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Isaiah 17-18
Contemporary English Version
Isaiah 17-18
Contemporary English Version
Damascus Will Be Punished
17 (A) This is a message about Damascus:
Damascus is doomed!
It will end up in ruins.
2 The villages around Aroer[a]
will be deserted,
with only sheep living there
and no one to bother them.
3 Israel[b] will lose its fortresses.
The kingdom of Damascus
will be destroyed;
its survivors will suffer
the same fate as Israel.
The Lord All-Powerful
has promised this.
Sin and Suffering
4 When that time comes,
the glorious nation of Israel
will be brought down;
its prosperous people
will be skin and bones.
5 Israel will be like wheat fields
in Rephaim Valley
picked clean of grain.
6 It will be like an olive tree
beaten with a stick,
leaving two or three olives
or maybe four or five
on the highest
or most fruitful branches.
The Lord God of Israel
has promised this.
7 At that time the people will turn and trust their Creator, the holy God of Israel. 8 They have built altars and places for burning incense to their goddess Asherah, and they have set up sacred poles[c] for her. But they will stop worshiping at these places.
9 Israel captured powerful cities and chased out the people who lived there. But these cities will lie in ruins, covered over with weeds and underbrush.[d]
10 Israel, you have forgotten
the God who saves you,
the one who is the mighty rock[e]
where you find protection.
You plant the finest flowers
to honor a foreign god.
11 The plants may sprout
and blossom
that very same morning,
but it will do you no good,
because you will suffer
endless agony.
God Defends His People
12 The nations are a noisy,
thunderous sea.
13 But even if they roar
like a fearsome flood,
God will give the command
to turn them back.
They will be like dust,
or like a tumbleweed
blowing across the hills
in a windstorm.
14 In the evening
their attack is fierce,
but by morning
they are destroyed.
This is what happens to those
who raid and rob us.
Ethiopia Will Be Punished
18 (B) Downstream from Ethiopia[f]
lies the country of Egypt,
swarming with insects.[g]
2 Egypt sends messengers
up the Nile River
on ships made of reeds.[h]
Send them fast to Ethiopia,
whose people are tall
and have smooth skin.
Their land is divided by rivers;
they are strong and brutal,
feared all over the world.[i]
3 Everyone on this earth,
listen with care!
A signal will be given
on the mountains,
and you will hear a trumpet.
4 The Lord said to me,
“I will calmly look down
from my home above—
as calmly as the sun at noon
or clouds in the heat
of harvest season.”
5 Before the blossoms
can turn into grapes,
God will cut off the sprouts
and hack off the branches.
6 Ethiopians will be food
for mountain vultures
during the summer
and for wild animals
during the winter.
7 Those Ethiopians are tall and their skin is smooth. They are feared all over the world, because they are strong and brutal. But at that time they will come from their land divided by rivers, and they will bring gifts to the Lord All-Powerful, who is worshiped on Mount Zion.
Footnotes
- 17.2 Aroer: Either a city near Damascus with the same name as the Moabite city or the Moabite city itself, here used as an example of what will happen to Damascus.
- 17.3 Israel: The Hebrew text has “Ephraim,” another name for the northern kingdom.
- 17.8 sacred poles: Or “trees,” used as symbols of Asherah, the goddess of fertility.
- 17.9 covered … underbrush: Hebrew; one ancient translation “like the cities of the Hivites and the Amorites.”
- 17.10 mighty rock: The Hebrew text has “rock,” which is sometimes used in poetry to compare the Lord to a mountain where his people can run for protection from their enemies.
- 18.1 Ethiopia: See the note at 11.11.
- 18.1 insects: Or “sailing ships.”
- 18.2 reeds: Ancient Egypt was famous for the papyrus reeds that grew in the Nile Delta.
- 18.2 world: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 2.
Isaiah 17-18
New International Version
Isaiah 17-18
New International Version
A Prophecy Against Damascus
17 A prophecy(A) against Damascus:(B)
“See, Damascus will no longer be a city
but will become a heap of ruins.(C)
2 The cities of Aroer(D) will be deserted
and left to flocks,(E) which will lie down,(F)
with no one to make them afraid.(G)
3 The fortified(H) city will disappear from Ephraim,
and royal power from Damascus;
the remnant of Aram will be
like the glory(I) of the Israelites,”(J)
declares the Lord Almighty.
4 “In that day(K) the glory(L) of Jacob will fade;
the fat of his body will waste(M) away.
5 It will be as when reapers harvest the standing grain,
gathering(N) the grain in their arms—
as when someone gleans heads of grain(O)
in the Valley of Rephaim.(P)
6 Yet some gleanings will remain,(Q)
as when an olive tree is beaten,(R)
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(S) people will look(T) to their Maker(U)
and turn their eyes to the Holy One(V) of Israel.
8 They will not look to the altars,(W)
the work of their hands,(X)
and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles[a](Y)
and the incense altars their fingers(Z) 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.(AA) And all will be desolation.
10 You have forgotten(AB) God your Savior;(AC)
you have not remembered the Rock,(AD) your fortress.(AE)
Therefore, though you set out the finest plants
and plant imported vines,(AF)
11 though on the day you set them out, you make them grow,
and on the morning(AG) when you plant them, you bring them to bud,
yet the harvest(AH) will be as nothing(AI)
in the day of disease and incurable(AJ) pain.(AK)
12 Woe to the many nations that rage(AL)—
they rage like the raging sea!(AM)
Woe to the peoples who roar(AN)—
they roar like the roaring of great waters!(AO)
13 Although the peoples roar(AP) like the roar of surging waters,
when he rebukes(AQ) them they flee(AR) far away,
driven before the wind like chaff(AS) on the hills,
like tumbleweed before a gale.(AT)
14 In the evening, sudden(AU) terror!(AV)
Before the morning, they are gone!(AW)
This is the portion of those who loot us,
the lot of those who plunder us.
A Prophecy Against Cush
18 Woe(AX) to the land of whirring wings[b]
along the rivers of Cush,[c](AY)
2 which sends envoys(AZ) by sea
in papyrus(BA) boats over the water.
Go, swift messengers,
to a people tall and smooth-skinned,(BB)
to a people feared far and wide,
an aggressive(BC) nation of strange speech,
whose land is divided by rivers.(BD)
3 All you people of the world,(BE)
you who live on the earth,
when a banner(BF) is raised on the mountains,
you will see it,
and when a trumpet(BG) sounds,
you will hear it.
4 This is what the Lord says to me:
“I will remain quiet(BH) and will look on from my dwelling place,(BI)
like shimmering heat in the sunshine,(BJ)
like a cloud of dew(BK) in the heat of harvest.”
5 For, before the harvest, when the blossom is gone
and the flower becomes a ripening grape,
he will cut off(BL) the shoots with pruning knives,
and cut down and take away the spreading branches.(BM)
6 They will all be left to the mountain birds of prey(BN)
and to the wild animals;(BO)
the birds will feed on them all summer,
the wild animals all winter.
7 At that time gifts(BP) will be brought to the Lord Almighty
from a people tall and smooth-skinned,(BQ)
from a people feared(BR) far and wide,
an aggressive nation of strange speech,
whose land is divided by rivers(BS)—
the gifts will be brought to Mount Zion, the place of the Name of the Lord Almighty.(BT)
Footnotes
- Isaiah 17:8 That is, wooden symbols of the goddess Asherah
- Isaiah 18:1 Or of locusts
- Isaiah 18:1 That is, the upper Nile region
Contemporary English Version (CEV) 
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New International Version (NIV) 
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