Sin adds to sin, out of which it grows; it does not overshadow the former sins, it does not obliterate them, but increases the mass of guilt, which God punishes. Unless otherwise indicated, all content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. "Thrice happy Greeks! Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! The amount of rain, the cool of the nights, the warmth of the days, soil conditions, insects, and many others. Elisha had foretold to Hazael his cruelty to Israel; Their strong holds thou wilt set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up their women with child 2 Kings 8:12. Any crime committed against human beings is ultimately against the LORD because He is the sole creator. "They have threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron." Gilead was a part of Israel on the eastern side of the Jordan river. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. Israel, having lost the help of Judah, became the easier prey. P Which words Virgil translates, and puts in the mouth of his hero in similar circumstances, Aen. Isaiah 17:1 The burden of Damascus. .--Rather, will not turn it back--i.e., the sore judgment I have purposed. W Salem Media Group. So I will send a fire upon the house of Hazael, and it shall devour the strongholds of Ben-hadad. (Comp. It was no part of the territory assigned to Israel, nor was it molested by them. It was not tempted to set itself against believing them. For their brutality, Syria is promised judgment. In all that he does, he prospers.Hosea 6:3 Let us know; let us press on to know theLord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.Isaiah 5:24 Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root will be as rottenness, and their blossom go up like dust; for they have rejected the law of theLordof hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel., Luke 12:18 And he said, I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.Hosea 12:11 If there is iniquity in Gilead, they shall surely come to nothing: in Gilgal they sacrifice bulls; their altars also are like stone heaps on the furrows of the field.2 Corinthians 9:6 The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.Isaiah 32:2 Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land., Ruth 2:15 When she rose to glean, Boaz instructed his young men, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her.Jeremiah 4:11 At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A hot wind from the bare heights in the desert toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow or cleanse,Jeremiah 9:22 Speak: Thus declares theLord, The dead bodies of men shall fall like dung upon the open field, like sheaves after the reaper, and none shall gather them.Isaiah 30:25 And on every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall., Job 29:23 They waited for me as for the rain, and they opened their mouths as for the spring rain.Leviticus 25:1-7 TheLordspoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to theLord. Nature takes its own time. Conclusion: The Lord God has spoken (not always present). 2007. The city named Damascus was the capital of the nation of Aram during the 10th through 8th centuries BC. (3) Three transgressions . The fact that his chief and confidential servant whom he entrusted to seek a wife for Isaac, and who was, at one time, his heir, was a Damascene Genesis 15:2-3, implies some intimate connection of Abraham with Damascus. On the schism of the ten tribes, the hostility of Damascus was concentrated against Israel who lay next to them. It lay in the midst of its plain, a high table-land of rich cultivation, whose breadth, from Anti-libanus eastward, was about half a degree. God would cause the one holding the scepter to be cut off from Beth-Eden. Does a young lion cry out from his den, if he has taken nothing? Mail (will not be published) __('(required)'). Any crime committed against human beings is ultimately against the LORD because He is the sole creator. Literally, the text says they shut up the whole into captivity. The Philistines assaulted surrounding communities. 3 This is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Damascus, even for four, I will not relent. Because she threshed Gilead with sledges having iron teeth, This is what the LORD says: 'For three offenses of Damascus, and for four, I will not revoke its. Today, more and more people are moving away from rural areas where farming is highly practiced and into cities characterized by industrialization. Thus says the LORD, "For three transgressions of Damascus and for four (multiplied delinquencies) I shall not reverse its punishment or revoke My word concerning it, Because they have threshed Gilead This is what the LORD says: "The people of Damascus have sinned again and again, and I will not let them go unpunished! (LogOut/ , Proverbs 12:11 Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense.Isaiah 65:22-24 They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. The names Hazael and Ben-hadad, two kings of Aram, are also known from 2 Kings 8. Then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley.Matthew 12:1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. [5] I will break the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitants from the Valley of Aven, and him that holds the scepter from Beth-eden; God authorized human government in Genesis, where He said, Whoever sheds mans blood, by man his blood shall be shed, forin the image of God He made man (Genesis 9:6). Copyright 2002-2023 Got Questions Ministries. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, , Psalm 104:14 You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earthLeviticus 19:19 You shall keep my statutes. (LogOut/ The white wool Ezekiel 27:18, in which it traded with Tyre, implies the possession of a large outlying tract in the desert, where the sheep yield the whitest wool. Threshing-sledges with iron (or basalt) are large boards (73 feet usually) pulled by oxen to separate the grain from the chaff. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 13; 2:1, 4, and 6). And Joash did what was right in the eyes of theLordall the days of Jehoiada the priest. Proverbs 20:4 says, The lazy man does not plow when the winter [planting] season arrives; So he begs at the [next] harvest and has nothing [to reap]. Likewise, Proverbs 21:5 says, The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty. Furthermore, Ecclesiastes 11:6 says, Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let your hands not be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well. The Bible talks against laziness. The language about Tyre is almost exactly the same as how Amos describes Gaza. But it supported a population far beyond what that space would maintain in Europe. More than a Bible handbook but less than a commentary, Nelson's New Illustrated Old Testament Survey provides a section by section breakdown of issues and topics dealt with in the Hebrew Scriptures. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. You shall not wear cloth of wool and linen mixed together., Luke 10:2 And he said to them, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. The LORD pronounces judgment on the inhabitants of Damascus because they slaughtered the people of Gilead. Please support us by disabling these ads blocker. Its white buildings, embedded in the deep green of its engirdling orchards, were like diamonds encircled by emeralds. perhaps more (cf. Amoss prophecy concerning Damascus was probably fulfilled in 732 BC when the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III captured the city, weakening it for the rest of the Old Testament period (2 Kgs. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. He shall not exact it of his neighbor, his brother, because theLords release has been proclaimed. Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers, Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament. Publisher: OpenBible.info. There Elisha announces the coming death of Ben-hadad but weeps over the future that Hazael will bring to Israel. What Does the Bible Say About Overcoming? .--This form of transgression, which occurs eight times in the prologue, is not an arithmetical, but a strongly idiomatic phrase, signifying "multiplied or repeated delinquencies" (Henderson). They enslaved local populationsprobably those located in the lowlands or Shephelah of Judah among others. So I will send a fire upon the house of Hazael, and it shall devour the strongholds of Ben-. Hesed, When theLordrestored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. The unexamined field soon becomes unusable. A heavy wooden plank, 2 or 3 feet by 5 or 6 feet, with sharp spikes on the bottom, when oxen pulled it over a grain field the grain was separated from stalks and weeds. Throughout that whole beautiful tract, including 2 12 degrees of latitude, Hazael had carried on his war of extermination into every peaceful village and home, sparing neither the living nor the unborn. Thanks John Mark. The LORD your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.. Seven is used as a symbol of a whole, since on the seventh day God rested from all which He had made, and therefore the number seven entered so largely into the whole Jewish ritual. At this time, Damascus was probably, like ourselves, a rich, commercial, as well as warlike, but not as yet a manufacturing (see the note at Amos 3:12) nation. Damascus (Syria, also called Aram) threshed Gilead. Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. Isaiah 41:15 Behold, I make of you a threshing sledge, new, sharp, and having teeth; you shall thresh the mountains and crush them, and you shall make the hills like chaff;Matthew 13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.Genesis 1:11-12 And God said, Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth. And it was so. Genesis 1:11 says, Then God said, Let the land produce vegetation:seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds. And it was so. The place called Beth-Eden refers to an Aramean state located on the Euphrates River south of Carchemish. This is what the LORD says: 'The people of Damascus have sinned again and again, and I will not let them go unpunished! The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises. When the Jews killed the Son, there, came on them all the righteous bloodshed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias Matthew 23:35-36; Luke 11:50-51. As good people, by the grace of God, do, through each act done by aid of that grace, gain an addition to their everlasting reward, so the wicked, by each added sin, add to their damnation. Of old it was said, the Chrysorrhoas (the Barada) is nearly expended in artificial channels.: Damascus is fertile through drinking up the Chrysorrhoas by irrigation. Fourteen names of its canals are still given; and while it has been common to select 7 or 8 chief canals, the whole have been counted up even to 70. He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide disputes for strong nations far away; , 1 Samuel 13:21 And the charge was two-thirds of a shekel for the plowshares and for the mattocks, and a third of a shekel for sharpening the axes and for setting the goads.2 Kings 19:29 And this shall be the sign for you: this year eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs of the same. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL G Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause. Its native historian admits that the Damascenes were, in the time of David, and continued to be, the aggressors, while he veils over their repeated defeats, and represents their kings, as having reigned successively from father to son, for ten generations, a thing unknown probably in any monarchy.