2 Kings 16:9 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
2 Kings 16:9
And the king of Assyria hearkened unto him: for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried the people of it captive to Kir, and slew Rezin.
a king · noun, common masculine singular construct
Assyria
אַשּׁ֔וּר'a.Shur
H804
Ashshur · proper noun, a place name
hearkened
וַיִּשְׁמַ֤עvai.yish.Ma'
H8085
to hear intelligently (often with implication of attent… · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
king
מֶ֨לֶךְMe.lekh
H4428
a king · noun, common masculine singular construct
Assyria
אַשּׁ֤וּר'a.Shur
H804
Ashshur · proper noun, a place name
up
וַיַּעַל֩vai.ya.'Al
H5927
to ascend · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Damascus
דַּמֶּ֙שֶׂק֙da.Me.sek
H1834
Damascus · proper noun, a place name
took
וַֽיִּתְפְּשֶׂ֔הָvai.yit.pe.Se.ha
H8610
to manipulate · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
captive
וַיַּגְלֶ֖הָvai.yag.Le.ha
H1540
to denude (especially in a disgraceful sense) · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
Kir
קִ֑ירָהKi.rah
H7024
Kir · proper noun, a place name + directional suffix
slew
הֵמִֽיתhe.Mit
H4191
to die (literally or figuratively) · verb, hiphil perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Rezin
רְצִ֖יןre.Tzin
H7526
Retsin · proper noun, a man's name
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Isaiah 22:6 And Elam bare the quiver with chariots of men and horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield.
Amos 9:7 Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? saith the LORD. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egyp…
Amos 1:3-5 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have thre…
2 Chronicles 28:5 Wherefore the LORD his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria; and they smote him, and carried away a great multitude of them…
2 Chronicles 28:21 For Ahaz took away a portion out of the house of the LORD, and out of the house of the king, and of the princes, and gave it unto the king o…
Isaiah 7:16 For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.
Isaiah 9:11 Therefore the LORD shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him, and join his enemies together;
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 2 Kings 16:5-9
Here is, 1. The attempt of his confederate neighbours, the kings of Syria and Israel, upon him. They thought to make themselves masters of Jerusalem, and to set a king of their own in it, Isa 7:6. In this they fell short, but the king of Syria recovered Elath, a considerable port upon the Red Sea, which Amaziah had taken from the Syrians, Kg2 14:22. What can those keep that have lost their religion? Let them expect, thenceforward, to be always on the losing hand. 2. His project to get clear of them. Having forsaken God, he had neither courage nor strength to make head against his enemies, nor could he, with any boldness, ask help of God; but he made his court to the king of Assyria, and got…
So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser--In spite of the assurance given him by Isaiah by two signs, the one immediate, the other remote (Isa 7:14; Isa 8:4), that the confederate kings would not prevail against him, Ahaz sought aid from the Assyrian monarch, to purchase which he sent the treasures of the palace and temple. Tiglath-pileser marched against Damascus, slew Rezin the king, and carried the people of Damascus into captivity to Kir, which is thought to have been the city Karine (now Kerend), in Media.
Adam Clarke on 2 Kings 16:9
The king of Assyria hearkened unto him - It is said, Ch2 28:20, that Tilgath-pilneser distressed him, but strengthened him not.
Though he came against the Syrians, and took Damascus, and slew Rezin, yet he did not help Ahaz against the Philistines, nor did he lend him any forces to assist against Israel; and he distressed him by taking the royal treasures, and the treasures of the temple, and did him little service for so great a sacrifice. He helped him a little, but distressed him on the whole.
It appears that, about this time, Pekah king of Israel nearly ruined Judea: it is said, Ch2 28:6, that he slew one hundred thousand valiant men in one day; and that he carried away captive to Samari…
Ahaz — Possessor. (1.) A grandson of Jonathan (1 Chr. 8:35; 9:42). (2.) The son and successor of Jotham, king of Judah (2 Kings 16; Isa. 7-9; 2 Chr. 28). He gave himself up to a life of wickedness and…
Alliances — On the first establishment of the Hebrews in Palestine no connections were formed between them and the surrounding nations. But with the extension of their power under the kings alliances became…
Damascus — Activity, the most ancient of Oriental cities; the capital of Syria (Isa. 7:8; 17:3); situated about 133 miles to the north of Jerusalem. Its modern name is Esh-Sham; i.e., “the East.” The situation…
Isaiah — (Heb. Yesh’yahu, i.e., “the salvation of Jehovah”). (1.) The son of Amoz (Isa. 1:1; 2:1), who was apparently a man of humble rank. His wife was called “the prophetess” (8:3), either because she was…
Kir — A wall or fortress, a place to which Tiglath-pileser carried the Syrians captive after he had taken the city of Damascus (2 Kings 16:9; Amos 1:5; 9:7). Isaiah (22:6), who also was contemporary with…
Pekah — Open-eyed, the son of Remaliah a captain in the army of Pekahiah, king of Israel, whom he slew, with the aid of a band of Gileadites, and succeeded (B.C. 758) on the throne (2 Kings 15:25). Seventeen…
Rezin — Firm; a prince, a king of Syria, who joined Pekah (q.v.) in an invasion of the kingdom of Judah (2 Kings 15:37; 16:5-9; Isa. 7:1-8). Ahaz induced Tiglath-pileser III. to attack Damascus, and this…
Tiglath-Pileser III. — Or Tilgath-Pil-neser, the Assyrian throne-name of Pul (q.v.). He appears in the Assyrian records as gaining, in the fifth year of his reign (about B.C. 741), a victory over Azariah (= Uzziah in 2…
Tiglathpileser — (In (1 Chronicles 5:26) and again in 2Chr 28:20 The name of this king is given as TIGLATH-PILNESER.) Tiglath-pileser is the second Assyrian king mentioned in Scripture as having come into contact…
Ahaz · .Robs the temple to purchase aid from the king of Asia
John Gill on 2 Kings 16:9
And the king of Assyria hearkened unto him,.... Complied with his request:
for the king of Syria went up against Damascus, and took it; the metropolis of the kingdom of Syria, and so made a powerful diversion in favour of the king of Judah:
and carried the people of it captive to Kir; not Cyrene, as the Vulgate Latin version, a country belonging to Egypt, which the king of Assyria had no power over; but a place in upper Media, as Josephus (p) relates, which belonged to the Assyrian king; see Isaiah 22:6, compared with 2 Kings 21:2, of this captivity Amos had prophesied some time before, Amos 1:5.
and slew Rezin; the king of Syria, which also was foretold in the same prophecy.
(p) Antiqu.…
Tiglath-pileser then marched against Damascus, took the city, slew Rezin, and led the inhabitants away to Kir, as Amos had prophesied (Amo 1:3-5). קיר, Kir, from which, according to Amo 9:7, the Aramaeans had emigrated to Syria, is no doubt a district by the river Kur (Κῦρος, Κύῤῥος), which taking its rise in Armenia, unites with the Araxes and flows into the Caspian Sea, although from the length of the river Kur it is impossible to define precisely the locality in which they were placed; and the statement of Josephus (Ant. ix. 13, 3), that the Damascenes were transported εἰς τὴν ἄνω Μηδίαν, is somewhat indefinite, and moreover has hardly been derived from early historical sources (…
— .Robs the temple to purchase aid from the king of Asia
Assyria · Tiglathpileser king of: Conquered Syria — Tiglathpileser king of: Conquered Syria
Damascus · Taken by king of Assyria — Taken by king of Assyria
Diplomacy · .Ahaz purchases assistance from the king of Assyria — .Ahaz purchases assistance from the king of Assyria
Kings · Who reigned over Judah: Ahaz — Who reigned over Judah: Ahaz
Kir · The inhabitants of Damascus — The inhabitants of Damascus
Rezin · 1. A king of Syria who harassed the — 1. A king of Syria who harassed the
Syria · .By Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria — .By Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
