damascus

¹The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city, and it will be like a heap of stones in ruin.

²³Against Damascus. “Hamath has been confounded, with Arpad. For they have heard a most grievous report. They have been stirred up like the sea. Because of anxiousness, they were not able to rest. ²⁴Damascus has been broken. She has been turned to flight. Trembling has taken hold of her. Anguish and sorrows have seized her, like a woman giving birth. ²⁵How could they have abandoned the praiseworthy city, the city of rejoicing? ²⁶For this reason, her young men will fall in her streets. And all the men of battle will be silenced in that day, says the Lord of hosts. ²⁷And I will kindle a fire at the wall of Damascus, and it will devour the defensive walls of Ben-hadad.”

¹The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city, and it will be like a heap of stones in ruin. ²The cities in ruin will be left for the flocks, and they will take rest there, and there will be no one who may terrify them. ³And assistance will cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom will cease from Damascus. And the remnant of Syria will be like the glory of the sons of Israel, says the Lord of hosts. ⁴And this shall be in that day: the glory of Jacob will be thinned, and the fatness of his flesh will be reduced. ⁵And it shall be like the gathering of the harvest which remains, and his arm will pick the ears of grain. And it shall be like a search for grain in the valley of Rephaim. ⁶And what is left behind in it will be like one cluster of grapes, or like a shaken olive tree with two or three olives at the top of a branch, or like four or five olives at the top of a tree, says the Lord God of Israel.

¹The burden of the word of the Lord in the land of Hadrach and its respite in Damascus. For the eye of man and of all the tribes of Israel is of the Lord.

³Thus says the Lord: For three wicked deeds of Damascus, and for four, I will not convert it, in so far as they have threshed Gilead into iron wagons. ⁴And I will send fire onto the house of Hazael, and it will devour the houses of Ben-hadad. ⁵And I will shatter the crowbar of Damascus, and I will destroy the inhabitants of the camp of the idol and the holder of the scepter of the house of pleasure; and the people of Syria will be transferred to Cyrene, says the Lord.

²⁴And he gathered together men against him. And when David put those of Zobah to death, he became a leader of robbers. And they went away to Damascus, and they lived there. And they appointed him to be king of Damascus.

⁹And he agreed to his will. For the king of the Assyrians ascended against Damascus, and he laid waste to it. And he carried away its inhabitants to Cyrene. But Rezin he killed.

¹Now Saul, still breathing threats and beatings against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, ²and he petitioned him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that, if he found any men or women belonging to this Way, he could lead them as prisoners to Jerusalem. ³And as he made the journey, it happened that he was approaching Damascus. And suddenly, a light from heaven shone around him. ⁴And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” ⁵And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goad.” ⁶And he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do you want me to do?”

⁸For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within sixty-five years from now, Ephraim will cease to be a people.

¹⁵And dividing his company, he rushed upon them in the night. And he struck them and pursued them as far as Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus.

³²At Damascus, the governor of the nation under Aretas the king, watched over the city of the Damascenes, so as to apprehend me. ³³And, through a window, I was let down along the wall in a basket; and so I escaped his hands.

⁵And the Syrians of Damascus arrived, so that they might bring reinforcements to Hadadezer, the king of Zobah. And David struck down twenty-two thousand men of the Syrians. ⁶And David positioned a garrison in Syria of Damascus. And Syria served David under tribute. And the Lord assisted David in all things whatsoever that he set out to accomplish.

²⁸But the rest of the words of Jeroboam, and all that he did, and his strength, with which he went to battle, and the manner in which he restored Damascus and Hamath to Judah, in Israel, have these not been written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Israel?

¹⁷Neither did I go to Jerusalem, to those who were Apostles before me. Instead, I went into Arabia, and next I returned to Damascus.

²⁷And I will kindle a fire at the wall of Damascus, and it will devour the defensive walls of Ben-hadad.”

⁵just as the high priest and all those greater by birth bear witness to me. Having received letters from them to the brothers, I journeyed to Damascus, so that I might lead them bound from there to Jerusalem, so that they might be punished. ⁶But it happened that, as I was traveling and was approaching Damascus at midday, suddenly from heaven a great light shone around me. ⁷And falling to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ ⁸And I responded, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he said to me, ‘I am Jesus the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting.’ ⁹And those who were with me, indeed, saw the light, but they did not hear the voice of him who was speaking with me. ¹⁰And I said, ‘What should I do, Lord?’ Then the Lord said to me: ‘Rise up, and go to Damascus. And there, you shall be told all that you must do.’