| Chapter 17 |
1 | The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from [being] a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
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2 | The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks; and they shall lie down and there shall be none to make them afraid.
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3 | The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria: they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, saith Jehovah of hosts.
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4 | And in that day it shall come to pass, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall become lean.
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5 | And it shall be as when the reaper gathereth the corn, and reapeth the ears with his arm; yea, it shall be as he that gathereth ears in the valley of Rephaim.
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6 | And a gleaning shall be left in it, as at the shaking of an olive-tree: two, three berries above, in the tree-top; four, five in its fruitful boughs, saith Jehovah, the God of Israel.
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7 | In that day shall man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have regard to the Holy One of Israel.
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8 | And he will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, nor have regard to what his fingers have made, neither the Asherahs nor the sun-images.
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9 | In that day shall his strong cities be as the forsaken tract in the woodland, and the mountain-top which they forsook before the children of Israel; and there shall be desolation.
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10 | For thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength; therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plantations, and shalt set them with foreign slips:
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11 | in the day of thy planting wilt thou make [them] to grow, and on the morrow wilt thou make thy seed to flourish; [but] the harvest will flee in the day of taking possession, and the sorrow will be incurable.
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12 | Ha! a tumult of many peoples! they make a noise as the noise of the seas; -- and the rushing of nations! they rush as the rushing of mighty waters.
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13 | The nations rush as the rushing of many waters; but he will rebuke them, and they shall flee far away, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a whirling [of dust] before the whirlwind:
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14 | behold, at eventide, trouble; before the morning they are not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us.
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