1 Oracle on Damascus:See, Damascus shall cease to be a cityand become a pile of ruins;
2 Her cities shall be forever abandoned,for flocks to lie in undisturbed.
3 The fortress shall vanish from Ephraimand dominion from Damascus;The remnant of Aram shall become like the gloryof the Israelites—oracle of the Lord of hosts.
4 On that dayThe glory of Jacob shall fade,and his full body shall grow thin.
5 Like the reaper’s mere armful of stalks,when he gathers the standing grain;Or as when one gleans the earsin the Valley of Rephaim.
6 Only gleanings shall be left in it,as when an olive tree has been beaten—Two or three olives at the very top,four or five on its most fruitful branches—oracle of the Lord, the God of Israel.