Thus saith the LORD; For (e) three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away [the punishment] thereof; because they have (f) threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron:
(e) He shows first that all the people round about would be destroyed for their manifold sins: which are meant by three and four, which make seven, so that the Israelites would the more deeply consider God's judgments toward them.
(f) If the Syrians will not be spared for committing this cruelty against one city, it is not possible that Israel would escape punishment, which has committed so many and such grievous sins against God and man.