-tree; There two or three berries remain on the top of the highest branch, Four or five on the spreading branches of its fruit, Saith Jehovah, the God of Israel.

7 In that day shall a man look to his Maker, And his eyes shall be fixed on the Holy One of Israel.

8 And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his own hands. Nor view the things which his fingers have made, Nor the groves, Nor the graven images.

9 In that day the cities of his strength shall be As the forsaking of a thicket and of a branch, In like manner as they left before 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 God of thy strength; Therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants, And thou shalt ingraft a foreign shoot.

11 In the day of thy plantation shalt thou make it to grow, And in the morning thou shalt make thy seed to sprout; But in the day of enjoying shall the harvest fail, And the grief shall be desperate.

12 Alas! the multitude of many peoples; Like the sound of many peoples shall they sound, And like the noise of nations; Like the noise of mighty waters shall they rush.

13 Like the noise of mighty waters Shall the peoples make a noise, And he will rebuke them, And will drive them far away; They shall be chased As the chaff of the mountains before the wind, And as a rolling thing before the whirlwind.

14 In the evening time, behold! trouble: Ere it be morning, it shall not at all be. This is the portion of them that tread us down, And the lot of them that plunder us.