Isaiah 37:12 - Exposition

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". 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 ( 2 Kings 17:6 ; 2 Kings 18:11 ; 1 Chronicles 5:26 ). "Harsh" is the well-known "city of Nahor" ( Genesis 24:10 ), called in Acts 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. 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. The children of Eden . The Assyrian inscriptions mention a "Bit-Adini" (comp. Amos 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.