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17. Oracle Against Damacus

¹ A prophecy against Damascus:

   “See, Damascus will no longer be a city
   but will become a heap of ruins.
² The cities of Aroer will be deserted
   and left to flocks, which will lie down,
   with no one to make them afraid.
³ The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim,
   and royal power from Damascus;
the remnant of Aram will be
   like the glory of the Israelites,” declares the LORD Almighty.

    ⁴ “In that day the glory of Jacob will fade;
   the fat of his body will waste away.
⁵ It will be as when reapers harvest the standing grain,
   gathering the grain in their arms—
as when someone gleans heads of grain
   in the Valley of Rephaim.
⁶ Yet some gleanings will remain,
   as when an olive tree is beaten,
leaving two or three olives on the topmost branches,
   four or five on the fruitful boughs,” declares the LORD, the God of Israel.

    ⁷ In that day people will look to their Maker
   and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.
⁸ They will not look to the altars,
   the work of their hands,
and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles That is, wooden symbols of the goddess Asherah
   and the incense altars their fingers have made.

⁹ In that day their strong cities, which they left because of the Israelites, will be like places abandoned to thickets and undergrowth. And all will be desolation.

    ¹⁰ You have forgotten God your Savior;
   you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress.
Therefore, though you set out the finest plants
   and plant imported vines,
¹¹ though on the day you set them out, you make them grow,
   and on the morning when you plant them, you bring them to bud,
yet the harvest will be as nothing
   in the day of disease and incurable pain.

    ¹² Woe to the many nations that rage—
   they rage like the raging sea!
Woe to the peoples who roar—
   they roar like the roaring of great waters!
¹³ Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters,
   when he rebukes them they flee far away,
driven before the wind like chaff on the hills,
   like tumbleweed before a gale.
¹⁴ In the evening, sudden terror!
   Before the morning, they are gone!
This is the portion of those who loot us,
   the lot of those who plunder us.

14. And, behold, at evening tide trouble. The meaning is, “As when a storm has been raised in the evening, and soon afterwards allayed, no trace of it is found in the morning, so will cheerful prosperity suddenly arise, contrary to expectation.” The Prophet intended to state two things — first, that the attack of the enemy will be sudden; and secondly, that the ravages which they shall commit will not be of long duration. As the Assyrians rose suddenly against the Israelites, so their fall was sudden.

From this passage all the godly ought to draw wonderful consolation, whenever they see that everything is in disorder, and when dreadful changes are at hand; for what is it but a sudden storm which the Lord will allay? Tyrants rush upon us like storms and whirlwinds, but the Lord will easily dispel their rage. Let us therefore patiently wait for his assistance; for though he permit us to be tossed about, yet through the midst of the tempests he will at length conduct us “to the haven.” (Psalm 107:30.) And if the Prophet comforted a small remnant, who appeared to be almost none at all, this promise undoubtedly belongs to us also. True, we are almost none, and a wretched church is concealed in a few corners; but if we look at the condition of the kingdom of Israel, how few were the servants of God in it! And these hardly ventured to mutter, such was the universal hatred of religion and godliness. Although therefore the Lord destroy the multitude of the wicked, yet to the small number of the godly, who may be said to be tossed about in the same ship with them, he will hold out a plank to rescue them from shipwreck, and will guide them safely and comfortably into the harbour.

This is the portion. He addresses the believers who were concealed in the kingdom of Israel, and joins them with the Church, although, as is frequently the case with the children of God, the members were scattered in every direction. We see here what will be the end of the wicked who have persecuted us. Though we are exposed to their rage, so that they tear and plunder and trample upon us, and inflict on us every kind of insult, yet they will be like storms which are subdued by their own violence and quickly disappear. We ought to expect that this will be the lot of all the tyrants who at the present day wretchedly harass the Church, and treat cruelly the children of God. Let this consolation be engraved on our minds, that we may know that the same thing will happen to them.