Judgment upon DAMASCUS

This is Not referring to the nation of Judah and its use of Damascus.

Amos 1:3-5

Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron: But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, which shall devour the palaces of Ben-hadad.  I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that holdeth the sceptre from the house of Eden: and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir, saith the LORD.

“…fire into the house of Hazael…”  occurs in the book of 2Kings 8:12; 10:32-33; 13:3.

palaces = Hebrew “armown” – to be elevated, the height of a citadel, so a castle or fortress.

“…house of Eden…” listed in 2Kings 19:12 as one of the areas destroyed by Assyrians.

Jeremiah 49:23-27

Concerning Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea; it cannot be quiet. Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail. How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy! Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD of hosts.

And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Ben-hadad.

“Ben-hadad” – official title of their kings.

Zechariah 9:1

 “The burden of the word of the LORD in the land of Hadrach, and Damascus shall be the rest thereof: when the eyes of man, as of all the tribes of Israel, shall be toward the LORD.”

Hadrach – This is the only place it is used in the Bible. The words origin is uncertain. It was often used in reference to a Syrian deity.  Why Zechariah used it instead of the word Syria is unknown, but it is Syria that is intended because of the reference to Damascus.  The burden of God’s word and judgment will be upon them.

Zechariah 9:2a “And Hamath also shall border thereby;…”

Hamath = a country to the north of Damascus bordering Syria. It is mentioned often in the Old Testament including Ezekiel 47-48.