Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city

and will become a heap of ruins.

2  The cities of ^uAroer are deserted;

they will be for flocks,

which will lie down, and ^vnone will make them afraid.

3  The fortress will disappear from ^wEphraim,

and the kingdom from ^wDamascus;

and the remnant of Syria will be

like ^xthe glory of the children of Israel,

declares the Lord of hosts.

4  And in that day ^xthe glory of Jacob will be brought low,

and ^ythe fat of his flesh will grow lean.

5  And it shall be ^zas when the reaper gathers standing grain

and his arm harvests the ears,

and as when one gleans the ears of grain

in ^athe Valley of Rephaim.

6  ^bGleanings will be left in it,

as when an olive tree is beaten—

two or three berries

in the top of the highest bough,

four or five

on the branches of a fruit tree,

declares the Lord God of Israel.

10  For ^gyou have forgotten the God of your salvation

and have not remembered the ^hRock of your refuge;

therefore, though you plant pleasant plants

and sow the vine-branch of a stranger,

11  though you make them grow¹ on the day that you plant them,

and make them blossom in the morning that you sow,

yet the harvest will flee away²

in a day of grief and incurable pain.

12  Ah, ⁱthe thunder of many peoples;

they thunder like the thundering of the sea!

Ah, the roar of nations;

they roar like the roaring of mighty waters!

13  ^jThe nations roar like the roaring of many waters,

^kbut he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away,

chased ^llike chaff on the mountains before the wind

and ^mwhirling dust before the storm.

14  ⁿAt evening time, behold, terror!

Before morning, they are no more!

This is the portion of those who loot us,

and the lot of those who plunder us.

1  Ah, land of ^owhirring wings

that is beyond the rivers of ^pCush,³

2  which ^qsends ambassadors by the sea,

in vessels of papyrus on the waters!

Go, you swift messengers,

to a nation ^rtall and smooth,

to a people feared near and far,

a nation ^smighty and conquering,

whose land the rivers divide.

3  All you inhabitants of the world,

you who dwell on the earth,

when ^ta signal is raised on the mountains, look!

When a trumpet is blown, hear!

4  For thus the Lord said to me:

“I will quietly look ^ufrom my dwelling

like clear heat in sunshine,

like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”

5  ^vFor before the harvest, when the blossom is over,

and the flower becomes a ripening grape,

he cuts off the shoots with pruning hooks,

and the spreading branches he lops off and clears away.

6  ^vThey shall all of them be left

to the birds of prey of the mountains

and to the beasts of the earth.

And the birds of prey will summer on them,

and all the beasts of the earth will winter on them.

from a people ^xtall and smooth,

from a people feared near and far,

a nation mighty and conquering,

whose land the rivers divide,

Behold, the Lord ^cis riding on a swift cloud

and comes to Egypt;

and ^dthe idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence,

and the heart of the Egyptians will ^emelt within them.

2  And I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians,

^fand they will fight, each against another

and each against his neighbor,

city against city, kingdom against kingdom;

3  and the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out,

and I will confound⁴ their ^gcounsel;

and they will inquire of the idols and the sorcerers,

and ^hthe mediums and the necromancers;

4  and I will give over the Egyptians

into the hand of ⁱa hard master,

and a fierce king will rule over them,

declares the Lord God of hosts.

5  And the waters of the sea will be dried up,

and the river will be dry and parched,

6  and its canals will become foul,

and the branches of Egypt’s Nile will diminish and dry up,

reeds and rushes will rot away.

7  There will be bare places by the Nile,

on the brink of the Nile,

and all that is sown by the Nile will be parched,

will be driven away, and will be no more.

8  The ^jfishermen will mourn and lament,

all who cast a hook in the Nile;

and they will languish

who spread nets on the water.

9  The workers in ^kcombed flax will be in despair,

and the weavers of white cotton.

10  Those who are the ^lpillars of the land will be crushed,

and all who ^mwork for pay will be grieved.

11  The princes of ⁿZoan are utterly foolish;

the wisest counselors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel.

How can you say to Pharaoh,

“I am a son of the wise,

a son of ancient kings”?

12  Where then are your ^owise men?

Let them tell you

that they might know what the Lord of hosts has purposed against Egypt.

13  The princes of ⁿZoan have become fools,

and the princes of ^pMemphis are deluded;

those who are the ^qcornerstones of her tribes

have made Egypt stagger.

14  The Lord has mingled within her ^ra spirit of confusion,

and they will make Egypt stagger in all its deeds,

^sas a drunken man staggers in his vomit.

15  And there will be nothing for Egypt

that ^thead or tail, palm branch or reed, may do.

1  For God alone ^ymy soul ^zwaits in silence;

from him comes my salvation.

2  ^aHe alone is my rock and my salvation,

my ^bfortress; ^cI shall not be greatly shaken.

3  How long will all of you attack a man

to batter him,

like ^da leaning wall, a tottering fence?

4  They only plan to thrust him down from his ^ehigh position.

They take pleasure in falsehood.

^fThey bless with their mouths,

but inwardly they curse. Selah

5  For God alone, O ^ymy soul, wait in silence,

for my hope is from him.

6  ^aHe only is my rock and my salvation,

my fortress; I shall not be shaken.

7  On God rests my ^gsalvation and my glory;

my mighty rock, ^hmy refuge is God.

8  ⁱTrust in him at all times, O people;

^jpour out your heart before him;

God is ^ha refuge for us. Selah

9  ^kThose of low estate are but a breath;

those of high estate ^lare a delusion;

in the balances they go up;

^kthey are together lighter than a breath.

10  Put no trust in extortion;

^mset no vain hopes on robbery;

ⁿif riches increase, set not your heart on them.

11  ^oOnce God has spoken;

^otwice have I heard this:

that ^ppower belongs to God,

12  and that to you, O Lord, ^qbelongs steadfast love.

For you will ^rrender to a man

according to his work.

^f“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,

and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”