Isaiah 36:19

19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim? and have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?

Isaiah 36:19 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 36:19

Where are the gods of Hamath and Arphad?
&c.] What is become of them? where are they to be found? where's their power to protect and defend the people they presided over? thus they might be justly derided, but not so the God at Israel; these places are mentioned in ( Isaiah 10:9 ) . Hamath was a city in Syria, thought by some to be the same afterwards called Antiochia and Epiphania, from Antiochus Epiphanes: Arphad is joined with it in ( Jeremiah 49:23 ) as a city of Syria; perhaps originally founded and inhabited by the Arvadite, mentioned with the Hamathite, in ( Genesis 10:18 ) : where are the gods of Sepharvaim?
another place in Syria, the city Sipphore; not the Sipphara of Ptolemy F14, in Mesopotamia, or that, near Babylon, Abydenus F15 makes mention of, but a city in Syro-Phoenicia, ( 2 Kings 17:24 ) : and have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?
the gods of the above places, which were worshipped in Samaria, or the gods peculiar to that place; though Samaria was not taken by the present king of Assyria, Sennacherib, but by a predecessor of his, Shalmaneser, 2Ki 17:3,6,
which yet is here boasted of as a conquest of the present king.


FOOTNOTES:

F14 Geograph. l. 5. c. 18.
F15 Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 41. p. 457.

Isaiah 36:19 In-Context

17 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.
18 Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, Jehovah will deliver us. Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim? and have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?
20 Who are they among all the gods of these countries, that have delivered their country out of my hand, that Jehovah should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?
21 But they held their peace, and answered him not a word; for the king's commandment was, saying, Answer him not.
The American Standard Version is in the public domain.