Judgment · Damascus — fire in the wall of Ben-hadad

Jeremiah 49:23-27

Jeremiah · ~600 BC · Status: Fulfilled · Confidence: 65%
“Concerning Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea; it cannot be quiet. Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail.”
King James Version · the opening — all 5 verses are below
More of Jeremiah 49 on this siteJeremiah 49:1-6 · Jeremiah 49:7-22 · Jeremiah 49:28-33 · Jeremiah 49:34-39

A century and a half after Isaiah, Jeremiah pronounces on a diminished Damascus: 'I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad' — the once-royal city now judged among the minor states swallowed by Babylon.

Read the whole passage — all 5 verses (KJV)

49:23Concerning Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea; it cannot be quiet.

49:24Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail.

49:25How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!

49:26Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD of hosts.

49:27And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Ben-hadad.

Fulfillment References

Amos 1:4 2 Kings 16:9

Archaeological & Historical Evidence

Hamath and Arpad are excavated realities (Hama on the Orontes; Tell Rifaat) — both destroyed by the empires exactly as the northern-city oracles describe. 'The palaces of Ben-hadad' preserves the authentic Aramean dynastic name attested on the Melqart and Zakkur stelae.

How Traditions Read This Prophecy

Apostolic (Oneness) PentecostalEven a broken power answers for its history; the fire that consumed Ben-hadad's palaces settled a ledger opened when Aram burned Israel's cities.
JewishThe northern trio (Damascus-Hamath-Arpad) appears in Assyrian taunts (Isa. 36:19) — Jeremiah's oracle completes their story.
CatholicGod's judgments reach every throne, great or faded; no statute of limitations on national sin.
ProtestantThe oracle's echo of Amos 1:4 (spoken 150 years earlier) shows prophetic words compounding until paid in full.
AcademicThe Ben-hadad dynastic name is confirmed epigraphically (Melqart Stele); the oracle fits Babylon's Syrian campaigns of 605-596 BC.

Scholarship & Sources

Melqart Stele and Zakkur Stele in COS; on Babylon's western campaigns, Wiseman's Chronicles of Chaldaean Kings.

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