Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city
    and will become a heap of ruins.
² The cities of ^(C)Aroer are deserted;
    they will be for flocks,
    which will lie down, and ^(D)none will make them afraid.
³ The fortress will disappear from ^(E)Ephraim,
    and the kingdom from ^(F)Damascus;
and the remnant of Syria will be
    like ^(G)the glory of the children of Israel,
declares the Lord of hosts.

⁴ And in that day ^(H)the glory of Jacob will be brought low,
    and ^(I)the fat of his flesh will grow lean.
⁵ And it shall be ^(J)as when the reaper gathers standing grain
    and his arm harvests the ears,
and as when one gleans the ears of grain
    in ^(K)the Valley of Rephaim.
^6 (L)Gleanings will be left in it,
    as when an olive tree is beaten—
two or three berries
    in the top of the highest bough,
four or five
    on the branches of a fruit tree,
declares the Lord God of Israel.

¹⁰ For ^(Q)you have forgotten the God of your salvation
    and have not remembered the ^(R)Rock of your refuge;
therefore, though you plant pleasant plants
    and sow the vine-branch of a stranger,
¹¹ though you make them grow^[a] on the day that you plant them,
    and make them blossom in the morning that you sow,
yet the harvest will flee away^[b]
    in a day of grief and incurable pain.

¹² Ah, ^(S)the thunder of many peoples;
    they thunder like the thundering of the sea!
Ah, the roar of nations;
    they roar like the roaring of mighty waters!
^13 (T)The nations roar like the roaring of many waters,
    ^(U)but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away,
chased ^(V)like chaff on the mountains before the wind
    and ^(W)whirling dust before the storm.
^14 (X)At evening time, behold, terror!
    Before morning, they are no more!
This is the portion of those who loot us,
    and the lot of those who plunder us.

³ All you inhabitants of the world,
    you who dwell on the earth,
when ^(AD)a signal is raised on the mountains, look!
    When a trumpet is blown, hear!
⁴ For thus the Lord said to me:
“I will quietly look ^(AE)from my dwelling
    like clear heat in sunshine,
    like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
^5 (AF)For before the harvest, when the blossom is over,
    and the flower becomes a ripening grape,
he cuts off the shoots with pruning hooks,
    and the spreading branches he lops off and clears away.
^6 (AG)They shall all of them be left
    to the birds of prey of the mountains
    and to the beasts of the earth.
And the birds of prey will summer on them,
    and all the beasts of the earth will winter on them.

from a people ^(AI)tall and smooth,
    from a people feared near and far,
a nation mighty and conquering,
    whose land the rivers divide,

Behold, the Lord ^(AN)is riding on a swift cloud
    and comes to Egypt;
and ^(AO)the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence,
    and the heart of the Egyptians will ^(AP)melt within them.
² And I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians,
    ^(AQ)and they will fight, each against another
    and each against his neighbor,
    city against city, kingdom against kingdom;
³ and the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out,
    and I will confound^[d] their ^(AR)counsel;
and they will inquire of the idols and the sorcerers,
    and ^(AS)the mediums and the necromancers;
⁴ and I will give over the Egyptians
    into the hand of ^(AT)a hard master,
and a fierce king will rule over them,
    declares the Lord God of hosts.

⁵ And the waters of the sea will be dried up,
    and the river will be dry and parched,
⁶ and its canals will become foul,
    and the branches of Egypt's Nile will diminish and dry up,
    reeds and rushes will rot away.
⁷ There will be bare places by the Nile,
    on the brink of the Nile,
and all that is sown by the Nile will be parched,
    will be driven away, and will be no more.
⁸ The ^(AU)fishermen will mourn and lament,
    all who cast a hook in the Nile;
and they will languish
    who spread nets on the water.
⁹ The workers in ^(AV)combed flax will be in despair,
    and the weavers of white cotton.
¹⁰ Those who are the ^(AW)pillars of the land will be crushed,
    and all who ^(AX)work for pay will be grieved.

¹¹ The princes of ^(AY)Zoan are utterly foolish;
    the wisest counselors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel.
How can you say to Pharaoh,
    “I am a son of the wise,
    a son of ancient kings”?
¹² Where then are your ^(AZ)wise men?
    Let them tell you
    that they might know what the Lord of hosts has purposed against Egypt.
¹³ The princes of ^(BA)Zoan have become fools,
    and the princes of ^(BB)Memphis are deluded;
those who are the ^(BC)cornerstones of her tribes
    have made Egypt stagger.
¹⁴ The Lord has mingled within her ^(BD)a spirit of confusion,
and they will make Egypt stagger in all its deeds,
    ^(BE)as a drunken man staggers in his vomit.
¹⁵ And there will be nothing for Egypt
    that ^(BF)head or tail, palm branch or reed, may do.