Thus says Yahweh: "For three transgressions of Damascus, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; Because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron;
The grievousness of this sin is seen, not only in the fact of its violation of one of God's most sacred laws, the sanctity of human life, but also that they "had done despite to the covenant people of God: `To attack God's people is to attack God.'"[20]