Isaiah 17:1-10

The [mournful, inspired] oracle (a burden to be carried) concerning Damascus [capital of Aram (Syria), and Israel’s defense against Assyria]. “Listen carefully, Damascus will cease to be a city And will become a fallen ruin. “The cities of Aroer [east of the Jordan] are deserted; They will be [only a refuge] for flocks to lie down in, And there will be no one to make them afraid. “The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim, And the kingdom from Damascus And the remnant of Aram (Syria); They will be like the [departed] glory of [her ally] the children of Israel,” Declares the LORD of hosts. ¶“Now in that day the [former] glory of Jacob [Israel—his might, his population, his prosperity] will fade, And the fatness of his flesh will become lean. “And it will be like the reaper gathering the standing grain, As his arm harvests the ears of grain; Yes, it will be like one gleaning ears of grain In the [fertile] Valley of Rephaim. “Yet gleanings will be left in the land [of Israel] like the shaking of the olive tree, Two or three olives on the topmost branch, Four or five on the [outermost] branches of the fruitful tree,” Declares the LORD, the God of Israel. In that day man will have regard for his Maker, And his eyes will regard the Holy One of Israel [with awe-inspired reverence]. And he will not have regard for the [idolatrous] altars, the work of his hands, Nor will he look to that which his fingers have made, Neither the Asherim (symbols of the goddess Asherah) nor the incense altars. In that day the strong cities of Aram and Israel will be like deserted places in the forest, Or like branches which they abandoned before the children of Israel; And the land will be a desolation. Because you [Judah] have forgotten the God of your salvation And have not remembered the Rock of your Stronghold— Therefore you plant lovely plants And set the grounds with vine slips of a strange god