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 stretch out beside every altar
on garments taken as collateral,
and in the house of their God,
they drink wine obtained through fines.

Again: I brought you out of the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness, that ye might have the Amorites' land in possession.

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 thee, saith the LORD.

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?

Hear this! The days are coming—
this is the declaration of the Lord God—
when I will send a famine through the land:
not a famine of bread or a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the Lord.

If they dig through into sheol, From thence doth My hand take them, And if they go up the heavens, From thence I cause them to come down.