“Listen carefully, Damascus will cease to be a city
And will become a fallen ruin.
² 
“The cities of Aroer [east of the Jordan] are deserted;
They will be [only a refuge] for flocks to lie down in,
And there will be no one to make them afraid.
³ 
“The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim,
And the kingdom from Damascus
And the remnant of Aram (Syria);
They will be like the [departed] glory of [her ally] the children of Israel,”
Declares the Lord of hosts.

³ 
Thus says the Lord,
“For three transgressions of Damascus and for four (multiplied delinquencies)
I shall not reverse its punishment or revoke My word concerning it,
Because they have threshed Gilead [east of the Jordan River] with sharp iron sledges [having spikes that crushed and shredded].^(A)
4 
“So I will send a fire [of war, conquest, and destruction] upon the house of ^[a]Hazael,
And it shall devour the palaces and strongholds of ^[b]Ben-hadad (Hazael’s son).
⁵ 
“I also will break the bar [of the gate] of Damascus,
And cut off and destroy the inhabitant from the Valley of Aven (Wickedness),
And the ruler who holds the scepter, from Beth-eden (Damascus);
And the people of Aram [conquered by the Assyrians] will go into exile to ^[c]Kir,”
Says the Lord.^(B)