Against Damascus
1 ① An oracle concerning Damascus:
“Damascus will cease to be a city and will become a heap of ruins. 2Her towns will be abandoned and left as pasture for flocks;there they will lie down afraid of no one. Damascus will no longer be a kingdom, 3so Ephraim will be left undefended.
From now on the remnant of Aram will have no more power than the children of Israel.”
This is Yahweh Sabaoth speaking. 4On that day
the glory of Jacob will fade; the fat of his flesh will waste away. 5It will be as when a reaper gathers the standing grain and lops off the stalks,
or as when they gather the gleanings in the Valley of Rephaim.
6Yet some gleanings remain, as when an olive tree is beaten –
two or three olives are left on the topmost bough,
four or five on the fruitful branches,
says Yahweh, the God of Israel.
7On that day people will look to their Creator, their eyes turned to the Holy One of Israel.
8They will no longer look to the altars, to the work of their hand,
the sacred pole or the incense stand which their fingers have made.
9On that day your cities will be like the cities of the Hivites and the Amorites which they abandoned to the Israelites. All will be desolation.
10For you have forgotten the God of your salvation,
you have failed to remember the Rock of your refuge.
You may plant the finest plants, you may plant out imported shoots, 11you may make them grow on the day you plant them,
you may make them blossom
on the day you sow,
yet they dwindle and the harvest is gone:
then you may cry!
The upsurge of nations
12Oh, the rage of many peoples – they rage like the raging sea! Oh, the thunder of many nations –
they thunder like the thundering of mighty waves!
13But God rebukes them,
and they flee far away,
swept away like chaff
on the hills before the wind,
whirled away like eddying dust
before the thunderstorm.
14At eventide they sow terror; before morning they are no more. Such is the portion of our despoilers, such is the lot of our plunderers.
- Is 17,1 Despite its title this poem should not have been placed among the prophecies against the nations. It is a warning to the Kingdom of Israel to the north. Verses 10-11 surely allude to the cult of the god Adonis whose death and return to life were symbols of the return of vegetation. It would seem that for his feasts people cultivated earliest and fast-growing plants which appeared and soon withered: in this way people celebrated their mourning for Adonis. The prophet sees there an image of what idols produce in the life of Israel.
