A prophecie of the destruction of Damascus and Ephráim. 7 Calamity moveth to repentance.
1.The aburden of bDamascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, for it shalbe a ruinous heap.
2.The cities of cAroér shalbe forsaken: they shalbe for the flocks: for they shall lye there, and none shall make them afraid.
3.The munition also shall cease from dEphráim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Arám shalbe as the eglory of the children of Israél, saith the Lord of hostes.
4.And in that day the glory of fJaakób shalbe impoverished, and the fatness of his flesh shalbe made lean.
5.And it shalbe as when the harvest man gathereth gthe corn, and reapeth the ears with his arms, and he shalbe as he that gathereth the ears in the valley of hRepháim.
6.Yet a gathering of grapes shall ibe left in it, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries are in the top of the upmost boughs, and four or five in the high branches of the fruit thereof, saith the Lord God of Israél.
7.At that day shall a man look to his kmaker, and his eyes shall look to the holie one of Israél.
8.And he shall not look to the altars, the works of his own hands, neither shall he look to those things, which his own fingers have made, as groves and images.
9.In that day shall the cities of their strength be as the forsaking of boughs and branches, which lthey did forsake, because of the children of Israél, and there shalbe desolation.
10.Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not remembered the God of thy strength, therefore shalt thou set pleasant plants, and shalt grass strange mvine branches:
11.In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, & in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to florish: but the harvest shall be gone in the day nof possession, and there shalbe desperate sorrow.
12.oAh, the multitude of many people, they shall make a sound like the noise of the sea: for the noise of the people shall make a sound like the noise of mighty waters.
13.The people shall make a sound like the noise of many waters: but God shall prebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shalbe chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and as a rolling thing before the whirl wind.
14.And lo, in the evening there is qtrouble: but afore the morning it is gone. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us.
It seems that the Prophet would comfort the Church in declaring the destruction of these two Kings, of Syria and Israél, when as they had conspired the overthrow of Judáh.
As the abundance of corn does not fear the harvest men that should cut it down no more shall the multitude of Israél make the enemies to shrink, whom God shall appoint to destroy them.
As the Canaanites left their cities, when God did place the Israelites there, so the cities of Israel shall no more be able to defend their inhabit- ants, then bushes, when God shall send the enemy to plague them.
The Prophet laments, considering the horrible plague that was prepared against Israel by the Assyrians, which were infinite in number, and gathered of many nations.