1 ARST Isaiah received this message from Yahweh about Damascus, the capital of Aram:“Listen carefully! Damascus will no longer be a city; it will be only a heap of ruins! BSB BSB: This is the burden against Damascus: “Behold, Damascus is no longer a city; it has become a heap of ruins.
2 ARST The towns near the city of Aroer will be abandoned. Flocks of sheep will eat grass in the streets and lie down there, and there will be no one to chase them away. BSB BSB: The cities of Aroer are forsaken; they will be left to the flocks, which will lie down with no one to fear.
3 ARST The cities in Israel will not have walls around them to protect them. The power of the kingdom of Damascus will be ended, and the few people who will remain in Aram will be disgraced like the people in Israel were disgraced.” That is what Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, says. BSB BSB: The fortress will disappear from Ephraim, and the sovereignty from Damascus. The remnant of Aram will be like the splendor of the Israelites,” declares the LORD of Hosts.
4 ARST “At that time, Israel will become insignificant. It will be like a fat person who has become very thin. BSB BSB: “In that day the splendor of Jacob will fade, and the fat of his body will waste away,
5 ARST The entire land will be like a field where the harvesters have cut all the grain; there will be nothing left, like the fields in the Valley of Rephaim after all the crops have been harvested. BSB BSB: as the reaper gathers the standing grain and harvests the ears with his arm, as one gleans heads of grain in the Valley of Rephaim.
6 ARST Only a few of the Israelite people will remain, like the few olives that remain on the top of a tree after the workers have shaken all the other olives to the ground. There will be only two or three olives in the top branches, or four or five olives on the other branches.” That is what Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, says. BSB BSB: Yet gleanings will remain, like an olive tree that has been beaten—two or three berries atop the tree, four or five on its fruitful branches,” declares the LORD, the God of Israel.
7 ARST Then at that time, you people of Israel will trust in God, your creator, the Holy One of Israel. BSB BSB: In that day men will look to their Maker and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.
8 ARST You will no longer seek to get help from your idols or worship the idols that you have made with your own hands. You will never again bow down in front of the poles where you worshiped the goddess Asherah. You will never again worship at the high places that you have built to burn incense to idols. BSB BSB: They will not look to the altars they have fashioned with their hands or to the Asherahs and incense altars they have made with their fingers.
9 ARST The largest cities in Israel will be abandoned, like the land that the Hiv and Amor people groups abandoned when the Israelites attacked them long ago. No people will live there. BSB BSB: In that day their strong cities will be like forsaken thickets and summits, abandoned to the Israelites and to utter desolation.
10 ARST That will happen because you have stopped worshiping God, who is like a huge rock on top of which you can be safe. You have forgotten that he is the one who can hide you. So now you plant very nice grapevines and even unusual ones that come from other countries. BSB BSB: For you have forgotten the God of your salvation and failed to remember the Rock of your refuge. Therefore, though you cultivate delightful plots and set out cuttings from exotic vines—
11 ARST But even if they sprout leaves on the day you plant them, and even if they produce blossoms on that same morning, at harvest time, there will not be any grapes for you to pick. All that you will get is much of agony and suffering. BSB BSB: though on the day you plant you make them grow, and on that morning you help your seed sprout—yet the harvest will vanish on the day of disease and incurable pain.
12 ARST Listen! The armies of many nations will roar like the sea roars. It will sound like noise of crashing waves. BSB BSB: Alas, the tumult of many peoples; they rage like the roaring seas and clamoring nations; they rumble like the crashing of mighty waters.
13 ARST But even though their loud roaring will be like the sound of crashing waves, when Yahweh rebukes them, they will run far away. They will flee like chaff on the hills scatters when the wind blows, like tumbleweeds scatter when a windstorm blows. BSB BSB: The nations rage like the rush of many waters. He rebukes them, and they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweeds before a gale.
14 ARST And even though you people of Israel will be terrified, in the morning your enemies will all be gone. That is what will happen to those who invade our land and steal our possessions. BSB BSB: In the evening, there is sudden terror! Before morning, they are no more! This is the portion of those who loot us and the lot of those who plunder us.
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.