2 Raja-raja 17:4-6

17:4 The king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea was planning a revolt. ¹  Hoshea had sent messengers to King So ²  of Egypt and had not sent his annual tribute to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria arrested him and imprisoned him. ³  17:5 The king of Assyria marched through ⁴  the whole land. He attacked Samaria and besieged it for three years. 17:6 In the ninth year of Hoshea’s reign, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the people of Israel ⁵  to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, along the Habor (the river of Gozan), and in the cities of the Medes.

2 Raja-raja 18:33-35

18:33 Have any of the gods of the nations actually rescued his land from the power of the king of Assyria? ⁶  18:34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? ⁷  Indeed, did any gods rescue Samaria ⁸  from my power? ⁹  18:35 Who among all the gods of the lands has rescued their lands from my power? So how can the Lord rescue Jerusalem from my power?’” ¹⁰ 

[17:4]  ¹ tn Heb “and the king of Assyria found in Hoshea conspiracy.”

[17:4]  ² sn For discussion of this name, see HALOT 744 s.v. סוֹא and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 196.

[17:4]  ³ tn Heb “and bound him in the house of confinement.”

[17:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “went up against.”

[17:6]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew text has simply “Israel” as the object of the verb.

[18:33]  ⁶ tn Heb “Have the gods of the nations really rescued, each his land, from the hand of the king of Assyria?” The infinitive absolute lends emphasis to the main verb. The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course not!”

[18:34]  ⁷ tn The parallel passage in Isa 36:19 omits “Hena and Ivvah.” The rhetorical questions in v. 34a suggest the answer, “Nowhere, they seem to have disappeared in the face of Assyria’s might.”

[18:34]  ⁸ map For location see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.

[18:34]  ⁹ 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. 33, 35).

[18:35]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “that the Lord might rescue Jerusalem from my hand?” The logic runs as follows: Since no god has ever been able to withstand the Assyrian onslaught, how can the people of Jerusalem possibly think the Lord will rescue them?