“Hamath and Arpad are confounded,

for they have heard bad news;

they melt in fear,

they are troubled like the sea that cannot be quiet.

24  Damascus has become feeble, she turned to flee,

and panic seized her;

anguish and sorrows have taken hold of her,

as of a woman in labor.

25  How is the famous city not forsaken,

the city of my joy?

26  ^aTherefore her young men shall fall in her squares,

and all her soldiers shall be destroyed in that day,

declares the Lord of hosts.

27  ^bAnd I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus,

and it shall devour the strongholds of ^cBen-hadad.”

“For ^jthree transgressions of Damascus,

and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,¹

because they have threshed Gilead

with threshing sledges of iron.

4  ^kSo I will send a fire upon the house of ^lHazael,

and it shall devour the strongholds of ^mBen-hadad.

5  I will break the gate-bar of Damascus,

and cut off the inhabitants from the Valley of Aven,²

and him who holds the scepter from Beth-eden;

and the people of Syria shall go into exile to ⁿKir,”

says the Lord.

1  The oracle of the word of the Lord is against the land of Hadrach

and ^eDamascus is its resting place.

For the Lord has an eye on mankind

and on all the tribes of Israel,¹