1). YHWH's Judgment On Damascus (Amos 1:3-5).
YHWH's judgment on Damascus, a city (representing Aram) which had proved through the years to be Israel's most dangerous enemy, would be because of their continually cruel treatment of Gilead at the time when they had invaded Israel again and again, ‘threshing them with instruments of iron'. Gilead was the land east of Jordan which was especially vulnerable when the kings of Israel were weak, and was in the path of any Aramaean invasion from the north. The picture is of a huge threshing board with its iron teeth which was, as it were, being dragged over the helpless Gileadites.
“Thus says YHWH.
For three transgressions of Damascus, yes, for four,
I will not turn away their punishment,
Because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron,
But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael,
And it will devour the palaces of Ben-hadad.”
Firstly YHWH has spoken against Damascus. Damascus was the capital city of Aram (Syria), with which a number of local Aramaean tribes were associated. Its ‘empire' had had its beginnings in the days of Solomon (1 Kings 11:23-25). It thus represents the whole of Aram. They were the amalgamated people to the north of Israel, occupying land which had been designated to Israel, and who did so much damage to Israel before Assyria appeared on the scene. Three transgressions would indicate a complete number of transgressions. Four is therefore ‘over the top'. They had multiplied their transgressions against Israel. This was especially so in the case of their treatment of Gilead through which Aram had trampled again and again when invading Israel. Gilead, east of the Jordan, was an especial temptation to Aram when Israel were weak. The Aramaeans had slain the Gileadites mercilessly ‘threshing them with threshing instruments of iron' (we might have said ‘mowing them down' or ‘steamrollering over them'). The threshing instruments would have had points of iron attached to them for the purpose of separating the wheat from the chaff, and the picture is one of unyielding savagery, the swords of the Aramaeans no doubt doing the work of the iron teeth. The consequence of this was that Aram itself was similarly to suffer through the fires of judgment kindled by invading armies. As they had done, so would it be done to them. Benhadad was of the house of Hazael. Hazael had been the king who most assailed Israel (see 2 Kings 8:12; 2 Kings 10:32; 2 Kings 13:22), and both he, and Benhadad who followed him, suffered under the invading armies of Assyria. The burning of captured cities which resisted was common policy.
‘I will not turn away their punishment.' Or ‘I will not reverse/revoke it (i.e. My punishment on them)'. The verb 'ashibenu can have a wide variety of meaning, the basic idea being ‘I will not turn it'.
“And I will break the bar of Damascus,
And cut off the inhabitant from the valley of Aven,
And him who holds the sceptre from the house of Eden,
And the people of Aram (Syria) will go into captivity to Kir,
Says YHWH.”
The bar of Damascus was the great bar that held the gates of the city closed and prevented them from being opened from outside. Once that was broken access for the enemy would be simple. The valley of Aven may have been the Beqa Valley between Lebanon and anti-Lebanon. Thus both town and country would be affected. Furthermore the one who ruled in Eden would also be affected. This may refer to Beth-eden, the Bit-Adini of Assyrian records, which was a small state on the banks of the Euphrates south of Carchemish. ‘Damascus' is thus seen as indicating all the local Aramaean tribes. No Aramaeans would escape.
After the desolation described, the people of Aram would be transported to Kir. Kir was the area from which they originally came (Amos 9:7), thus it was the equivalent of Israel being returned to Egypt. It was a sign that YHWH had ‘foreclosed' on them. They would have lost their freedom, independence and separate identity. This policy of transportation was one for which the Assyrians (and later the Babylonians) were notorious.