Isaiah 37:13

13 Where [is] the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, or Ivvah?'"

Isaiah 37:13 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 37:13

Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arphad, and the
king of the city of Sepharvaim
The same, as some think, with the gods or idols of those places, (See Gill on Isaiah 36:19); though it may be the princes that ruled over those cities are meant, who were either slain, or become tributary to the king of Assyria. It is added, Henah and Ivah:
which some take to be the names of the gods or kings of Sepharvaim; but rather, since Sepharvaim is of the dual number, it was a double city, the river Euphrates passing between them; and these, as Musculus conjectures, were the names of them; or it may be, these were distinct cities from that, but what or where they were is not certain. Ptolemy makes mention of a place called Ingine, near Gausanitis or Gozan, supposed to be Henah; though others rather think it to be Ange, which he places in Arabia F9, which I think is not so probable. Ivah perhaps is the same with Avah, in ( 2 Kings 17:24 ) . The Targum does not take them for names or places, but translates them,

``hath he not removed them, and carried them captive?''
and so Jarchi's note is,
``the king of Assyria hath moved and overthrown them, and destroyed them, and removed them out of their place;''
referring to the other cities.
FOOTNOTES:

F9 Geograph. l. 6. c. 7.

Isaiah 37:13 In-Context

11 Look! you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands to destroy them, and you--shall you be delivered?
12 Did the gods of the nations that my {predecessors} destroyed deliver them--Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the sons of Eden who [were] in Telassar?
13 Where [is] the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, or Ivvah?'"
14 And Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers, and he read it. Then he went up [to] the temple of Yahweh, and Hezekiah spread it out before the {presence} of Yahweh.
15 And Hezekiah prayed to Yahweh, saying,

Footnotes 1

Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.