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The fortress shall vanish from Ephraim[a]
    and dominion from Damascus;
The remnant of Aram shall become like the glory
    of the Israelites—
    oracle of the Lord of hosts.
    On that day
The glory of Jacob shall fade,
    and his full body shall grow thin.(A)
Like the reaper’s mere armful of stalks,
    when he gathers the standing grain;
Or as when one gleans the ears
    in the Valley of Rephaim.[b]

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Footnotes

  1. 17:3 Ephraim: Israel, leagued with Aram against Judah in the Syro-Ephraimite War. Assyria ravaged and captured most of Israelite territory in 734–733 B.C. Like the glory of the Israelites: the remnant of Aram will be no more impressive than the pitiful remnant of the Northern Kingdom.
  2. 17:5 Valley of Rephaim: a fertile plain just to the southwest of Jerusalem (cf. Jos 15:8; 2 Sm 5:18). Since it was near a large population center, the fields there would be thoroughly gleaned by the poor after the harvest, leaving very few ears of grain.