Yesha 'yahu (Isa) 17
17
1This is a prophecy about Dammesek:
“Dammesek will soon stop being a city;
it will become a heap of ruins.
2The cities of ‘Aro‘er will be abandoned,
given over to flocks lying down undisturbed.
3Efrayim will have no defenses,
Dammesek will cease to rule,
and Aram’s survivors will share the fate
of Isra’el’s finest sons,”
says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
4“When that day comes, Ya‘akov’s glory will wane,
and his full body grow thin,
5as when the harvester collects the standing grain,
reaping the ears of grain with his arm;
yes, as when they glean the grain
in the Refa’im Valley.
6Yet gleanings will be left,
as when beating an olive tree —
two or three olives at the very top,
four or five on its fruitful branches,”
says Adonai, the God of Isra’el.
7On that day, a person will heed his Maker
and turn his eyes toward the Holy One of Isra’el.
8He will pay no heed to the altars
made with his own hands,
he will not turn toward what his fingers made,
the sacred poles and standing-stones for sun-worship.
9When that day comes, his strong cities,
which others abandoned when Isra’el advanced,
will be like abandoned woods and forests;
they will be laid waste.
10For you have forgotten the God who saved you,
failed to remember the Rock of your strength;
so you plant pagan-style gardens
and set out vine-cuttings for a foreign god.
11Though you make them grow on the day you plant them,
and in the morning your seedlings flower;
the crop will vanish the day disease comes,
a day of incurable pain.
12Oh, the terror-stricken uproar of many peoples,
roaring like the roar of the seas,
and the rushing about of nations,
rushing and surging like wild, wild waters!
13Yes, the nations will roar like the mighty ocean,
but he will rebuke them, and far will they flee,
driven like chaff by a mountain wind,
like whirling dust in advance of the storm.
14As evening falls, you can see terror;
before sunrise, they have ceased to be.
This is the lot of those who plunder us,
the fate of those who prey on us.
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Learn More About Complete Jewish BibleIsaiah 17
17
Damascus: A Pile of Dust and Rubble
1-3A Message concerning Damascus:
“Watch this: Damascus undone as a city,
a pile of dust and rubble!
Her towns emptied of people.
The sheep and goats will move in
And take over the towns
as if they owned them—which they will!
Not a sign of a fort is left in Ephraim,
not a trace of government left in Damascus.
What’s left of Aram?
The same as what’s left of Israel—not much.”
Decree of God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
The Day Is Coming
4-6“The Day is coming when Jacob’s robust splendor goes pale
and his well-fed body turns skinny.
The country will be left empty, picked clean
as a field harvested by field hands.
She’ll be like a few stalks of barley left standing
in the lush Valley of Rephaim after harvest,
Or like the couple of ripe olives overlooked
in the top of the olive tree,
Or the four or five apples
that the pickers couldn’t reach in the orchard.”
Decree of the God of Israel.
7-8Yes, the Day is coming when people will notice The One Who Made Them, take a long hard look at The Holy of Israel. They’ll lose interest in all the stuff they’ve made—altars and monuments and rituals, their homemade, handmade religion—however impressive it is.
9And yes, the Day is coming when their fortress cities will be abandoned—the very same cities that the Hivites and Amorites abandoned when Israel invaded! And the country will be empty, desolate.
You Have Forgotten God
10-11And why? Because you have forgotten God-Your-Salvation,
not remembered your Rock-of-Refuge.
And so, even though you are very religious,
planting all sorts of bushes and herbs and trees
to honor and influence your fertility gods,
And even though you make them grow so well,
bursting with buds and sprouts and blossoms,
Nothing will come of them. Instead of a harvest
you’ll get nothing but grief and pain, pain, pain.
12-13Oh my! Thunder! A thundering herd of people!
Thunder like the crashing of ocean waves!
Nations roaring, roaring,
like the roar of a massive waterfall,
Roaring like a deafening Niagara!
But God will silence them with a word,
And then he’ll blow them away like dead leaves off a tree,
like down from a thistle.
14At bedtime, terror fills the air.
By morning it’s gone—not a sign of it anywhere!
This is what happens to those who would ruin us,
this is the fate of those out to get us.
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.