The Complete Jewish Bible CJB
The Bible in Basic English BBE
1 This is a prophecy about Dammesek: "Dammesek will soon stop being a city; it will become a heap of ruins.
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The word about Damascus. See, they have made Damascus a town no longer; it has become a waste place.
2 The cities of 'Aro'er will be abandoned, given over to flocks lying down undisturbed.
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Her towns are unpeopled for ever; there the flocks take their rest in peace, without fear.
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.
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The strong tower has gone from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus: the rest of Aram will come to destruction, and be made like the glory of the children of Israel, says the Lord of armies.
4 "When that day comes, Ya'akov's glory will wane, and his full body grow thin,
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And it will be in that day that the glory of Jacob will be made small, and the strength of his body will become feeble.
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.
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And it will be like a man cutting the growth of his grain, pulling together the heads of the grain with his arm; even as when they get in the grain in the valley of Rephaim.
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.
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But it will be like a man shaking an olive-tree, something will still be there, two or three berries on the top of the highest branch, four or five on the outside branches of a fertile tree, says the Lord, the God of Israel.
7 On that day, a person will heed his Maker and turn his eyes toward the Holy One of Isra'el.
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In that day a man's heart will be turned to his Maker, and his eyes to the Holy One of Israel.
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.
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He will not be looking to the altars, the work of his hands, or to the wood pillars or to the sun-images which his fingers have made.
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.
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In that day your towns will be like the waste places of the Hivites and the Amorites which the children of Israel took for a heritage, and they will come to destruction.
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.
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For you have not given honour to the God of your salvation, and have not kept in mind the Rock of your strength; for this cause you made a garden of Adonis, and put in it the vine-cuttings of a strange 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.
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In the day of your planting you were watching its growth, and in the morning your seed was flowering: but its fruit is wasted away in the day of grief and bitter sorrow.
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!
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Ah! the voice of peoples, like the loud sounding of the seas, and the thundering of great nations rushing on like the bursting out of 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.
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But he will put a stop to them, and make them go in flight far away, driving them like the waste of the grain on the tops of the mountains before the wind, and like the circling dust before 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.
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In the evening there is fear, and in the morning they are gone. This is the fate of those who take our goods, and the reward of those who violently take our property for themselves.
Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.