[1] This is a message about Damascus: Damascus is doomed! It will end up in ruins. [2] The villages around Aroer will be deserted, with only sheep living there and no one to bother them. [3] Israel will lose its fortresses. The kingdom of Damascus will be destroyed; its survivors will suffer the same fate as Israel. The LORD All-Powerful has promised this. [4] When that time comes, the glorious nation of Israel will be brought down; its prosperous people will be skin and bones. [5] Israel will be like wheat fields in Rephaim Valley picked clean of grain. [6] It will be like an olive tree beaten with a stick, leaving two or three olives or maybe four or five on the highest or most fruitful branches. The LORD God of Israel has promised this. [7] At that time the people will turn and trust their Creator, the holy God of Israel. [8] They have built altars and places for burning incense to their goddess Asherah, and they have set up sacred poles for her. But they will stop worshiping at these places. [9] Israel captured powerful cities and chased out the people who lived there. But these cities will lie in ruins, covered over with weeds and underbrush. [10] Israel, you have forgotten the God who saves you, the one who is the mighty rock where you find protection. You plant the finest flowers to honor a foreign god. [11] The plants may sprout and blossom that very same morning, but it will do you no good, because you will suffer endless agony. [12] The nations are a noisy, thunderous sea. [13] But even if they roar like a fearsome flood, God will give the command to turn them back. They will be like dust, or like a tumbleweed blowing across the hills in a windstorm. [14] In the evening their attack is fierce, but by morning they are destroyed. This is what happens to those who raid and rob us.
