Arpad(arphad)
“Support or spread out”
Summary
A Syrian city near Hamath that was conquered by the Assyrians and used as an example of the futility of resistance to Assyrian power.
☩Location and Conquest
Arpad was a Syrian city having its own king, located in the neighborhood of Hamath and Damascus. It was captured by the Assyrians and is now identified with the ruin Tell Erfad, about 13 miles northwest of Aleppo. Tiglath-pileser III conquered it in 740 BC after a siege of two years.
☩Assyrian Propaganda
Arpad is one of the conquered cities mentioned by Rabshakeh, the officer of Sennacherib, in his boast before Jerusalem's walls. The Assyrian taunted Hezekiah by asking where the gods of Hamath and Arpad were, implying that Judah's God would be equally powerless. Isaiah also puts a boast about Arpad's capture in the mouth of the Assyrian king, and Jeremiah mentions it as 'confounded' because of evil tidings. It fell before Sennacherib.
Related Verses6 mentions
References
- 1.John McClintock and James Strong, "Arpad," in Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, vol. I (Harper & Brothers, 1867–1887).
- 2.James Orr (ed.), "Arpad; Arphad," in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, vol. I (Howard-Severance Company, 1915).
- 3.Andrew Robert Fausset, "Arpad," in The Englishman's Critical and Expository Bible Cyclopædia (Hodder & Stoughton, 1878).