Isaiah 36:18-19

36:18 Hezekiah is misleading you when he says, “The Lord will rescue us.” Has any of the gods of the nations rescued his land from the power of the king of Assyria?¹ 36:19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim?² Indeed, did any gods rescue Samaria³ from my power?⁴

Isaiah 37:12

37:12 Were the nations whom my predecessors⁵ destroyed – the nations of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden in Telassar – rescued by their gods?⁶

Isaiah 37:19

37:19 They have burned the gods of the nations,⁷ for they are not really gods, but only the product of human hands manufactured from wood and stone. That is why the Assyrians could destroy them.⁸

Isaiah 44:17

44:17 With the rest of it he makes a god, his idol;

he bows down to it and worships it.

He prays to it, saying,

‘Rescue me, for you are my god!’

Isaiah 45:20

45:20 Gather together and come!

Approach together, you refugees from the nations!

Those who carry wooden idols know nothing,

those who pray to a god that cannot deliver.

¹tn Heb “Have the gods of the nations rescued, each his land, from the hand of the king of Assyria?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course not!”

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

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

⁴tn 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).

⁵tn Heb “fathers” (so KJV, NAB, NASB); NIV “forefathers”; NCV “ancestors.”

⁶tn Heb “Did the gods of the nations whom my fathers destroyed rescue them – Gozan and Haran, and Rezeph and the sons of Eden who are in Telassar?”

⁷tn Heb “and they put their gods in the fire.”

⁸tn Heb “so they destroyed them” (NASB similar).