Yesaya 10:9

10:9 Is not Calneh like Carchemish?

Hamath like Arpad?

Samaria like Damascus? ¹ 

Yesaya 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 

Yesaya 37:13

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

[10:9]  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.

[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).

[37:13]  ⁵ sn Lair was a city located in northeastern Babylon. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 235.