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 Samaria ³  from my power? ⁴ 

Isaiah 37:11-12

37:11 Certainly you have heard how the kings of Assyria have annihilated all lands. ⁵  Do you really think you will be rescued? ⁶  37:12 Were the nations whom my predecessors ⁷  destroyed – the nations of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden in Telassar – rescued by their gods? ⁸ 

Isaiah 37:18-19

37:18 It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all the nations ⁹  and their lands. 37:19 They have burned the gods of the nations, ¹⁰  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. ¹¹ 

[36:18]  ¹ tn 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!”

[36:19]  ² tn The rhetorical questions in v. 34a suggest the answer, “Nowhere, they seem to have disappeared in the face of Assyria’s might.”

[36:19]  ³ map For location see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.

[36:19]  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).

[37:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, annihilating them.”

[37:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “and will you be rescued?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “No, of course not!”

[37:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “fathers” (so KJV, NAB, NASB); NIV “forefathers”; NCV “ancestors.”

[37:12]  ⁸ tn 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?”

[37:18]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew text here has “all the lands,” but the parallel text in 2 Kgs 19:17 has “the nations.”

[37:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and they put their gods in the fire.”

[37:19]  ¹¹ tn Heb “so they destroyed them” (NASB similar).