Old/New Testament

“Damascus will not be a city anymore.
    Instead, all its buildings will be knocked down.
² The cities of Aroer will be deserted.
    They will be left to the flocks that lie down there.
    No one will make them afraid.
³ Ephraim’s people will no longer have cities with high walls around them.
    Royal power will disappear from Damascus.
Those who are left alive in Aram
    will be like the glory of the people of Israel,”
    announces the Lord who rules over all.

⁴ “In days to come, the glory of Jacob’s people will fade.
    Their strength will get weaker and weaker.
⁵ It will be as when workers cut and gather grain
    in the Valley of Rephaim.
They gather up stalks in their arms.
    Only a few heads of grain are left.
⁶ In the same way, only a few people will be left alive.
    It will be as when workers knock olives off the trees.
Only two or three olives are left on the highest branches.
    Four or five at most are left on the limbs that produce fruit,”
    announces the Lord, the God of Israel.

⁷ In days to come, people will look to their Maker for help.
    They will turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.
⁸ They won’t trust in the altars
    they made with their own hands.
They won’t pay any attention to the poles they used
    to worship the female god named Asherah.
And they won’t depend on the incense altars
    they made with their own fingers.

¹⁰ Israel, you have forgotten God, who saves you.
    You have not remembered the Rock, who keeps you safe.
You might set out the finest plants.
    You might plant vines from other lands.
¹¹ The plants might start to grow on the day you set them out.
    The vines might begin to bud on the morning you plant them.
But even if they do, there won’t be any harvest.
    Instead, there will be sickness and pain that won’t go away.

¹² How terrible it will be for the nations that attack us!
    The noise of their armies is like the sound of the ocean.
How terrible it will be for the nations who fight against us!
    They are as loud as huge waves crashing on the shore.
¹³ They sound like the roar of rushing waters.
    But when the Lord speaks out against them, they run far away.
The wind blows them away like straw on the hills.
    A strong wind drives them along like tumbleweeds.
¹⁴ In the evening, the nations terrify us.
    But before morning comes, they are gone.
That’s what happens to those who steal our goods.
    That’s what happens to those who take what belongs to us.

Messengers, hurry back home!
    Go back to your people,
    who are tall and have smooth skin.
Everyone is afraid of them.
    They are warriors whose language is different from ours.
    Their land is divided up by rivers.

³ Pay attention, all you people of the world!
    Listen, all you who live on earth!
Banners will be lifted up on the mountains.
    And you will see them.
Trumpets will be blown.
    And you will hear them.
⁴ The Lord says to me,
    “I will look down from heaven, where I live.
I will be as quiet as summer heat in the sunshine.
    I will be as quiet as a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
⁵ A farmer cuts off new growth with pruning knives.
    He cuts down spreading branches and takes them away.
He does it before the grapes are harvested.
    That’s when the blooms are gone and the grapes are ripe.
In the same way, the Lord will cut off the nations
    that are gathered against his people.
⁶ Their dead bodies will be left for the birds of the mountains to eat.
    They will be left for the wild animals.
The birds will eat the dead bodies all summer long.
    The wild animals will eat them all through the winter.

The people who are tall and have smooth skin will bring them.
    Everyone is afraid of those people.
They are warriors whose language is different from ours.
    Their land is divided up by rivers.

The Lord is coming to Egypt.
    He’s riding on a cloud that moves very fast.
The statues of the gods in Egypt tremble with fear because of him.
    The hearts of the people there melt with fear.

² The Lord says, “I will stir up one Egyptian against another.
    Relatives will fight against relatives.
    Neighbors will fight against one another.
Cities will fight against cities.
    Kingdoms will fight against one another.
³ The people of Egypt will lose hope.
    I will keep them from doing what they plan to do.
They will ask their gods for advice.
    They will turn to the spirits of dead people for help.
They will go to people who get messages from those who have died.
    They will ask for advice from people who talk to the spirits of the dead.
⁴ I will hand the Egyptians over
    to a mean and unkind master.
A powerful king will rule over them,” announces the Lord.
    He is the Lord who rules over all.

⁵ The waters of the Nile River will dry up.
    The bottom of it will be cracked and dry.
⁶ Its canals will stink.
    And the streams of Egypt will get smaller and smaller
    until they dry up.
The tall grass that grows along the river will dry up.
⁷     So will the plants along the banks of the Nile.
Even the planted fields along the Nile will dry up.
    Everything that grows there will blow away and disappear.
⁸ The fishermen will moan.
    All those who drop hooks into the Nile will weep.
Those who throw their nets on the water
    will become very sad.
⁹ Those who make clothes out of flax will lose hope.
    So will those who weave fine linen.
¹⁰ Those who work with cloth will be unhappy.
    And all those who work for money will be sick at heart.

¹¹ The officials of the city of Zoan are very foolish.
    Pharaoh’s wise men give advice that doesn’t make any sense.
How can they dare to say to Pharaoh,
    “We’re among the wise men”?
How can they say to him,
    “We’re like the advisers to the kings of long ago”?

¹² Pharaoh, where are your wise men now?
    Let them tell you
what the Lord who rules over all
    has planned against Egypt.
¹³ The officials of Zoan have become foolish.
    The leaders of Memphis have been lied to.
The most important leaders in Egypt
    have led its people astray.
¹⁴ The Lord has given them
    a spirit that makes them feel dizzy.
They make Egypt unsteady in everything it does.
    Egypt is like a person who drinks too much.
    He throws up and then walks around in the mess he’s made.
¹⁵ No one in Egypt can do anything to help them.
    Its elders and important leaders can’t help them.
Its prophets and priests can’t do anything.
    Those who rule over others can’t help.
    And those who bow down to them can’t help either.