Prophecy and Facts About Damascus, Syria

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                  

According to the Bible, the city of Damascus will be destroyed and will no longer be inhabited: Isaiah 17:1-3:  "Behold, Damascus will cease from being a city, and it will be a ruinous heap". The prophecy also states that the cities of Aroer will be deserted and used by flocks, and that the kingdom of Damascus will be gone.  Isaiah prophesied in Jerusalem from 740 BCE-701 BCE) He was from a noble family, closely related to the royal court and active in public affairs;  lived from the death of Uzziah until the middle of Hezekiah's reign .  

                              Jordan River, Amon River, Zered River is shown above;  Ammon is shown

The Bible mentions two cities named Aroer, one on the Arnon and one on the border of Ammon:

• Aroer on the Arnon

  Located on the north bank of the Arnon  River, east of the Dead Sea, in present-day Jordan. It was an ancient Moabite settlement that was later given to the Reubenites and Gadites by Moses. The city was famous in the history of Jephthah and David. It is now known as the modern village of 'Ara'ir.   The Arnon River is in Jordan, not Lebanon or Syria today: Also known as the Wadi Mujib, this river is located in Jordan and empties into the Dead Sea. It was an important boundary in ancient times, separating the Moabites from the Amorites and later the tribes of Reuben and Gad. The name Arnon is Hebrew and means "torrent valley". 

  
• The cities of Aroer are mentioned in the Bible in the following passages:  Deuteronomy 4:48;  Judges 11:26;  2 Kings 10:33;  Joshua 12:2;  Numbers 32:34;  Joshua 13:25;  2 Samuel 24:5;  Isaiah 17:2 :   and 

  
• Jeremiah 48:18-20;  and   Jeremiah 49:23-27 ;  The prophecy states that Damascus will be in fear and anguish, and that her young men will fall in her streets. 
• It also says that the Lord will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus and consume the palaces of Ben-Hadad I, who ruled from 885–865 BCE, Ben-Hadad I was the son of Tabrimmon and grandson of Hezion. He formed a league with King Asa of Judah to attack the northern kingdom of Israel. 
• Ben-Hadad I was murdered by Hazael. The name "Ben-Hadad" is Hebrew for "Son of Hadad". Hadad was the name of a senior Aramean deity.

  

                       Ephraim, one of Jacob's 12 sons' tribes and the Arameans:  
• Judah, with Benjamin and Simeon cooperated while the 9-10 rest were captured as Israel by Assyria later on   in 721 BCE.  
• 
  
• 'Behold, Damascus is about to be removed from being a city and will become a fallen ruin. The cities of Aroer are forsaken; they will be for flocks to lie down in, and there will be no one to frighten them. The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim, and sovereignty from Damascus…. and the rest of Aram '”* Isaiah 17:1-3  This was telling of the breakup of the land of the  Ephramite-Aramean alliance,  also being used as a prophesy for the End of Times.  
  

  

       Damascus today: Damascus  is the capital and largest city of Syria, the oldest current capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth holiest city in Islam. Known colloquially in Syria as aš-Šām  and dubbed, poetically, the "City of Jasmine" Damascus is a major cultural center of the Levant and the Arab world.

  

  
  
• Between 1975 and 2000, Judith Feld Carr smuggled 3,000 Jews, living mostly on "Jew Street" in Damascus, out and into freedom.  Judy came across an article from The Jerusalem Post that reported on the tragic deaths of 12 Syrian Jewish men, who ran across a minefield while attempting to flee the country to Turkey. Judy was struck by the fact that the Syrian guards callously stood by and watched them die, one by one.

Which reminds me.  Every evening when the TV news was over, Syria had a routine of saying good-night with their army troops.  On our TV  in Israel we could get stations from Jordan, Syria and Egypt that I remember.   I remember seeing that they would show how scary they were by harming puppies.  I won't say more, but it is a gruesome memory.  I can say that I was very glad my Syrian friend from facebook was a very kind person and loved dogs.  He had thought his birth-mother had been Jewish, daughter of a jeweler from "Jew Street."  

Damascus is a significant city in the Bible, appearing in both the Old and New Testaments.  Damascus is where my message-friend lived who was living in Damascus at the time of their Civil War.  He and his family fled to Egypt.  He had a college degree from Lebanon and was an engineer.   

Today, Israel is at war with the terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah, supported by Iran who wants Israel's downfall.  Two days ago Israel hit military sites in Damascus;   the attacks targeted military sites and the headquarters of the Islamic Jihad group..  Syrians reported that 15 were killed, but most likely far less including injured.  Israel has been carrying out strikes against Iran-linked targets in Syria for years but has ramped up such raids since last year's Oct. 7 attack by Palestinian militant group, Hamas on Israel that sparked the Gaza war.

Israel’s military says Islamic Jihad participated alongside the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks from Gaza into Israel that killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and saw 250 others abducted.  Aji reported from Damascus, Syria. 

Reference:

Book:  Messages From A Syrian Jew Trapped In Egypt, by Nadene Goldfoot with Jack Huffman, Storyteller

Tanach, The Stone Edition (Bible)

https://flashtrafficblog.epicentermedia.net/2012/06/28/does-bible-prophecy-foretell-the-destruction-of-damascus/#:~:text='Behold%2C%20Damascus%20is%20about%20to,'%E2%80%9D

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damascus

https://www.jpost.com/jerusalem-report/judys-story-the-heroism-of-a-canadian-who-smuggled-jews-out-of-syria-620693

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben-Hadad_I#:~:text=Ben%2DHadad%20I%20(Hebrew:,of%20the%20Kingdom%20of%20Judah.&text=According%20to%20the%20biblical%20book,stele%20to%20this%20particular%20king.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aroer#:~:text=Aroer%20(Hebrew:%20%D7%A2%D6%B2%D7%A8%D7%95%D6%B9%D7%A2%D6%B5%D7%A8%2C%20%D7%A2%D6%B2%D7%A8%D6%B9%D7%A2%D6%B5%D7%A8,Aroer%20on%20the%20Arnon

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/syrian-media-report-israeli-attacks-damascus-2024-11-14/