Isaiah 37:12

37:12 The argument was that Judah’s god, like the gods of other nations already conquered by Assyria, would be unable to save Judah (see also 36:18-20). • Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, . . . Eden, and Tel-assar were cities in Mesopotamia.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Which was a city of the Medes.

Called also Charre a city in Mesopotamia, whence Abraham came after his father’s death.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Gozan--in Mesopotamia, on the Chabour (Kg2 17:6; Kg2 18:11). Gozan is the name of the district, Chabour of the river.

Haran--more to the west. Abraham removed to it from Ur (Gen 11:31); the Carroe of the Romans.

Rezeph--farther west, in Syria.

Eden--There is an ancient village, Adna, north of Baghdad. Some think Eden to be the name of a region (of Mesopotamia or its vicinity) in which was Paradise; Paradise was not Eden itself (Gen 2:8). "A garden in Eden."

Telassar--now Tel-afer, west of Mosul [LAYARD]. Tel means a "hill" in Arabic and Assyrian names.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 12. As Gozan, and Haran] חרן Charan: but הרן Haran is the reading of four of Kennicott's MSS. and one of De Rossi's.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(12) Gozan . . .—The induction drawn from the enumeration of conquered nations is continued. Strictly speaking, Sargon, the father of Sennacherib, was the founder of a new dynasty; but the “fathers” are, as commonly in the formulæ of Eastern kings, the predecessors of the reigning king. The position of Gozan is defined by 2Ki_17:6 as being on the Habor, or Khabûr, which flows into the Tigris from the east, above Mosul. Haran is probably identical with Abraham’s resting-place (Gen_11:31), and the Charran of Josephus and St. Stephen’s speech (Act_7:4). “Rezeph” is identified with the Rhesepher of Ptolemy (Isa_5:13; Isa_5:6) below Thapeacus, between the ’Euphrates and Tadmor (= Palmyra). Telassar is probably an altered form of Tel-Assur (the hill of Assur), and was probably a new name given to a conquered city, after the manner in which Shalmaneser records that he gave names to cities that he had taken belonging to Akhuni, the son of Adini (Records of the Past, iii. 87, v. 30). In the patronymic we may trace the sons of Eden of this verse. In Amo_1:5 we have a Beth-Eden named as connected with Damascus; and in Eze_27:23 an “Eden” connected with Haran and Asshur, as carrying on traffic with Tyre. The latter is probably identical with that named by Sennacherib.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12. my fathers here means “my predecessors”; for the dynasty to which Sennacherib belonged had been founded by his father Sargon. The place-names in this verse are all found on the Assyrian monuments. (See Schrader, Cuneiform Inscriptions, on 2Ki_19:12.) Gozan (Assyr. Guzana) is one of the places to which the Northern Israelites were exiled (2Ki_17:6; 2Ki_18:11); it lay on the river Chaboras, a northern affluent of the Euphrates. Haran is the well-known commercial emporium of northern Mesopotamia, on another tributary (the Belikh) west of the Chaboras. Rezeph (Assyr. Raṣappa) is about 20 miles south of the Euphrates on the route from Haran to Palmyra. Telassar is in Assyrian Til-Assuri (“Hill of Asshur”), a name likely to be of frequent occurrence. The place here can hardly be the Babylonian Til-Assuri mentioned in the monuments; it may rather have been one of the cities of Eden, i.e. the small kingdom called Bit-Adini on the Upper Euphrates.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arphad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim,.... The same, as some think, with the gods or idols of those places; see Gill on Isa 36:19; though it may be the princes that ruled over those cities are meant, who were either slain, or become tributary to the king of Assyria. It is added,

Henah and Ivah: which some take to be the names of the gods or kings of Sepharvaim; but rather, since Sepharvaim is of the dual number, it was a double city, the river Euphrates passing between them; and these, as Musculus conjectures, were the names of them; or it may be, these were distinct cities from that, but what or where they were is not certain. Ptolemy makes mention of a place called Ingine, near Gausanitis or Gozan, supposed to be Henah; though others rather think it to be Ange, which he places in Arabia (i), which I think is not so probable. Ivah perhaps is the same with Avah, in Kg2 17:24. The Targum does not take them for names or places, but translates them,

"hath he not removed them, and carried them captive?''

and so Jarchi's note is,

"the king of Assyria hath moved and overthrown them, and destroyed them, and removed them out of their place;''

referring to the other cities.

(i) Geograph. l. 6. c. 7.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

My fathers - My predecessors on the throne.

Gozan - This was a region or country in the northern part of Mesopotamia, and on the river Chaboras. There was a river of the name of Gozan in Media, which ran through the province, and gave it its name. The river fell probably into the Chaboras. This region is known to have been under the dominion of Assyria, for Shalmaneser, when he had subdued the ten tribes, carried them away beyond the Euphrates to a country bordering on the river Gozan 2Ki 17:6. According to Gesenius, the river which is referred to, is the Chaboras itself. He translates the passage in 2Ki 17:6, thus: ‘And placed them in Chaleitis (Halah), and on the Chabor (Habor), a river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.’ According to this, the river was the Chaboras, the Chabor of Ezekiel, and the region was situated on the Chaboras. This river falls into the Euphrates from the east. Ptolemy calls the region lying between the Chaboras and Laocoras by the name of Gauzanitis, which is doubtless the same as the Hebrew Gozan. Gozan is usually mentioned in connection with cities of Mesopotamia 2Ki 19:12; 1Ch 5:26.

And Haran - This was a city of Mesopotamia, to which Abraham went after he left Ur of the Chaldees. His father died here; and from this place he was called to go into the land of promise (Gen 11:31-32; compare the notes at Act 7:4). It is now called Harran, and is situated in latitude 36 degree 52 minutes north; longitude 39 degrees 5 minutes east, in a flat and sandy plain, and is only populated by a few wandering Arabs, who select it as the place of residence on account of the delicious waters it contains. It belonged by conquest to the Assyrian Empire.

And Rezeph - According to Abulfeda, there were many towns of this name. One, however, was more celebrated than the others, and is probably the one here referred to. It was situated about a day’s journey west of the Euphrates, and is mentioned by Ptolemy by the name of Ῥησαφα Rēsapha (Resapha).

And the children of Eden - Eden was evidently a country well known in the time of Isaiah, and was, doubtless, the tract within which man was placed when he was created. The garden or Paradise was in Eden, and was not properly itself called Eden Gen 2:8. It is probable that Eden was a region or tract of country of considerable extent. Its situation has been a subject of anxious inquiry. It is not proper here to go into an examination of this subject. It is evident from the passage before us that it was either in Mesopotamia, or in the neighborhood of that country, since it is mentioned in connection with cities and towns of that region. It is mentioned by Amos (787 b.c.), as a country then well known, and as a part of Syria, not far from Damascus:

I will break also the bar of Damascus,

And cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven,

And him that holdeth the scepter from the house of Eden,

And the people of Syria shall go into captivity to Kir,

Saith the Lord.

Amo 1:5.

In Isa 51:8, Eden is referred to as a country well known, and as distinguished for its fertility:

For Yahweh shall comfort Zion;

He will comfort all her waste places,

And he will make her wilderness like Eden,

And her desert like the garden of Yahweh.

Thus also in Eze 27:23, we find Eden mentioned in connection with Haran and Canneh. Canneh was probably the same as Calneh Gen 10:10, the Calno of Isaiah Isa 10:9, and was, doubtless, situated in Mesopotamia, since it is joined with cities that are known to have been there (compare also Eze 31:9, Eze 31:16, Eze 31:18). All these passages demonstrate that there was such a country, and prove also that it was either in Mesopotamia, or in a country adjacent to Mesopotamia. It is not, however, possible now to designate its exact boundaries.

In Telassar - This place is nowhere else mentioned in the Scriptures. Nothing, therefore, is known of its situation. The connection demands that it should be in Mesopotamia. The names of ancient places were so often lost or changed that it is often impossible to fix their exact locality.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

My fathers. The Assyrian monarchs call all those who have preceded them upon the throne their "fathers," without intending to claim any blood-relation-ship. Sargon, Sennacherib"s father, though a usurper and the first king of a new dynasty, frequently speaks of "the kings his fathers" ("Records of the Past," ch. 7. pp. 39, 51, etc.). Gozan... Haran ... Rezeph... Telassar. "Gozan" is, beyond all doubt, the region known to the Greeks as Gauzanitis, which was the eastern portion of Upper Mesopotamia, or the country about the sources of the Khabour river. The Assyrian conquest of this tract is indicated by the settlement of the Israelites in the region. (2Ki_17:6 2Ki_18:11 1Ch_5:26) "Harsh" is the well-known "city of Nahor", (Gen_24:10) called in Act_7:2 Charran," and by the Greeks and Romans, Carrhae. It has now recovered its old designation, and is known as Hurrah. "Rezeph" was in the neighborhood of Haran, and is mentioned as belonging to Assyria as early as B.C. 775 ("Eponym Canon," p. 82). It had probably revolted and been reduced at a later date. "Telassar," "the Hill of Asshur," is not mentioned in the Assyrian inscriptions, but was probably the Assyrian name of a town on or near the Euphrates, in the country of the Bent-Eden, which was not far from Carche-mish (see "Records of the Past," ch. 3. pp. 90-92). The children of Eden. The Assyrian inscriptions mention a "Bit-Adini" (comp. Amo_1:5), and a chief who is called "the son of Adini;" both belonging to the Middle Euphrates region. The "children of Eden" (Beni-Eden) were probably the people of the tract about Bit-Adini.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

“Did the gods of the nations deliver them, which my fathers destroyed, (to wit) Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which is (or who were) in Telassar?” Here again the collocation of the words makes the construction doubtful, though the general sense is clear. With respect to the places mentioned in the second clause, all that is absolutely necessary to the just understanding of the sentence, is that they were well known, both to speaker and hearer, as Assyrian conquests. The difficulty of identifying some of them affords an incidental argument in favor of the antiquity and genuineness of the passage. Gozan is probably the modern Kaushan, the Gauzanitis of Ptolemy, a region of Mesopotamia, situated on the Chaboras, to which a portion of the ten tribes were transferred by Shalmaneser. Haran was a city of Mesopotamia, where Abraham’s father died, the Carrae of the Romans, and famous for the great defeat of Crassus. Rezeph, a common name in oriental geography, here denotes probably the Rhessapha of Ptolemy, a town and province in Palmyrene Syria. Eden means pleasure or delight, and seems to have been given as a name to various places. Having been thus applied to a district in the region of Mount Lebanon the native Christians have been led to regard that as the site of the terrestrial paradise. Equally groundless are the conclusions of some learned critics as to the identity of the place here mentioned with the garden of Eden. Such allusions prove no more, as to the site of the garden, than the similar allusions of modern orators and poets to any delightful region as an Eden or Paradise. Even the continued application of the name, in prose, as a geographical term, proves no more than the use of such a name as Mount Pleasant in American geography. The inference, in this place, is especially untenable, because the word sons or children, prefixed to Eden, leaves it doubtful whether the latter is the name of a place at all, and not rather that of a person, whose descendants were among the races conquered by Assyria. The relative pronoun may agree grammatically either with sons or Eden, and the form of the verb to be supplied must be varied accordingly. Telassar, which some think may be identical with the Ellasar of Gen 14:1, appears to be analogous in form to the Babylonian names, Tel-abib, Tel-melah, Tel-hasha, in all which tel means hill and corresponds to the English mount in names of places.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Prophecies of Isaiah (1846–1847; New York: Scribner, 1870–1878) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eden the name of a kingdom, as it is stated (Ezekiel 27:23): “Haran and Canneh and Eden.”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.