Isaiah 10:9

10:5-19 See what a change sin made. The king of Assyria, in his pride, thought to act by his own will. The tyrants of the world are tools of Providence. God designs to correct his people for their hypocrisy, and bring them nearer to him; but is that Sennacherib's design? No; he designs to gratify his own covetousness and ambition. The Assyrian boasts what great things he has done to other nations, by his own policy and power. He knows not that it is God who makes him what he is, and puts the staff into his hand. He had done all this with ease; none moved the wing, or cried as birds do when their nests are rifled. Because he conquered Samaria, he thinks Jerusalem would fall of course. It was lamentable that Jerusalem should have set up graven images, and we cannot wonder that she was excelled in them by the heathen. But is it not equally foolish for Christians to emulate the people of the world in vanities, instead of keeping to things which are their special honour? For a tool to boast, or to strive against him that formed it, would not be more out of the way, than for Sennacherib to vaunt himself against Jehovah. When God brings his people into trouble, it is to bring sin to their remembrance, and humble them, and to awaken them to a sense of their duty; this must be the fruit, even the taking away of sin. When these points are gained by the affliction, it shall be removed in mercy. This attempt upon Zion and Jerusalem should come to nothing.

Is not Calno as Carchemish? have not I conquered one place as well as another, the stronger as well as the weaker? Have I not from time to time added new conquests to the old? Calno seems to be the same with Calneh , Genesis 10:10 Amos 6:2 , a great and strong city. Carchemish was a city upon Euphrates, of which 2 Chronicles 35:20 Jeremiah 46:2 . Is not Hamath as Arpad? Hamath was an eminent city of Syria, not far from Euphrates, called Hemath , or Hamath the great , Amos 6:2 ; of which see 2 Kings 14:28 17:24 Jeremiah 49:23 . Arpad seems to have been an obscure place, not being elsewhere named. Is not that as soon conquered as this? Is not Samaria as Damascus? or, shall not Samaria be as Damascus ? Shall I not take that as I have done this city? For although Damascus possibly was not yet taken by the Assyrian, yet the prophet speaks of it as actually taken, because these words are prophetically delivered, and supposed to be uttered by the king of Assyria at or about the siege of Samaria, when Damascus was taken.

9. Is not … as—Was there any one of these cities able to withstand me? Not one. So Rab-shakeh vaunts (Isa 36:19). Calno—Calneh, built by Nimrod (Ge 10:10), once his capital, on the Tigris. Carchemish—Circesium, on the Euphrates. Taken afterwards by Necho, king of Egypt; and retaken by Nebuchadnezzar: by the Euphrates (Jer 46:2). Hamath—in Syria, north of Canaan (Ge 10:18). Taken by Assyria about 753 B.C. From it colonists were planted by Assyria in Samaria. Arpad—near Hamath. Samaria—now overthrown. Damascus—(Isa 17:1, 3).

9 . The six cities are enumerated in geographical order from north to south, the first of each pair being, however, nearer to Jerusalem than the second. (1) The site of Carchemish (Ass. Gargamîsh ) was identified by Mr G. Smith with the ruins of Jerabîs on the right bank of the Euphrates. As a great centre of the Hittite confederacy it had been frequently subdued by Assyrian kings, and was ultimately incorporated in the Empire by Sargon in 717. (2) Calno is probably Kullani , a city near Arpad, captured by Tiglath-pileser III. about 738. It is probably identical with the Calneh mentioned in Amos 6:2 ; but quite distinct from the Babylonian Calnçh of Genesis 10:10 . (3) Arpad (now Tell Erfâd , about 15 miles north of Aleppo) was taken about 740 by Tiglath-pileser. (4) Hamath ( Hamah , on the Orontes, about half way between Carchemish and Damascus) was taken by Tiglath-pileser in 738 and again by Sargon in 720. (5) Damascus fell about 732 and (6) Samaria in 722.

Verse 9. - Is not Calno as Carehemish ? A further proof of superiority, and ground of confidence, lay in the further fact, that the strongest cities had, one and all, succumbed to the Assyrian arms, and been laid in ruins to punish them for offering resistance. Six such cities are mentioned - Calneh, probably Niffer, in Lower Mesopotamia; Carchemish, on the right bank of the Euphrates in Lat. 36° 30' nearly; Hamath, the "great Hamath" of Amos ( Amos 6:2 ), in Coelesyria on the routes; Arpad, perhaps Tel-Erfad, near Aleppo; Damascus, and Samaria. Calneh was one of the cities of Nimrod ( Genesis 10:10 ), and, according to the LXX., was "the place where the tower was built." It may have been taken by Tiglath-Pileser in one of his expeditious into Babylonia. Amos ( Amos 6:2 ) speaks of it as desolate in his day. Carchemish (Assyrian Gargamis ) was a chief city of the Hittites, and has been called "their northern capital." Long confounded by geographers with Circesium at the junction of the Khabour with the Euphrates, it has recently been proved to have occupied a far more northern position, and is now generally identified with the ruins discovered by Mr. George Smith at Jerabis or Jerabhs. It was conquered by Sargon in B.C. 717 , when "its people were led captive, and scattered over the Assyrian empire, while Assyrian colonists were brought to people the city in their place; Carchemish being formally annexed to Assyria, and placed under an Assyrian governor" (G.

Smith, 'Assyria,' p. 97). Hamath was originally a Canaanite city ( Genesis 10:18 ). By the time of David it had become the scat of an independent monarchy ( 2 Samuel 8:9, 10 ), and so continued until its reduction by the Assyrians. We find it leagued with the Hittites, the Syrians of Damascus, and the Israelites against Assyria about B.C. 850 ('Ancient Monarchies,' vol. 2. pp. 361-363). About B.C. 720 it was taken by Sargon, who beheaded its king, and probably reduced it to ruins (ibid., p. 411; comp. Amos 6:2 ). The name remains in the modern Hamah , where many curious inscriptions have been recently dug up. Arpad was attacked by Tiglath-Pileser in the early part of his reign, and reduced to subjection. It revolted in conjunction with Hamath from Sargon, and was severely punished ('Ancient Monarchies,' l.s.c.). Is not Samaria as Damascus? This mention of Samaria among the subjugated and ruined cities may undoubtedly be prophetic; but the connection with Carchemish, Hamath, and Arpad all of them towns reduced by Sargon within the years B.C. 720-717 - points rather to the verse being historical, and would seem to indicate that the date of the entire prophecy - vers. 5-19 - is subsequent to the capture of the cities, and so not earlier than B.C. 716 . Isaiah 10:9

(9) Is not Calno as Carchemish? —The six names obviously pointed to more recent conquests in which Sargon and his predecessors had exulted. One after another they had fallen. Could Judah hope to escape? (1) Calno, the Calneh of Genesis 10:10 , Amos 6:2 . That prophet had held up its fate in vain as a warning to Samaria. It has been identified by Kay with Ctesiphon on the east bank of the Tigris, by Lenormant ( Manual, i. 80) with Ur of the Chaldees and with the ruins known now as the Mugheir, by Rawlinson ( Five Great Monarchies, i. 20) with Nipur. The Assyrian form, Kil-Anu, means the “house” or “temple” of Anu, an Assyrian deity). Sennacherib (Lenormant i. 398), speaks of having reconquered it after a Chaldean revolt, and sold its inhabitants as slaves. The LXX. version, which instead of naming Carchemish, gives “Calanè, where the tower was built,” seems to imply a tradition identifying that city with the Tower of Babel of Genesis 11:4 . (2) Carchemish. Few cities of the ancient world occupied a more prominent position than this. Its name has been explained as meaning the Tower of Chemosh, and so bears witness to the widespread cultus of the deity whom we meet with in Biblical history as the “abomination of the Moabites” ( 1Kings 11:7 ). It has been commonly identified with the Circesium of Greek historians, but the inscriptions found by Mr.

George Smith at Tarabolos (the Hierapolis of the Greeks) on the banks of the Euphrates, at its junction with the Kyabur, prove that this is the true representative of the great commercial city of the old Hittite kings ( Times, Aug. 23, 1876). Its importance is shown by the frequent occurrence of the name, in its Egyptian form of Karakumusha, in the record of Egyptian kings. Thothmes I. ( circa B.C. 1600) conquered it, and, as a result of his campaign, strengthened the forces of Egypt with the chariots and horses for which it was afterwards conspicuous (Lenormant, Manual, 1 p. 229). Thothmes III. built a fortress there to guard the passage of the Euphrates ( ibid. 1 p. 232), the ruins of which, with Egyptian inscriptions and works of Egyptian manufacture, have recently been found there ( ibid. 1 p.,263). It revolted against Ramses II. (the Sesostris of the Greeks), with the Hittites and Phœnicians, and other nations, but was subdued by him in the expedition in which the victorious issue is recorded on the monument on the Nahr-el-Kelb near Beyrût. Shalmaneser IV. (contemporary with Ahab) records that he demolished and burnt it ( ibid. 1 p. 380). Tiglath-pileser II., the king to whom Ahaz paid tribute, received tribute from its king in B.C. 742 ( ibid. 1 p. 389). The last two victories are probably referred to in the boast now before us. At a later period it was conspicuous for the great defeat of Pharaoh Necho’s army by Nebuchadnezzar (see notes on Jeremiah 46:2 ).