1The doom of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is deprived of being a city, and it shall become decaying ruins. 2Forsaken are the cities of ‘Aro’er: they shall be given up to flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid. 3And there shall cease the fortress from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria: like the glory of the children of Israel shall they be, saith the Lord of hosts. 4And it shall come to pass on that day, that the glory of Jacob shall vanish, and the fatness of his flesh shall become lean. 5And it shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the standing–corn, and reapeth the ears with his arm; and it shall be as when one gleaneth ears in the valley of Rephaim. 6And there shall be left on it gleaning–fruit, as one shaketh an olive–tree, two or three berries on the top of the uppermost bough, four or five on the outmost branches of a fruitful tree, saith the Lord the God of Israel. 7On that day shall a man turn his regard up to his Maker, and his eyes shall look toward the Holy One of Israel. 8And he shall not turn his regard to the altars, the work of his hands; and he shall not look at what his fingers have made, both the groves and the sun–images. 9On that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken ruin in a forest, and on a mountain–peak, which they left because of the children of Israel: and the land shall be desolate. 10Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and the rock of thy strength thou hast not remembered; therefore wouldst thou plant luxuriant plantings, and wouldst set out the shoots of the stranger therein. 11Already on the day that thou plantedst thou causedst to grow, and in the morning thou madest thy seed to blossom; but now fleeth the harvest on the day of disease and of incurable pain. 12Woe to the raging of many people, who rage like the raging of the seas; and to the noise of nations, that make a noise like the roar of mighty waters! 13The nations will make a noise like the roaring of many waters; but He will rebuke it, and it shall flee afar off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and as thistle–down before the tempest. 14At eveningtide, behold, there is trouble; before yet it is morning it is no more. This is the portion of our spoilers, and the lot of those that plunder us.