“Dammesek will soon stop being a city;
it will become a heap of ruins.
² The cities of ‘Aro‘er will be abandoned,
given over to flocks lying down undisturbed.
³ Efrayim will have no defenses,
Dammesek will cease to rule,
and Aram’s survivors will share the fate
of Isra’el’s finest sons,”

says Adonai-Tzva’ot.

⁴ “When that day comes, Ya‘akov’s glory will wane,
and his full body grow thin,
⁵ as when the harvester collects the standing grain,
reaping the ears of grain with his arm;
yes, as when they glean the grain
in the Refa’im Valley.
⁶ Yet gleanings will be left,
as when beating an olive tree —
two or three olives at the very top,
four or five on its fruitful branches,”

says Adonai, the God of Isra’el.

⁷ On that day, a person will heed his Maker
and turn his eyes toward the Holy One of Isra’el.
⁸ He will pay no heed to the altars
made with his own hands,
he will not turn toward what his fingers made,
the sacred poles and standing-stones for sun-worship.
⁹ When that day comes, his strong cities,
which others abandoned when Isra’el advanced,
will be like abandoned woods and forests;
they will be laid waste.
¹⁰ For you have forgotten the God who saved you,
failed to remember the Rock of your strength;
so you plant pagan-style gardens
and set out vine-cuttings for a foreign god.
¹¹ Though you make them grow on the day you plant them,
and in the morning your seedlings flower;
the crop will vanish the day disease comes,
a day of incurable pain.

¹² Oh, the terror-stricken uproar of many peoples,
roaring like the roar of the seas,
and the rushing about of nations,
rushing and surging like wild, wild waters!
¹³ Yes, the nations will roar like the mighty ocean,
but he will rebuke them, and far will they flee,
driven like chaff by a mountain wind,
like whirling dust in advance of the storm.
¹⁴ As evening falls, you can see terror;
before sunrise, they have ceased to be.
This is the lot of those who plunder us,
the fate of those who prey on us.

18 Woe to the land of whirring wings
beyond the rivers of Ethiopia;
² they send ambassadors by sea,
across the water in papyrus-reed boats!
Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and bronzed,
to a people feared far and near,
to a strong and conquering nation
whose land is divided by rivers!

³ All you inhabitants of the world,
you who live on the earth:
when a banner is hoisted on the mountains, look!
When the shofar is blown, listen!
⁴ For Adonai has said this to me:
“I will look on from my place and do nothing,
like heat shimmering in the sun,
like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
⁵ For before the harvest, when the flowering is over,
and the bud becomes a ripening grape,
he will cut off the branches with pruning-knives,
lop off the twigs and take them away.
⁶ They will all be left to the vultures in the mountains
and to the wild animals in the fields;
the vultures will feed on them in summer,
and the wild animals of the fields in winter.
⁷ At that time tribute will be brought
to Adonai-Tzva’ot
from a nation tall and bronzed,
from a people feared far and near,
from a strong and conquering nation
whose land is divided by rivers,
to the place where the name of Adonai-Tzva’ot
lives, Mount Tziyon.

19 This is a prophecy about Egypt:

Look! Adonai is riding a swift cloud,
on his way to Egypt.
Before him Egypt’s idols tremble,
Egypt’s courage melts within them.

² “I will incite Egypt against Egypt,
brother will fight against brother,
friend against friend, city against city,
kingdom against kingdom.
³ The courage of Egypt will ebb away within it,
I will reduce its counsel to confusion.
They will consult idols and mediums,
ghosts and spirits.
⁴ I will hand over the Egyptians to a cruel master.
A harsh king will rule them,”

says the Lord, Adonai-Tzva’ot.

⁵ The water will ebb from the sea,
the river will be drained dry.
⁶ The rivers will become foul,
the canals of Egypt’s Nile will dwindle and dry up,
the reeds and rushes will wither.
⁷ The river-plants on the banks of the Nile
and everything sown near the Nile
will dry up, blow away and be no more.
⁸ Fishermen too will lament,
all who cast hooks in the Nile will mourn,
those who spread nets on the water lose heart.
⁹ The linen-workers will be in despair,
along with the weavers of white cotton;
¹⁰ the spinners will be crushed,
the hired workers dejected.

¹¹ The princes of Tzo‘an are utter fools,
Pharaoh’s wisest counselors give stupid advice.
How can you say to Pharaoh,
“I’m a sage, descended from kings of old.”
¹² Where are they, then, those sages of yours?
Let them tell you, so all can know
what Adonai-Tzva’ot has planned against Egypt!
¹³ The princes of Tzo‘an have been fooled,
the princes of Nof have been duped,
Egypt’s clan chiefs have led her astray.
¹⁴ Adonai has mixed up their minds
with a spirit that distorts judgment,
so they make Egypt stagger in whatever she does,
like a drunk staggering in his vomit.
¹⁵ Nobody in Egypt
will find work to do —
neither head nor tail,
neither [tall] palm frond nor [lowly] reed.

²¹ Adonai will make himself known to Egypt;
on that day, the Egyptians will know Adonai.
They will worship him with sacrifices and offerings,
they will make vows to Adonai and keep them.
²² Yet Adonai will strike Egypt, both striking and healing,
so they will return to Adonai.
He will listen to their prayers,
and he will heal them.

²³ On that day there will be a highway
from Egypt to Ashur.
Ashur will come to Egypt and Egypt to Ashur,
and Egypt will worship with Ashur.
²⁴ On that day Isra’el will be a third partner
with Egypt and Ashur, a blessing here on earth;
²⁵ for Adonai-Tzva’ot has blessed him:
“Blessed be Egypt my people,
Ashur the work of my hands
and Isra’el my heritage.”