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Damascus Will Be Punished

17 (A) This is a message about Damascus:

Damascus is doomed!
    It will end up in ruins.
The villages around Aroer[a]
    will be deserted,
with only sheep living there
    and no one to bother them.
Israel[b] will lose its fortresses.
The kingdom of Damascus
    will be destroyed;
its survivors will suffer
    the same fate as Israel.
The Lord All-Powerful
    has promised this.

Sin and Suffering

When that time comes,
the glorious nation of Israel
    will be brought down;
its prosperous people
    will be skin and bones.
Israel will be like wheat fields
in Rephaim Valley
    picked clean of grain.
It will be like an olive tree
    beaten with a stick,
leaving two or three olives
    or maybe four or five
on the highest
    or most fruitful branches.
The Lord God of Israel
    has promised this.

At that time the people will turn and trust their Creator, the holy God of Israel. They have built altars and places for burning incense to their goddess Asherah, and they have set up sacred poles[c] for her. But they will stop worshiping at these places.

Israel captured powerful cities and chased out the people who lived there. But these cities will lie in ruins, covered over with weeds and underbrush.[d]

10 Israel, you have forgotten
    the God who saves you,
the one who is the mighty rock[e]
    where you find protection.
You plant the finest flowers
    to honor a foreign god.
11 The plants may sprout
and blossom
    that very same morning,
but it will do you no good,
because you will suffer
    endless agony.

God Defends His People

12 The nations are a noisy,
    thunderous sea.
13 But even if they roar
    like a fearsome flood,
God will give the command
    to turn them back.
They will be like dust,
    or like a tumbleweed
blowing across the hills
    in a windstorm.
14 In the evening
    their attack is fierce,
but by morning
    they are destroyed.
This is what happens to those
    who raid and rob us.

Footnotes

  1. 17.2 Aroer: Either a city near Damascus with the same name as the Moabite city or the Moabite city itself, here used as an example of what will happen to Damascus.
  2. 17.3 Israel: The Hebrew text has “Ephraim,” another name for the northern kingdom.
  3. 17.8 sacred poles: Or “trees,” used as symbols of Asherah, the goddess of fertility.
  4. 17.9 covered … underbrush: Hebrew; one ancient translation “like the cities of the Hivites and the Amorites.”
  5. 17.10 mighty rock: The Hebrew text has “rock,” which is sometimes used in poetry to compare the Lord to a mountain where his people can run for protection from their enemies.

A Prophecy Against Damascus

17 A prophecy(A) against Damascus:(B)

“See, Damascus will no longer be a city
    but will become a heap of ruins.(C)
The cities of Aroer(D) will be deserted
    and left to flocks,(E) which will lie down,(F)
    with no one to make them afraid.(G)
The fortified(H) city will disappear from Ephraim,
    and royal power from Damascus;
the remnant of Aram will be
    like the glory(I) of the Israelites,”(J)
declares the Lord Almighty.

“In that day(K) the glory(L) of Jacob will fade;
    the fat of his body will waste(M) away.
It will be as when reapers harvest the standing grain,
    gathering(N) the grain in their arms—
as when someone gleans heads of grain(O)
    in the Valley of Rephaim.(P)
Yet some gleanings will remain,(Q)
    as when an olive tree is beaten,(R)
leaving two or three olives on the topmost branches,
    four or five on the fruitful boughs,”
declares the Lord, the God of Israel.

In that day(S) people will look(T) to their Maker(U)
    and turn their eyes to the Holy One(V) of Israel.
They will not look to the altars,(W)
    the work of their hands,(X)
and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles[a](Y)
    and the incense altars their fingers(Z) have made.

In that day their strong cities, which they left because of the Israelites, will be like places abandoned to thickets and undergrowth.(AA) And all will be desolation.

10 You have forgotten(AB) God your Savior;(AC)
    you have not remembered the Rock,(AD) your fortress.(AE)
Therefore, though you set out the finest plants
    and plant imported vines,(AF)
11 though on the day you set them out, you make them grow,
    and on the morning(AG) when you plant them, you bring them to bud,
yet the harvest(AH) will be as nothing(AI)
    in the day of disease and incurable(AJ) pain.(AK)

12 Woe to the many nations that rage(AL)
    they rage like the raging sea!(AM)
Woe to the peoples who roar(AN)
    they roar like the roaring of great waters!(AO)
13 Although the peoples roar(AP) like the roar of surging waters,
    when he rebukes(AQ) them they flee(AR) far away,
driven before the wind like chaff(AS) on the hills,
    like tumbleweed before a gale.(AT)
14 In the evening, sudden(AU) terror!(AV)
    Before the morning, they are gone!(AW)
This is the portion of those who loot us,
    the lot of those who plunder us.

Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 17:8 That is, wooden symbols of the goddess Asherah