Isaiah 36:19

19 ubi est deus Emath et Arfad ubi est deus Seffarvaim numquid liberaverunt Samariam de manu mea

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 donec veniam et tollam vos ad terram quae est ut terra vestra terram frumenti et vini terram panum et vinearum
18 ne conturbet vos Ezechias dicens Dominus liberabit nos numquid liberaverunt dii gentium unusquisque terram suam de manu regis Assyriorum
19 ubi est deus Emath et Arfad ubi est deus Seffarvaim numquid liberaverunt Samariam de manu mea
20 quis est ex omnibus diis terrarum istarum qui eruerit terram suam de manu mea ut eruat Dominus Hierusalem de manu mea
21 et siluerunt et non responderunt ei verbum mandaverat enim rex dicens ne respondeatis ei
The Latin Vulgate is in the public domain.