Isaiah 17:1-11 - Oracle Of Judgment On Damascus
1 The word about Damascus. See, they have made Damascus a town no longer; it has become a waste place. 2 Her towns are unpeopled for ever; there the flocks take their rest in peace, without fear. 3 The strong tower has gone from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus: the rest of Aram will come to destruction, and be made like the glory of the children of Israel, says the Lord of armies.
4 And it will be in that day that the glory of Jacob will be made small, and the strength of his body will become feeble. 5 And it will be like a man cutting the growth of his grain, pulling together the heads of the grain with his arm; even as when they get in the grain in the valley of Rephaim. 6 But it will be like a man shaking an olive-tree, something will still be there, two or three berries on the top of the highest branch, four or five on the outside branches of a fertile tree, says the Lord, the God of Israel.
7 In that day a man's heart will be turned to his Maker, and his eyes to the Holy One of Israel. 8 He will not be looking to the altars, the work of his hands, or to the wood pillars or to the sun-images which his fingers have made.
9 In that day your towns will be like the waste places of the Hivites and the Amorites which the children of Israel took for a heritage, and they will come to destruction. 10 For you have not given honour to the God of your salvation, and have not kept in mind the Rock of your strength; for this cause you made a garden of Adonis, and put in it the vine-cuttings of a strange god; 11 In the day of your planting you were watching its growth, and in the morning your seed was flowering: but its fruit is wasted away in the day of grief and bitter sorrow.