This is what the Lord says: "Because Damascus has committed three crimes -- make that four! -- I will not revoke my decree of judgment. They ripped through Gilead like threshing sledges with iron teeth.

They lay down beside every altar, on garments pledged as collateral, drinking wine paid for through fines imposed by the temple of their gods.

Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite.

And, through fissures, shall ye go out, every woman, straight before her, - and ye shall be thrust forth towards the castle, Declareth Yahweh.

And seek not Beth-El, and Gilgal enter not, And Beer-Sheba pass not through, For Gilgal doth utterly remove, And Beth-El doth become vanity.

Seek ye Jehovah and live, lest he shall break through the house of Joseph as fire, and devour, and none quenching to the house of God.

And in all vineyards shall be wailing; for I will pass through the midst of thee, saith Jehovah.

Pass through Calneh, and see; and go ye from thence to Hamath the great: and go down to the wine-press of the rovers: are they good above these kingdoms? or their bound great above your bound?

Saying, When will the month pass through, and we will sell grain? and the Sabbath, and we will open wheat to diminish the ephah, and to enlarge the shekel, and to make crooked the balance of deceit?

Be certain of this, the time is coming," says the sovereign Lord, "when I will send a famine through the land -- not a shortage of food or water but an end to divine revelation!

Though they break through into hades, from thence, shall my hand fetch them, - and, though they ascend the heavens, from thence, will I bring them down;