⁸ For the head of Syria is ^(A)Damascus,
    and the head of Damascus is Rezin.
And within sixty-five years
    Ephraim will be shattered from being a people.

9 The burden of the word of the Lord is against the land of Hadrach
    and ^(A)Damascus is its resting-place.
For the Lord has an eye on mankind
    and on all the tribes of Israel,^[a]

^(B)“Hamath and ^(C)Arpad are confounded,
    for they have heard bad news;
they melt in fear,
    ^(D)they are troubled like the sea that cannot be quiet.
^24 (E)Damascus has become feeble, ^(F)she turned to flee,
    and panic seized her;
anguish and sorrows have taken hold of her,
    as ^(G)of a woman in labour.
²⁵ How is ^(H)the famous city not forsaken,
    the city of my joy?
^26 (I)Therefore her young men shall fall in her squares,
    and all her soldiers shall be destroyed in that day,
declares the Lord of hosts.
²⁷ And ^(J)I will kindle a fire in the wall of ^(K)Damascus,
    and it shall devour the strongholds of ^(L)Ben-hadad.”

^(A)“For three transgressions of ^(B)Damascus,
    and for four, ^(C)I will not revoke the punishment,^[a]
because they have threshed ^(D)Gilead
    with threshing sledges of iron.
^4 (E)So I will send a fire upon the house of ^(F)Hazael,
    and it shall devour the strongholds of ^(G)Ben-hadad.
⁵ I will ^(H)break the gate-bar of ^(I)Damascus,
    and cut off the inhabitants from the Valley of ^(J)Aven,^[b]
and him who holds the sceptre from ^(K)Beth-eden;
    and the people of ^(L)Syria shall go into exile to ^(M)Kir,”
says the Lord.