Isaiah 17

Damascus: A Pile of Dust and Rubble 1-3A Message concerning Damascus: "Watch this: Damascus undone as a city,
   a pile of dust and rubble!
Her towns emptied of people.
   The sheep and goats will move in
And take over the towns
   as if they owned them—which they will!
Not a sign of a fort is left in Ephraim,
   not a trace of government left in Damascus.
What's left of Aram?
   The same as what's left of Israel—not much."
         Decree of God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

The Day Is Coming 4-6"The Day is coming when Jacob's robust splendor goes pale
   and his well-fed body turns skinny.
The country will be left empty, picked clean
   as a field harvested by field hands.
She'll be like a few stalks of barley left standing
   in the lush Valley of Rephaim after harvest,
Or like the couple of ripe olives overlooked
   in the top of the olive tree,
Or the four or five apples
   that the pickers couldn't reach in the orchard."
         Decree of the God of Israel.

7-8Yes, the Day is coming when people will notice The One Who Made Them, take a long hard look at The Holy of Israel. They'll lose interest in all the stuff they've made—altars and monuments and rituals, their homemade, handmade religion—however impressive it is.

9And yes, the Day is coming when their fortress cities will be abandoned —the very same cities that the Hivites and Amorites abandoned when Israel invaded! And the country will be empty, desolate.

You Have Forgotten God 10-11And why? Because you have forgotten God-Your-Salvation,
   not remembered your Rock-of-Refuge.
And so, even though you are very religious,
   planting all sorts of bushes and herbs and trees
   to honor and influence your fertility gods,
And even though you make them grow so well,
   bursting with buds and sprouts and blossoms,
Nothing will come of them. Instead of a harvest
   you'll get nothing but grief and pain, pain, pain.

12-13Oh my! Thunder! A thundering herd of people!
   Thunder like the crashing of ocean waves!
Nations roaring, roaring,
   like the roar of a massive waterfall,
Roaring like a deafening Niagara!
   But God will silence them with a word,
And then he'll blow them away like dead leaves off a tree,
   like down from a thistle.

14At bedtime, terror fills the air.
   By morning it's gone—not a sign of it anywhere!
This is what happens to those who would ruin us,
   this is the fate of those out to get us.