“Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron:”
King James Version (KJV)
1:3 For three - This certain number is put for an uncertain: three, that is, many. Of Damascus - Here Damascus is put for the whole kingdom of Syria. Threshed - Treated it with the utmost cruelty. Gilead - There was a country of this name, and a city, possessed by the Reubenites, Gadites, and Manassites; Gilead here is put for the inhabitants of this country and city, whom Hazael, king of Syria most barbarously murdered.