17:1  The oracle concerning Damascus "Behold, Damascus will soon cease from existing as a city And will become a fallen ruin.

17:2  "The cities of Aroer have become forsaken; They will exist for flocks to lie down in, And no one will frighten them.

17:3  "The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim, And sovereignty from Damascus And the remnant of Aram; They will resemble the glory of the sons of Israel," Declares the LORD of hosts.

17:4  Now in that day the glory of Jacob will fade, And the fatness of his flesh will become lean.

17:5  It will occur that even like the reaper gathering the standing grain, As his arm harvests the ears, Or it will resemble one gleaning ears of grain In the valley of Rephaim.

17:6  Yet gleanings will remain in it like the shaking of an olive tree, Two or three olives on the topmost bough, Four or five on the branches of a fruitful tree, Declares the LORD, the God of Israel.

17:7  In that day man will have regard for his Maker And his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel.

17:8  He will not have regard for the altars, the work of his hands, Nor will he look to that which his fingers have made, Even the Asherim and incense stands.

17:9  In that day their strong cities will resemble forsaken places in the forest, Or like branches which they abandoned before the sons of Israel; And the land will become desolate.

17:10  For you have forgotten the God of your salvation And have not remembered the rock of your refuge. Therefore you plant delightful plants And set them with vine slips of a strange god.

17:11  In the day that you plant it you carefully fence it in, And in the morning you bring your seed to blossom; But the harvest will become a heap In a day of sickliness and incurable pain.

17:12  Alas, the uproar of many peoples Who roar like the roaring of the seas, And the rumbling of nations Who rush on like the rumbling of mighty waters!

17:13  The nations rumble on like the rumbling of many waters, But He will rebuke them and they will flee far away, And He will chase them like chaff in the mountains before the wind, Or like whirling dust before a gale.

17:14  At evening time, behold, I feel terror! Before morning they no longer exist. Such will seem the portion of those who plunder us And the lot of those who pillage us.