“Behold, Damascus will cease from being a city,
And it will be a ruinous heap.
^2 [b]The cities of ^(B)Aroer are forsaken;
They will be for flocks
Which lie down, and ^(C)no one will make them afraid.
^3 (D)The fortress also will cease from Ephraim,
The kingdom from Damascus,
And the remnant of Syria;
They will be as the glory of the children of Israel,”
Says the Lord of hosts.

^(B)“Hamath and Arpad are shamed,
For they have heard bad news.
They are fainthearted;
^(C)There is ^[a]trouble on the sea;
It cannot be quiet.
²⁴ Damascus has grown feeble;
She turns to flee,
And fear has seized her.
^(D)Anguish and sorrows have taken her like a woman in ^[b]labor.
²⁵ Why is ^(E)the city of praise not deserted, the city of My joy?
^26 (F)Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets,
And all the men of war shall be cut off in that day,” says the Lord of hosts.
²⁷ “I^(G) will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus,
And it shall consume the palaces of Ben-Hadad.”