Isaiah 17:1-14

This is God’s message for Damascus: “Behold, Damascus is gone! It is no longer a city, only a heap of rubble. Her ruins will be abandoned— left for flocks to lie down in with nothing to fear. Damascus will lose the power of her fortress, and the strongholds of the northern kingdom will disappear. The remnant of Syria will be like Israel—stripped of its glory,” says the Lord YAHWEH, Commander of Angel Armies. “On that day, the beautiful splendor of Jacob’s northern tribes will be brought low, and they will become like skin and bones. It will be as when a farmer harvests the standing grain and gathers armloads of grain, and as one gathers ears of grain in the Valley of Giants. Yet some gleanings will remain, as when an olive tree is shaken, leaving two or three olives in the highest branches and four or five on its fruitful branches,” declares Lord YAHWEH, the God of Israel. In that day, people will gaze toward their Creator, and their eyes will look in faith toward the Holy One of Israel. They will not be infatuated with the religious altars their own hands crafted, nor by what their own fingers have made, nor with their sacred groves or altars of incense. On that day their bustling cities will become deserted like those conquered by the Israelites— abandoned to thickets and undergrowth, it will all become desolate. For you have ignored and forgotten the God who saves you and have not remembered your Rock of Safety. So what do you do? You cultivate your beautiful gardens and plant imported vines. Even if on the day you plant them they begin to grow, and even if immediately you see them bud, your harvest will wither away in a day of grief and agony. Ah, the thunder of many people joining together! They roar like the roar of the sea. Woe to the uproar of the many nations! They thunder like the crashing of ocean waves. The nations are roaring like the roar of a massive waterfall, but when God rebukes them they disperse like chaff on the mountains, like a tumbleweed whirling in the wind. In the evening—behold, sudden terror! Before the morning comes, they vanish! Such is the fate of those who plunder and try to rob us.