Damascus will disappear
1The Lord was angry with the people of the city of Damascus. He said:
‘Damascus will disappear,
and it will no longer be a city.
It will be only a heap of stones.
2The people will go out of the cities of Aroer.
Sheep and goats will lie down and rest in the cities,
and no one will chase them away.
3There will be no cities with strong walls
in Ephraim like there were before,
and Damascus will no longer have a king.
The people who are still_alive in Damascus
will lose everything
like the Israelites did.’
This is what the Lord
who rules over all says.
People will ask the holy God to help them
4The Lord says: ‘On that day
the Israelites will not be strong anymore.
They will be weak and poor.
5The land will be as empty
as the wheat_field in the Rephaim Valley
after the workers have cut off the wheat,
and only a few heads_of_wheat will be left over.
6There will be only a few of
the people of Israel who stay alive.
It will be like when a farmer
has picked olives from a tree
and a few olives are left over
on the branches at the top of the tree.’
This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says.
7On that day people will look
at the God who has made them,
and they will ask the holy God of Israel for help.
8They will not look at the altars
of the gods or believe
that the sacred_pillars
or incense-altars that they have made can help them.
9On that day the cities
that have strong walls will be empty,
as empty as the forest when other nations
ran away from the Israelites.
10Yes, Israelites, you have gone away
from the God who saved you,
and you have forgotten the Rock
where you were safe.
You make beautiful gardens
and you plant flowers and vines
that come from other lands.
11But when those plants grow and become big,
and even if they have flowers
on the same day that you planted them,
they will not help you at all,
and when you become sick and weak,
those plants will not heal you.
The nations that make a noise will run away
12All the nations that are making a noise
will suffer badly. They roar like the sea.
They roar loudly like a lot of water.
13They make a noise like big waves,
but when God becomes angry
and tells them they are wrong, they run away.
They are worthless like chaff or dry grass
that a strong wind blows away.
14In the evening, everyone is afraid
of the people from other nations,
but before morning comes, they are gone.
This is what will happen to the people
who take everything we have.
