1 An oracle of Damascus: "Look! Damascus [will] cease being a city and will become a heap of ruins. 2 The cities of Aroer will be deserted; they will be for the flocks, and they will lie down and {no one will frighten} [them]. 3 And [the] fortified city will disappear from Ephraim, and [the] kingdom from Damascus; and the remnant of Aram will be like the glory of the children of Israel," {declares} Yahweh of hosts.
4 "And this shall happen: On that day, the glory of Jacob will be brought low, and the fat of his flesh will become lean. 5 And it shall be as {when a reaper gathers} standing grain and he reaps grain [with] his arm, and it shall be like one who gathers ears of grain in the valley of Rephaim. 6 And gleanings will be left over in it, as {when an olive tree is beaten}, two [or] three ripe olive berries in [the] top of a branch, four [or] five on its fruitful branches," {declares} Yahweh, the God of Israel.
7 On that day, mankind will look to its maker, and its eyes will look to the holy one of Israel; 8 it will not look to the altars, the work of its hands, and it will not see what its fingers made and the poles of Asherah worship and the incense altars.
9 On that day, {its fortified cities} will be like the {abandonment of the wooded place and the summit}, which they deserted because of the children of Israel; and there will be desolation. 10 For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and you have not remembered the rock of your refuge; therefore you plant plants of pleasantness, and you {plant} a vine of a foreigner. 11 On your planting day you make [them] grow, and in the morning [of] your sowing you bring [them] into bloom, [yet] the harvest will flee in a day [of] sickness and incurable pain.
12 Ah! [The] noise of many peoples, they make a noise like [the] noise of [the] seas! And [the] roar of nations, they roar like [the] roar of mighty waters! 13 [The] nations roar like [the] roar of many waters, but he will rebuke him, and he will flee far away. And they are chased like chaff of [the] mountains before [the] wind and like tumbleweed before [the] storm. 14 At [the] time of evening, and look, terror! Before morning he is no more. This [is] the fate of those who plunder us and [the] lot of those who plunder us.