Isaiah 17 - Easy To Read Version

¹ This is the sad message for Damascus. {\cf2\super [174]} The Lord says these things will happen to Damascus:

² People will leave the cities of Aroer. {\cf2\super [175]} \par Flocks of sheep will wander freely in those empty towns;\par There will be no person to bother them.\par

³ The fort cities of Ephraim (Israel)\par will be destroyed.\par The government in Damascus\par will be finished.\par The same thing that happens to Israel,\par will happen to Aram. {\cf2\super [176]} \par All the important people\par will be taken away.”\par

⁴ At that time, Jacob’s (Israel’s) wealth\par will all be gone.\par Jacob will be like a man who was sick\par and became weak and thin.\par

⁵ That time will be like grain harvest in Rephaim Valley. {\cf2\super [177]} The workers gather plants that grow in the field. Then they cut the heads of grain from the plants. And they collect the grain.

⁶ That time will also be like the time people harvest olives. People knock olives from olive trees. But a few olives are usually left at the top of the tree. Four or five olives are left on some of the top branches. It will be the same for those cities. The Lord All-Powerful said those things.

⁷ At that time, people will look up to \{God\}, the One who made them. Their eyes will see the Holy One of Israel.

⁸ The people will not trust the great things they have made. They will not go to the special gardens {\cf2\super [178]} and altars {\cf2\super [179]} \{they made for false gods\}.

⁹ At that time, all the fort cities will be empty. Those cities will be like the mountains and the forests {\cf2\super [180]} in the land before the people of Israel came. \{In the past,\} all the people ran away because the people of Israel were coming. \{In the future,\} the country will be empty again.

¹⁰ This will happen because you have forgotten the God who saves you. You have not remembered that God is your place of safety.

¹¹ You will plant your grapevines one day and try to make them grow. The next day the plants will begin to grow. But at harvest time, you will go to gather the fruit from the plants, and you will see that everything is dead. A sickness will kill all the plants.

¹² Listen to the many, many people!\par They are crying loud like the noise\par from the sea.\par Listen to the noise.\par It is like the crashing\par and crashing of waves in the sea.\par

¹³ \{And the people will be like those waves—\}\par God will speak harshly to the people,\par and they will run away.\par The people will be like chaff {\cf2\super [181]} \par being chased by the wind.\par The people will be like tumbleweeds {\cf2\super [182]} \par being chased by a storm.\par The wind blows and the weeds go far away.\par

¹⁴ That night, the people will be frightened.\par Before morning, nothing will be left.\par So our enemies will get nothing.\par They will come to our land,\par but nothing will be there.\par