Study Desk

The ^(C1)pronouncement concerning ^(C2)Damascus: "Behold, Damascus is about to be ^(C3)removed from being a city And will become a ^(C4)fallen ruin.

-"The cities ^(F1)of ^(C1)Aroer are abandoned; They will be for ^(C2)herds ^(F2)to lie down in, And there will be ^(C3)no one to frighten them.

-"The ^(F1)(C1)fortified city will disappear from Ephraim, And ^(F2)sovereignty from Damascus And the remnant of Aram; They will be like the ^(C2)glory of the sons of Israel," Declares the LORD of armies.

Now on that day the ^(C1)glory of Jacob will ^(F1)fade, And ^(C2)the fatness of his flesh will become lean.

It will be ^(C1)like the ^(F1)reaper gathering the standing grain, As his arm harvests the ears, Or it will be like one gleaning ears of grain In the ^(C2)Valley of Rephaim.

Yet ^(C1)gleanings will be left in it like the ^(F1)shaking of an olive tree, Two or three olives on the topmost branch, Four or five on the branches of a fruitful tree, Declares the LORD, the God of Israel.

On that day man will ^(C1)look to his Maker And his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel.

And he will not look to the ^(C1)altars, the work of his hands, Nor will he look to that which his ^(C2)fingers have made, Even the ^(F1)(C3)Asherim and incense altars.

On that day ^(F1)their strong cities will be like ^(F2)abandoned places in the forest, Or like branches which they abandoned before the sons of Israel; And ^(F3)the land will be a desolation.

For ^(C1)you have forgotten the ^(C2)God of your salvation And have not remembered the ^(C3)rock of your refuge. Therefore you plant delightful plants And set them with vine shoots of a strange god.

On the day that you plant it you carefully fence it in, And in the ^(C1)morning you bring your seed to blossom; But the harvest will ^(C2)flee On a day of illness and incurable pain.

Oh, the uproar of many peoples ^(C1)Who roar like the roaring of the seas, And the rumbling of nations Who rush on like the ^(C2)rumbling of mighty waters!

The ^(C1)nations rumble on like the rumbling of many waters, But He will ^(C2)rebuke them, and they will flee far away, And be chased ^(C3)like chaff on the mountains before the wind, Or like whirling dust before a gale.

At evening time, behold, there is terror! Before morning ^(C1)they are gone. This will be the ^(F1)fate of those who plunder us And the lot of those who pillage us.