Britannia Radio

Isaiah 17

New International Version (NIV)

A Prophecy Against Damascus

17 A prophecy against Damascus:

“See, Damascus will no longer be a city

    but will become a heap of ruins. 

² 

The cities of Aroerwill be deserted

    and left to flocks, which will lie down, 

    with no one to make them afraid. 

³ 

The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim,

    and royal power from Damascus;

the remnant of Aram will be

    like the gloryof the Israelites,

declares the Lord Almighty.

⁴ 

“In that day of Jacob will fade;

    the fat of his body will waste away.

⁵ 

It will be as when reapers harvest the standing grain,

    gathering the grain in their arms—

as when someone gleans heads of grain

    in the Valley of Rephaim. 

⁶ 

Yet some gleanings will remain,

    as when an olive tree is beaten, 

leaving two or three olives on the topmost branches,

    four or five on the fruitful boughs,”

declares the Lord, the God of Israel.

⁷ 

In that daypeople will look to their Maker

    and turn their eyes to the Holy Oneof Israel.

⁸ 

They will not look to the altars, 

    the work of their hands, 

and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles

    and the incense altars their fingers have made.

⁹ In that day their strong cities, which they left because of the Israelites, will be like places abandoned to thickets and undergrowth. And all will be desolation.

¹⁰ 

You have forgottenGod your Savior; 

    you have not remembered the Rock,your fortress.

Therefore, though you set out the finest plants

    and plant imported vines, 

¹¹ 

though on the day you set them out, you make them grow,

    and on the morning when you plant them, you bring them to bud,

yet the harvest will be as nothing 

    in the day of disease and incurable pain.

¹² 

Woe to the many nations that rage 

    they rage like the raging sea!

Woe to the peoples who roar 

    they roar like the roaring of great waters!

¹³ 

Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters,

    when he rebukes them they fleear away,

driven before the wind like chaff on the hills,

    like tumbleweed before a gale. ^AT<

¹⁴ 

In the evening, sudden terror! 

    Before the morning, they are gone!

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