Old/New Testament

Before long Damascus will cease to be a city,
    and she will be reduced to a heap of ruins.
² Her towns will be abandoned forever;
    they will serve as pastures for flocks
    who will lie there undisturbed.
³ No longer will Ephraim have a fortress
    or Damascus a kingdom.
The glory of the remnant of Aram
    will be like that of the children of Israel,
    says the Lord of hosts.
⁴ On that day
    the glory of Jacob will grow dim
    and the flesh of his body will grow lean,
⁵ as when the reaper gathers the standing grain,
    harvesting the ears with his arms,
or as when one gleans the ears of grain
    in the Valley of Rephaim.^[a]
6 Nothing will remain except the scattered remnant,
    as when an olive tree is beaten:
two or three olives on the highest bough,
    four or five on each of its fruitful branches,
    says the Lord, the God of Israel.
⁷ On that day,
    men will look to their Creator,
and they will turn their eyes
    to the Holy One of Israel.
⁸ They will not gaze upon the altars, their handiwork,
    nor shall they regard what their fingers have made
    the sacred poles and the altars of incense.
⁹ On that day their strong cities will be
    like those abandoned by the Hivites and the Amorites
which they deserted because of the Israelites’ advance;
    their cities will be left desolate.
¹⁰ You have forgotten the God of your salvation
    and have not kept in mind the Rock, your refuge.
Therefore, you plant your pagan gardens
    and sow exotic seeds for a foreign god.
¹¹ Even though you cause them to sprout
    on the day that you plant them,
and make them sprout blossoms
    on the following morning,
yet the harvest will disappear
    when struck by a wasting disease and incurable blight.
¹² Listen to the thunder of vast hordes,
    its volume like that of the roaring sea.
Listen to the roar of nations,
    its volume like that of mighty waves.
¹³ But when God rebukes them
    they flee far away,
driven like chaff on the mountains before the wind
    and like whirling dust before the storm.
¹⁴ In the evening terror has spread,
    but by the morning it has disappeared.
    Such is the fate of those who plunder us,
    the lot of those who despoil us.

¹ Woe to the land of buzzing locusts
    beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,^[b]
2 sending ambassadors by sea
    in papyrus vessels across the waters.
Go forth, you swift messengers,
    to a nation tall and bronzed,
to a people dreaded near and far,
    a mighty and conquering nation
    whose land is crossed by many rivers.
³ All you who inhabit the world,
    you who dwell on the earth,
you will see when the signal is raised on the mountains
    and hear when the trumpet is sounded.
⁴ For this is what the Lord said to me:
    I will quietly look down from my dwelling
like the shimmering heat of the summer sun,
    like a cloud of dew during the harvest heat.
⁵ For prior to the harvest, when the flowering is over
    and the blooms become ripening grapes
the shoots will be cut off with pruning hooks,
    and the branches will be cut away and discarded.
⁶ They will all be left
    to the birds of prey on the mountains
    and to the wild beasts of the earth.
In summer the birds of prey will dwell there,
    while the wild animals will winter on them.

Behold, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud,
    and he is coming to Egypt.
The idols of Egypt will tremble before him,
    and the hearts of the Egyptians will melt within them.
² I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians,
    and they will fight against one another,
brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor,
    city against city, kingdom against kingdom.
³ The spirit of the Egyptians will ebb away within them,
    and I will throw their deliberations into disarray.
They will then resort to consulting idols
    and the spirits of the dead,
    as well as ghosts and sorcerers.
⁴ I will deliver the Egyptians
    into the power of a harsh master,
a cruel king who will rule over them—
    says the Lord, the Lord of hosts.
⁵ The waters of the Nile will ebb away,
    and the river will become parched and dry.
⁶ Its canals will emit a terrible stench,
    and its branches will diminish and dry up;
    reeds and rushes will wither away.
⁷ All the plants on the banks of the Nile
    and all the vegetation of the Nile
    will dry up, blow away, and vanish.
⁸ The fishermen will groan and mourn,
    all those who cast their hooks into the Nile,
while those who spread their nets on the water
    will lose heart.
⁹ The linen-workers will despair,
    as will the combers and weavers.
¹⁰ The spinners will be dismayed,
    and all who work for wages will be crushed.
¹¹ The princes of Zoan^[c] are utter fools;
    the wisest of Pharaoh’s counselors offer stupid advice.
How can you dare to say to Pharaoh,
    “I am descended from sages;
    I spring from ancient kings”?
¹² Where then are your sages?
    Let them tell you,
so that all may know
    what the Lord of hosts has planned against Egypt.
¹³ The princes of Zoan have become fools.
    and the princes of Memphis have been deceived.
The chiefs of her tribes
    have led Egypt astray.
¹⁴ The Lord has infused them
    with a spirit of confusion;
they have made Egypt stagger in everything she does,
    just as a drunkard staggers around in his vomit.
¹⁵ Neither head nor tail,
    neither palm branch nor reed,
    will be able to do anything for Egypt.

³¹ For this reason
    a man shall leave his father and mother
    and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh.