| International Standard Version | New Living Translation |
| 1A message about Damascus: "Look! Damascus will cease to be a city. Instead, it will become a pile of ruins. | 1This message came to me concerning Damascus: “Look, the city of Damascus will disappear! It will become a heap of ruins. |
| 2The cities of Oraru will be deserted— they will be devoted to herds that will lay at rest, and terrorism will be no more. | 2The towns of Aroer will be deserted. Flocks will graze in the streets and lie down undisturbed, with no one to chase them away. |
| 3The fortress will disappear from Ephraim, and royal authority from Damascus; the survivors from Aram will be like the glory of the Israelis," declares the LORD of the Heavenly Armies. | 3The fortified towns of Israel will also be destroyed, and the royal power of Damascus will end. All that remains of Syria will share the fate of Israel’s departed glory,” declares the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. |
| 4"At that time, Jacob's glory will have become weakened, and his strong flesh will turn gaunt; | 4“In that day Israel’s glory will grow dim; its robust body will waste away. |
| 5it will be as if harvesters gather standing grain, reaping the ears by hand, or it will be as if grain is harvested in the valley of Rephaim. | 5The whole land will look like a grainfield after the harvesters have gathered the grain. It will be desolate, like the fields in the valley of Rephaim after the harvest. |
| 6Nevertheless, gleanings will remain in Israel, as when an olive tree is beaten— two or three ripe olives left in the topmost branches, four or five left among the branches of a fruit-filled tree," declares the LORD God of Israel. | 6Only a few of its people will be left, like stray olives left on a tree after the harvest. Only two or three remain in the highest branches, four or five scattered here and there on the limbs,” declares the LORD, the God of Israel. |
| 7At that time, men will look upon their Maker, and their eyes will honor the Holy One of Israel. | 7Then at last the people will look to their Creator and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel. |
| 8They will not look upon the altars, the products that their own fingers have made, and they will have no regard for Asherah poles or incense altars. | 8They will no longer look to their idols for help or worship what their own hands have made. They will never again bow down to their Asherah poles or worship at the pagan shrines they have built. |
| 9"At that time, their fortified cities that they abandoned because of the Israelis will be like desolate places of the forests and hilltops— there will be desolation. | 9Their largest cities will be like a deserted forest, like the land the Hivites and Amorites abandoned when the Israelites came here so long ago. It will be utterly desolate. |
| 10For you have forgotten the God of your salvation and have not remembered the Rock that is your strength. Therefore even though you plant delightful plants, sowing them with imported vine-seedlings, | 10Why? Because you have turned from the God who can save you. You have forgotten the Rock who can hide you. So you may plant the finest grapevines and import the most expensive seedlings. |
| 11at the time that you plant them, carefully making them grow, the very morning you make your seed to sprout, your harvest will be ruined in a time of grief and unbearable pain." | 11They may sprout on the day you set them out; yes, they may blossom on the very morning you plant them, but you will never pick any grapes from them. Your only harvest will be a load of grief and unrelieved pain. |
| 12"How terrible it will be for many peoples, who rage like the roaring sea! Oh, how the uproar of nations is like the sound of rushing, mighty water— How they roar! | 12Listen! The armies of many nations roar like the roaring of the sea. Hear the thunder of the mighty forces as they rush forward like thundering waves. |
| 13The nations roar like the rushing of many waters, but the LORD will rebuke them, and they will run far away, chased like chaff blown down from the mountains or like thick dust that rolls along, blown along by a wind storm. | 13But though they thunder like breakers on a beach, God will silence them, and they will run away. They will flee like chaff scattered by the wind, like a tumbleweed whirling before a storm. |
| 14When the evening arrives, watch out—sudden terror! By morning they will be there no longer! So it will be for those who plunder us and what will happen to those who rob us." | 14In the evening Israel waits in terror, but by dawn its enemies are dead. This is the just reward of those who plunder us, a fitting end for those who destroy us. |
The Holy Bible: International Standard Version® Release 2.1 Copyright © 1996-2012 The ISV Foundation
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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