Pharaoh Necho put him in chains at Riblah in the land of Hamath. That kept him from ruling in Jerusalem. Necho made the people of Judah pay him a tax of almost four tons of silver and 75 pounds of gold.
There the king had them put to death. Riblah was in the land of Hamath. So the people of Judah were taken as prisoners. They were taken far away from their own land.
The day has come to destroy all the Philistines. The time has come to remove all those who could help Tyre and Sidon. I am about to destroy the Philistines. I will not leave anyone alive who came from the coasts of Crete.
Here is what the Lord says about Damascus. He says, “The people of Hamath and Arpad are terrified. They have heard bad news. They have lost all hope. They are troubled like the rolling sea.
“Son of man, sing a song of sadness about the king of Tyre. Tell him, ‘The Lord and King says, “ ‘ “You were the model of perfection. You were full of wisdom. You were perfect and beautiful.
The Lord says, “The people of Damascus have sinned again and again. So I will judge them. They used threshing sleds with iron teeth to crush Gilead’s people.
But the Lord God rules over all. He announces, “People of Israel, I will stir up a nation against you. They will crush you from Lebo Hamath all the way down to the Arabah Valley.”
Some Israelites were forced to leave their homes. They’ll come back to Canaan and possess it all the way to the town of Zarephath. Some people from Jerusalem were taken to the city of Sepharad. They’ll return and possess the towns of the Negev Desert.