Isaias

Hebrew Bible

Hebrew Bible, Isaias, Ottley, Cambridge, 1904

XVII. 1 The burden of Damascus.

Behold, Damascus is removed from (being) a city, and be- cometh a heap, a ruin.

2 The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks, and they shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid.

3 And the fortress shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Aram: they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, saith the LORD of Hosts.

4 And it shall be in that day, the glory of ’Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean.

[*](12. Uncertain.)
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5 And it shall be as when the harvestman graspeth the standing Corn, and his arm reapeth the ears 3 and it shall be as one that gleaneth ears in the valley of Rephaim.

6 And there shall be left therein gleanings, as at the beating of an olive tree, two or three berries at the top of a crest, four or five in the fruit ’s branches, saith the LORD God of Israel.

7 In that day shall (a) man look toward -his Maker, and his eyes shall gaze upon the Holy One of Israel.

8 And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall gaze upon what his fingers made, either the Asherim or the sun-images.

9 In that day shall his strong cities be as the forsaken tract of -the woodland and the mountain crest, which men forsook from before the children of Israel 5 and there shall be a desolation.

10 For thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength; therefore thou plantest plants of pleasantness, and settest them with slips of a stranger;

11 In the day of thy planting dost thou make a hedge, and in the morning thou makest thy seed to bud; a harvest heap in the day; of pain and deadly sorrow.

12 Ah, the uproar of many peoples, they roar like the roaring of seas; and the tumult of nations, they are tumultuous like the tumult of mighty waters l

13 Nations are tumultuous like the tumult of many waters; and (one) rebuketh him, and he fleeth afar off, and is chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and as whirling dust before the tempest.

[*](5. Or, ‘and with his arm...)[*](6. Or, perhaps, ‘four or five in its fruit-bearing ’)[*](7, 8. ‘gaze ’ i. e. with regard or respect.)[*](9. Heb. ‘of the HORESH and the AMIR’; not, unlike ‘Hivite and in some scripts: Lagarde emends accordingly. (Cf. Greek, note inverse order.))[*](10. Lit. ‘plants of pleasant ones’ (‘plants of Adonis,’)[*](11. Or, ‘the harvest fleeth away in the day of’... ‘pain’ has been by some for a different word, meaning (expected) ‘possession.’)
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14 At eventide, and behold terror; before the morning, he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us.