2 Kings 18:34
in 2 Kings 18Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Where are the gods of Hamath, and of Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah? have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?
KJV
Where are the gods of Hamath, and of Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah? have they delivered Samaria out of mine hand?
⋯
This verse in 2 Kings 18
Commentary
7 notes on this verseAs I have already said, Sennacherib is a type of the devil, and this hypothesis is perfectly confirmed by the words that in this passage the Rabshakeh boastfully speaks against God when he makes false promises to the people, trying to take away from [God] …
This site's exposition
gods of the nations delivered
on 2 Kings 18:33-35
Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered at all his land is the speech's argument from history, a list of conquered cities, Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivah, each one offered as proof that no god has ever stopped Assyria. The argument's flaw is the category it assumes, that the Lord is one more national god comparable to Hamath's or Arpad's, the very point chapters 18 through 19 exist to answer. Verse 35 closes the taunt with the direct question, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of mine hand, and the chapters ahead answer it rather than this one.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
"Where is the god of Hemath and Arphad? Where is the god of Sepharvaim?" [2 Kings 18:34] Rabsheh said this among other things with which he blasphemed God, crying out against Jerusalem: Where is the god of Hemath and Arphad? Where is the god of …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
His great piety, which was the more wonderful because his father was very wicked and vile, one of the worst of the kings, yet he was one of the best, which may intimate to us that what good there is in any is not of nature, but of grace, free grace, sovereign grace, which, contrary to nature, grafts into the good olive that which was wild by nature ( Rom. xi.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
The tradition of the Jews is that Rabshakeh was an apostate Jew, which made him so ready in the Jews' language; if so, his ignorance of the God of Israel was the less excusable and his enmity the less strange, for apostates are commonly the most bitter and spiteful enemies, witness Julian.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
Where are the gods of Hamath - Sennacherib is greater than any of the gods of the nations. The Assyrians have already overthrown the gods of Hamath, Arpad, Hena, and Ivah; therefore, Jehovah shall be like one of them, and shall not be able to deliver Jerusalem out of the hand of my master. The impudent blasphemy of this speech is without parallel. Hezekiah treated it as he ought: it was not properly against him, but against the Lord; therefore he refers the matter to Jehovah himself, who punishes this blasphemy in the most signal manner.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Arpad was situated somewhere in southern Syria; but it is impossible to fix its exact position. Sargon mentions it in an inscription as joining with Hamath in an act of rebellion, which he chastised. It was probably the capture and destruction of these two cities on this occasion which caused them to be mentioned together here (and in 2Ki 19:13, and again in Isa 10:9). Sennacherib adduces late examples of the inability of the nations’ gods to protect their cities. On the other cities mentioned in this verse, see 2Ki 17:24 notes.
The words behind it
14 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אַיֵּה֩ | ʾaiyeh | where? | H346 → | 45 times |
| אֱלֹהֵ֨י | ʾelohei | [were] [the] gods of | H430 → | 2601 times |
| חֲמָ֜ת | chamat | Hamath | H2574 → | 35 times |
| וְאַרְפָּ֗ד | vearpad | and Arpad | H774 → | |
| אַיֵּ֛ה | ʾaiyeh | where? | H346 → | 45 times |
| אֱלֹהֵ֥י | ʾelohei | [were] [the] gods of | H430 → | 2601 times |
| סְפַרְוַ֖יִם | sefarvayim | Sepharvaim | H5617 → | 6 times |
| הֵנַ֣ע | hena' | Hena | H2012 → | |
| וְעִוָּ֑ה | veivah | and Ivvah | H5755 → | 4 times |
| כִּֽי־ | ki- | that | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| הִצִּ֥ילוּ | hitzilu | they have delivered | H5337 → | 212 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| שֹׁמְר֖וֹן | shomeron | Samaria | H8111 → | 109 times |
| מִיָּדִֽי׃ | miyadi | from hand my | H3027 → | 1618 times |
אַיֵּה֩where?
ʾaiyehH346 →45 times
אֱלֹהֵ֨י[were] [the] gods of
ʾeloheiH430 →2601 times
חֲמָ֜תHamath
chamatH2574 →35 times
וְאַרְפָּ֗דand Arpad
vearpadH774 →
אַיֵּ֛הwhere?
ʾaiyehH346 →45 times
אֱלֹהֵ֥י[were] [the] gods of
ʾeloheiH430 →2601 times
סְפַרְוַ֖יִםSepharvaim
sefarvayimH5617 →6 times
הֵנַ֣עHena
hena'H2012 →
וְעִוָּ֑הand Ivvah
veivahH5755 →4 times
כִּֽי־that
ki-H3588 →4482 times
הִצִּ֥ילוּthey have delivered
hitziluH5337 →212 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
שֹׁמְר֖וֹןSamaria
shomeronH8111 →109 times
מִיָּדִֽי׃from hand my
miyadiH3027 →1618 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
2 Kings 17:6In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried away the Israelites to Assyria, where he settled them in Halah, in Gozan by the Habor River, and in the…
it leads to
- Hosea 13:16
Samaria will bear her guilt because she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open.
- 1 Chronicles 5:26
So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria (that is, Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria) to take the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh into exile. And…
- Deuteronomy 28:64
Then the LORD will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone, which neither you…
- Deuteronomy 29:27–28
Therefore the anger of the LORD burned against this land, and He brought upon it every curse written in this book.
- Isaiah 21:2
A dire vision is declared to me: “The traitor still betrays, and the destroyer still destroys. Go up, O Elam! Lay siege, O Media! I will put an end to all her groaning.”
- Hosea 13:16
Through
Isaiah 10:9“Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?
it leads to
- 2 Kings 16:9
So the king of Assyria responded to him, marched up to Damascus, and captured it. He took its people to Kir as captives and put Rezin to death.
- 2 Chronicles 35:20
After all this, when Josiah had set the temple in order, Neco king of Egypt marched up to fight at Carchemish by the Euphrates, and Josiah went out to confront him.
- Jeremiah 46:2
concerning Egypt and the army of Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt, which was defeated at Carchemish on the Euphrates River by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of…
- 2 Kings 16:9
Where this verse is studied
About 2 Kings
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Bede, Questions on the Book of Kings #24; Ephrem the Syrian, ON THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS 18:19; Keil, The Books of the Kings and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.