For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken in pieces, so that is shall not be a people:

For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father, and, My mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be carried away before the king of Assyria.

Is not Calno as Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus?

The oracle on Damascus, - Lo! Damascus, is to be removed from being a city, And shall become a heap of ruins:

Then shall the fortress cease from Ephraim, And the kingdom from Damascus and the remnant of Syria, - Like the glory of the sons of Israel, shall they be, - Declareth Yahweh of hosts.

So shalt thou, O Damascus, be desolate: because thou hast forgotten God thy Saviour, and hast not called to remembrance the rock of thy strength. Wherefore thou hast also set a fair plant, and grafted a strange branch.