2 Kings 18:34

[See comments on 2 Kings 18:17]

Where are the gods of Hamath, and of Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah? have they delivered Samaria out of mine hand?

Hamath and Arpad; of which see . Sepharvaim; of which see . Hena and Ivah; the names, either, 1. Of idol gods. But why should only these two be named, and not the gods of the other places here mentioned? Or rather, 2. Of cities or countries, as is manifest from , where those words are repeated among other places, whose kings are there mentioned, and where they are rendered, of Hena and Ivah, as they should be here also, the words in the Hebrew being the very same. Have they delivered Samaria? i.e. 1. Either the gods here mentioned, which, together with other idols, were worshipped in Samaria. Or, 2. Their gods; which is easily understood from the foregoing words.

2 Kings 18:34 Where [are] the gods of Hamath, and of Arpad? where [are] the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah? have they delivered Samaria out of mine hand?Ver. 34. Where are the gods?] Os ferreum! This is a most insolent insultation, and might well become an Aiax flagellifer, who knew no god but his own weapons. Have they delivered?] i.e., Have the gods of Samaria?

(34) Where are the gods of Hamath, and of Arpad?—Sargon, Sennacherib’s father, had reduced these two cities. The reference to “my fathers” in 2 Kings 19:12, and the use of the general term, “the king of Assyria” (2 Kings 18:33), are against Schrader’s supposition that the historian has confused the campaigns of Sargon with those of Sennacherib. (Comp. 2 Kings 17:24; 2 Kings 17:30.) Sargon has recorded that Ya-u-bi-h-di, king of the Hamathites, induced Arpad, Simyra, Damascus, and Samaria to join his revolt against Assyria. The confederacy was defeated at Qarqar, and Yahubihdi taken and flayed alive (B.C. 720). Arpad.—Tell-Erfâd, about ten miles north of Aleppo. The question, “Where are the gods?” &c, may imply that they had been annihilated along with their temples and statues. (Comp. Job 14:10.) Sometimes, indeed, the Assyrians carried off the idols of conquered nations, but this need not have been an invariable practice, and Isaiah 10:11 seems to imply that they were sometimes destroyed, as was likely to be the case when a city was taken by storm, and committed to the flames. Sepharvaim.—See on 2 Kings 17:24. This city revolted with Babylon against Sargon at the beginning of his reign. No account of its fall has been preserved. Hena, and Ivah.—These names do not occur in Isaiah, and are wholly unknown. The words look like two Hebrew verbs (“He hath caused to wander, and overturned”), as at present vocalised; and the Targum translates them as a question: “Have they not made them wander, and carried them away?” Hoffmann thinks the two words are really one (the niphal participle of ‘av’av), and should be rendered as an epithet of Sepharvaim, “the utterly perverted;” a nickname given it by the Assyrians, because of its follyin revolting again after its former subjugation. But the mention of Ava and the Avites (2 Kings 17:24; 2 Kings 17:31) is in favour of the same proper name here, and the LXX., Syriac, Arabic, and Vulg. agree with this. (The Syriac reads Avva, as in chap. 7:24.) Have they delivered Samaria . . .?—Rather, How much less have they (i.e., its gods) delivered Samaria out of mine hand! So Ewald, Gram., § 256. The Syriac, Vulg., and Arabic render as the Authorised Version. Perhaps the original reading was not kȋ ?; but hakî: “Is it the case that they have delivered?” &c. (Job 6:22). Out of mine hand?—Sennacherib speaks as if he were one with his father, a circumstance which lends some support to the suggestion of Schrader, that the successive Assyrian invasions were not kept quite distinct in the Hebrew tradition. If so, the year 714 B.C. , assigned as the date of the present expedition (2 Kings 18:13), may really be that of an earlier expedition under Sargon, who, in fact, invaded the West in 720, 715, and 711 (or 709) B.C.

Verse 34. Where are the gods of Hamath] Sennacherib is greater than any of the gods of the nations. The Assyrians have already overthrown the gods of Hamath, Arpad, Hena, and Ivah; therefore, Jehovah shall be like one of them, and shall not be able to deliver Jerusalem out of the hand of my master. The impudent blasphemy of this speech is without parallel. Hezekiah treated it as he ought: it was not properly against him, but against the LORD; therefore he refers the matter to Jehovah himself, who punishes this blasphemy in the most signal manner.

34. gods of Hamath, and of Arpad] Of Hamath, see above on 2 Kings 17:24. Arpad is always spoken of in connexion with Hamath, but the site of the place has not been determined, nor any trace of the name found except in the Bible (2 Kings 19:13; Jeremiah 49:23; Isaiah 10:9; Isaiah 36:19; Isaiah 37:13). In the two last-named places A.V. writes the word Arphad, and the same spelling is found 2Es 9:26 as a various reading for Ardath. From the passage in Jeremiah above quoted it is manifest that like Hamath, it belonged to Damascus, for it is included in the prophecy concerning that city. The chief god of Damascus was Rimmon. the gods of Sepharvaim] See above, on 2 Kings 17:31. Hena] The LXX. represents the name by Ἀ ?íὰ. From the combination of the gods of Sepharvaim with those of the other two places here mentioned, we should gather that the worship in all three was the same. This gives support to the conjecture which identifies Hena with Ana, a city not far from Sepharvaim. Other opinions favour the identification of the place with Anat, an island in the Euphrates, near its union with the Khabour. This also would be not very remote from Sepharvaim. and Ivah] R.V. Ivvah. This place is supposed to be the same with Ava (R.V. Avvah) in 2 Kings 17:24 above, where see note. If it be identified, as has been suggested, with Ahava, all the three places lie close together. ‘Hena’ and ‘Ivah’ are omitted from the parallel passage in Isaiah. have they delivered Samaria] Among the gods of the countries, the gods of Samaria have been in Rab-shakeh’s thoughts though he has not expressly spoken of them. But here, as if he had done so, he asks: Have they delivered Samaria?

Arpad was situated somewhere in southern Syria; but it is impossible to fix its exact position. Sargon mentions it in an inscription as joining with Hamath in an act of rebellion, which he chastised.

34. On Hamath, Sepharvaim, and Ivah, see notes on 2 Kings 17:24.