King Neco took Jehoahaz prisoner at Riblah in the land of Hamath so that Jehoahaz could not rule in Jerusalem. Neco made the people of Judah pay about seventy-five hundred pounds of silver and about seventy-five pounds of gold.
The time has come to destroy all the Philistines. It is time to destroy all who are left alive who could help the cities of Tyre and Sidon. The Lord will soon destroy the Philistines, those left alive from the island of Crete.
This message is to the city of Damascus: “The towns of Hamath and Arpad are put to shame, because they have heard bad news. They are discouraged. They are troubled like the tossing sea.
“Human, sing a funeral song for the king of Tyre. Say to him: ‘This is what the Lord God says: You were an example of what was perfect, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
Berothah, and Sibraim on the border between Damascus and Hamath. Then it will go on to the town of Hazer Hatticon on the border of the country of Hauran.
This is what the Lord says: “For the many crimes of Damascus, I will punish them. They drove over the people of Gilead with threshing boards that had iron teeth.
The Lord God All-Powerful says, “Israel, I will bring a nation against you that will make your people suffer from Lebo Hamath in the north to the valley south of the Dead Sea.”
People from Israel who once were forced to leave their homes will take the land of the Canaanites, all the way to Zarephath. People from Judah who once were forced to leave Jerusalem and live in Sepharad will take back the cities of southern Judah.