Isaiah 36:19

“Where are the gods of Hamath and Arphad? &c.] What is become of them? where are they to be found? where’s their power to protect and defend the people they presided over? thus they might be justly derided, but not so the God at Israel; these places are mentioned in (<231009>Isaiah 10:9). Hamath was a city in Syria, thought by some to be the same afterwards called Antiochia and Epiphania, from Antiochus Epiphanes: Arphad is joined with it in (<244923>Jeremiah 49:23) as a city of Syria; perhaps originally founded and inhabited by the Arvadite, mentioned with the Hamathite, in (<011018>Genesis 10:18): where are the gods of Sepharvaim? another place in Syria, the city Sipphore; not the Sipphara…”

“Hamath . . . Arphad--(See on Isa 10:9). Sepharvaim--literally, "the two scribes"; now Sipphara, on the east of Euphrates, above Babylon. It was a just retribution (Pro 1:31; Jer 2:19). Israel worshipped the gods of Sepharvaim, and so colonists of Sepharvaim were planted in the land of Israel (thenceforth called Samaria) by the Assyrian conqueror (Kg2 17:24; compare Kg2 18:34). Samaria--Shalmaneser began the siege against Hoshea, because of his conspiring with So of Egypt (Kg2 17:4). Sargon finished it; and, in his palace at Khorsabad, he has mentioned the number of Israelites carried captive--27,280 [G. V. SMITH].”

“Where are the gods of Hamath ... - In regard to these places, see the notes at Isaiah 10:9-11. Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? - Sepharvaim was probably in Mesopotamia. Ptolemy mentions a city there of the name of Sipphara, as the most southern city of Mesopotamia, which is probably the same. It is evident that it was in the vicinity of Hamath and Arphad, and these are known to have been in Mesopotamia. When Shalmaneser carried Israel away captive from Samaria, he sent colonies of people into Palestine in their stead, among whom were the Sepharvaim 2 Kings 17:24, 2 Kings 17:31. And have they delivered Samaria - (See the note at Isaiah 10:11). The author of the Books of Chronicles expresses…”

“36:19 The populations of Hamath and Arpad had been relocated to Samaria, where the new local deities were the gods of Sepharvaim (2 Kgs 17:24). The logic of the argument made sense to an Assyrian. If the Assyrian gods defeated all the gods of the other nations and the God of the Israelite nation of Samaria, would they not also defeat the God of Judah?”

“Hamath: Num 34:8; Sa2 8:9 Arphad: The variation of Arphad and Arpad exists only in the translation; the original being uniformly ארפד \[Strong's H774\]. Isa 10:9; Jer 49:23, Arpad Sepharvaim: Calmet is of opinion that Sepharvaim was the capital of the Saspires, who, according to Herodotus, were the only people that inhabited between the Colchians and Medes; and probably the Sarapases, whom Strabo places in Armenia. Hiller considers the name as denoting Sephar of the Parvaim, i.e., Mount Sephar adjacent to the regions of Arabia called Parvaim. But it is more probable, as Wells and others suppose, that Sepharvaim is the Σιπφαρα, Sipphara, of Ptolemy, the Σιππαρηνων πολις, the city of the…”