17:1  THE MOURNFUL, inspired prediction (a burden to be lifted up) concerning Damascus [capital of Syria, and Israel's bulwark against Assyria]. Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city and will become a heap of ruins.

17:2  The cities of Aroer [east of the Jordan] are forsaken; they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid.

17:3  His bulwark [Syria] {and} the fortress shall disappear from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus; and the remnant of Syria will be like the [departed] glory of the children of Israel [her ally], says the Lord of hosts.

17:4  And in that day the former glory of Jacob [Israel--his might, his population, his prosperity] shall be enfeebled, and the fat of his flesh shall become lean.

17:5  And it shall be as when the reaper gathers the standing grain and his arm harvests the ears; yes, it shall be as when one gathers the ears of grain in the fertile Valley of Rephaim.

17:6  Yet gleanings [of grapes] shall be left in it [the land of Israel], as after the beating of an olive tree [with a stick], two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outermost branches of the fruitful tree, says the Lord, the God of Israel.

17:7  In that day will men look to their Maker, and their eyes shall regard the Holy One of Israel.

17:8  And they will not look to the [idolatrous] altars, the work of their hands, neither will they have respect for what their fingers have made--either the Asherim [symbols of the goddess Asherah] or the sun-images.

17:9  In that day will their [Syria's and Israel's] strong cities be like the forsaken places in the wood and on the mountaintop, as they [the Amorites and the Hivites] forsook their [cities] because of the children of Israel; and there will be desolation.

17:10  Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation [O Judah] and have not been mindful of the Rock of your strength, your Stronghold--therefore, you have planted pleasant nursery grounds {and} plantings [to Adonis, pots of quickly withered flowers used to set by their doors or in the courts of temples], and have set [the grounds] with vine slips of a strange [God],

17:11  And in the day of your planting you hedge it in, and in the morning you make your seed to blossom, yet [promising as it is] the harvest shall be a heap of ruins {and} flee away in the day of expected possession and of desperate sorrow {and} sickening, incurable pain.

17:12  Hark, the uproar of a multitude of peoples! They roar {and} thunder like the noise of the seas! Ah, the roar of nations! They roar like the roaring of rushing {and} mighty waters!

17:13  The nations will rush {and} roar like the rushing {and} roaring of many waters--but [God] will rebuke them, and they will flee far off and will be chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind, and like rolling thistledown {or} whirling dust of the stubble before the storm.

17:14  At evening time, behold, terror! And before the morning, they [the terrorizing Assyrians] are not. This is the portion of those who strip us [the Jews] of what belongs to us, and the lot of those who rob us. [Fulfilled in Isa. 37:36.]