5:1 I 1 will sing to my love –
a song to my lover about his vineyard. 2
My love had a vineyard
on a fertile hill. 3
12:1 At that time 4 you will say:
“I praise you, O Lord,
for even though you were angry with me,
your anger subsided, and you consoled me.
12:2 Look, God is my deliverer! 5
I will trust in him 6 and not fear.
For the Lord gives me strength and protects me; 7
he has become my deliverer.” 8
12:3 Joyfully you will draw water
from the springs of deliverance. 9
12:4 At that time 10 you will say:
“Praise the Lord!
Ask him for help! 11
Publicize his mighty acts among the nations!
Make it known that he is unique! 12
12:5 Sing to the Lord, for he has done magnificent things,
let this be known 13 throughout the earth!
12:6 Cry out and shout for joy, O citizens of Zion,
for the Holy One of Israel 14 acts mightily 15 among you!”
17:1 Here is a message about Damascus:
“Look, Damascus is no longer a city,
it is a heap of ruins!
17:2 The cities of Aroer are abandoned. 16
They will be used for herds,
which will lie down there in peace. 17
17:3 Fortified cities will disappear from Ephraim,
and Damascus will lose its kingdom. 18
The survivors in Syria
will end up like the splendor of the Israelites,”
says the Lord who commands armies.
17:4 “At that time 19
Jacob’s splendor will be greatly diminished, 20
and he will become skin and bones. 21
17:5 It will be as when one gathers the grain harvest,
and his hand gleans the ear of grain.
It will be like one gathering the ears of grain
in the Valley of Rephaim.
17:6 There will be some left behind,
like when an olive tree is beaten –
two or three ripe olives remain toward the very top,
four or five on its fruitful branches,”
says the Lord God of Israel.
17:7 At that time 22 men will trust in their creator; 23
they will depend on 24 the Holy One of Israel. 25
17:8 They will no longer trust in 26 the altars their hands made,
or depend on the Asherah poles and incense altars their fingers made. 27
17:9 At that time 28 their fortified cities will be
like the abandoned summits of the Amorites, 29
which they abandoned because of the Israelites;
there will be desolation.
17:10 For you ignore 30 the God who rescues you;
you pay no attention to your strong protector. 31
So this is what happens:
You cultivate beautiful plants
and plant exotic vines. 32
17:11 The day you begin cultivating, you do what you can to make it grow; 33
the morning you begin planting, you do what you can to make it sprout.
Yet the harvest will disappear 34 in the day of disease
and incurable pain.
17:12 The many nations massing together are as good as dead, 35
those who make a commotion as loud as the roaring of the sea’s waves. 36
The people making such an uproar are as good as dead, 37
those who make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves. 38
17:13 Though these people make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves, 39
when he shouts at 40 them, they will flee to a distant land,
driven before the wind like dead weeds on the hills,
or like dead thistles 41 before a strong gale.
17:14 In the evening there is sudden terror; 42
by morning they vanish. 43
This is the fate of those who try to plunder us,
the destiny of those who try to loot us! 44
1:4 45 The sinful nation is as good as dead, 46
the people weighed down by evil deeds.
They are offspring who do wrong,
children 47 who do wicked things.
They have abandoned the Lord,
and rejected the Holy One of Israel. 48
They are alienated from him. 49