New Century Version NCV
New International Version NIV
1 This is a message about Damascus: "The city of Damascus will be destroyed; only ruins will remain.
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A prophecy against Damascus: “See, Damascus will no longer be a city but will become a heap of ruins.
2 People will leave the cities of Aroer. Flocks will wander freely in those empty towns, and there will be no one to bother them.
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The cities of Aroer will be deserted and left to flocks, which will lie down, with no one to make them afraid.
3 The strong, walled cities of Israel will be destroyed. The government in Damascus will end. like the glory of Israel," says the Lord All-Powerful.
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The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim, and royal power from Damascus; the remnant of Aram will be like the glory of the Israelites,” declares the LORD Almighty.
4 "At that time Israel's wealth will all be gone. Israel will be like someone who has lost much weight from sickness.
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“In that day the glory of Jacob will fade; the fat of his body will waste away.
5 That time will be like the grain harvest in the Valley of Rephaim. The workers cut the wheat. Then they cut the heads of grain from the plants and collect the grain.
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It will be as when reapers harvest the standing grain, gathering the grain in their arms— as when someone gleans heads of grain in the Valley of Rephaim.
6 That time will also be like the olive harvest, when a few olives are left. Two or three olives are left in the top branches. Four or five olives are left on full branches," says the Lord, the God of Israel.
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Yet some gleanings will remain, as when an olive tree is beaten, leaving two or three olives on the topmost branches, four or five on the fruitful boughs,” declares the LORD, the God of Israel.
7 At that time people will look to God, their Maker; their eyes will see the Holy One of Israel.
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In that day people will look to their Maker and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.
8 They will not trust the altars they have made, nor will they trust what their hands have made, not even the Asherah idols and altars.
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They will not look to the altars, the work of their hands, and they will have no regard for the Asherah polesand the incense altars their fingers have made.
9 In that day all their strong cities will be empty. They will be like the cities the Hivites and the Amorites left when the Israelites came to take the land. Everything will be ruined.
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In that day their strong cities, which they left because of the Israelites, will be like places abandoned to thickets and undergrowth. And all will be desolation.
10 You have forgotten the God who saves you; you have not remembered that God is your place of safety. You plant the finest grapevines and grapevines from faraway places.
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You have forgotten God your Savior; you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress. Therefore, though you set out the finest plants and plant imported vines,
11 You plant your grapevines one day and try to make them grow, and the next day you make them blossom. But at harvest time everything will be dead; a sickness will kill all the plants.
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though on the day you set them out, you make them grow, and on the morning when you plant them, you bring them to bud, yet the harvest will be as nothing in the day of disease and incurable pain.
12 Listen to the many people! Their crying is like the noise from the sea. Listen to the nations! Their crying is like the crashing of great waves.
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Woe to the many nations that rage— they rage like the raging sea! Woe to the peoples who roar— they roar like the roaring of great waters!
13 The people roar like the waves, but when God speaks harshly to them, they will run away. They will be like chaff on the hills being blown by the wind, or like tumbleweeds blown away by a storm.
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Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters, when he rebukes them they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweed before a gale.
14 At night the people will be very frightened. Before morning, no one will be left. So our enemies will come to our land, but they will become nothing.
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In the evening, sudden terror! Before the morning, they are gone! This is the portion of those who loot us, the lot of those who plunder us.
Scripture taken from the New Century Version. Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide.