Isaiah 10:9

10:9 Is not Calneh like Carchemish?

Hamath like Arpad?

Samaria like Damascus? ¹ 

Isaiah 36:19

36:19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? ²  Indeed, did any gods rescue Samaria ³  from my power? ⁴ 

Isaiah 37:13

37:13 Where are the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the kings of Lair, ⁵  Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’”

Isaiah 51:13

51:13 Why do you forget ⁶  the Lord, who made you,

who stretched out the sky ⁷ 

and founded the earth?

Why do you constantly tremble all day long ⁸ 

at the anger of the oppressor,

when he makes plans to destroy?

Where is the anger of the oppressor? ⁹ 

Isaiah 51:20

51:20 Your children faint;

they lie at the head of every street

like an antelope in a snare.

They are left in a stupor by the Lord’s anger,

by the battle cry of your God. ¹⁰ 

¹ sn Calneh … Carchemish … Hamath … Arpad … Samaria … Damascus. The city states listed here were conquered by the Assyrians between 740-717 b.c. The point of the rhetorical questions is that no one can stand before Assyria’s might. On the geographical, rather than chronological arrangement of the cities, see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:264, n. 4.

² tn The rhetorical questions in v. 34a suggest the answer, “Nowhere, they seem to have disappeared in the face of Assyria’s might.”

³ map For location see Map2-B1; Map4-D3; Map5-E2; Map6-A4; Map7-C1.

⁴ tn Heb “that they rescued Samaria from my hand?” But this gives the impression that the gods of Sepharvaim were responsible for protecting Samaria, which is obviously not the case. The implied subject of the plural verb “rescued” must be the generic “gods of the nations/lands” (vv. 18, 20).

³ sn Lair was a city located in northeastern Babylon. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 235.

⁴ tn Heb “and that you forget.”

⁵ tn Or “the heavens” (also in v. 16). The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.

⁶ tn Heb “and that you tremble constantly all the day.”

⁷ tn The question anticipates the answer, “Ready to disappear!” See v. 14.

⁵ tn Heb “those who are full of the anger of the Lord, the shout [or “rebuke”] of your God.”