Isaiah 10:9

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Isn’t Calno like Carchemish?Isn’t Hamath like Arpad?Isn’t Samaria like Damascus?

Hebrew Names Version
Isn't Kalno as Karkemish? Isn't Hamat as Arpad? Isn't Shomron as Dammesek?

King James Version
Is not Calno as Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus?

English Standard Version
Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?

New American Standard Bible
"Is not Calno like Carchemish, Or Hamath like Arpad, Or Samaria like Damascus?

New Century Version
The city Calno is like the city Carchemish. The city Hamath is like the city Arpad. The city Samaria is like the city Damascus.

Amplified Bible
"Is not Calno [conquered] like Carchemish [on the Euphrates]? Is not Hamath [subdued] like Arpad [her neighbor]? Is not Samaria [in Israel] like Damascus [in Aram]?

World English Bible
Isn't Calno as Carchemish? Isn't Hamath as Arpad? Isn't Samaria as Damascus?

Geneva Bible (1587)
Is not Calno as Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria as Damascus?

Legacy Standard Bible
Is not Calno like Carchemish,Or Hamath like Arpad,Or Samaria like Damascus?

Berean Standard Bible
"Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?

Contemporary English Version
They have already captured the cities of Calno, Carchemish, Hamath, Arpad, Samaria, and Damascus.

Complete Jewish Bible
Hasn't Kalno [suffered] like Kark'mish, Hamat like Arpad, Shomron like Dammesek?

Darby Translation
Is not Calno as Karkemish? Is not Hamath as Arpad? Is not Samaria as Damascus?

Easy-to-Read Version
The city of Calno is no better than the city of Carchemish. Arpad is like Hamath, and Samaria is like Damascus.

George Lamsa Translation
Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?

Good News Translation
I conquered the cities of Calno and Carchemish, the cities of Hamath and Arpad. I conquered Samaria and Damascus.

Lexham English Bible
Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?

Literal Translation
Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is Hamath not like Arpad? Is Samaria not like Damascus?

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Is not Calno as easie to wynne, as Charchamis? Is it harder to conquere Antiochia then Arphad? Or is it lighter to ouercome Damascus the Samaria?

American Standard Version
Is not Calno as Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus?

Bible in Basic English
Will not the fate of Calno be like that of Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus?

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Is not Calno as Carchemish? Is not Hamath as Arpad? Is not Samaria as Damascus?

King James Version (1611)
Is not Calno, as Carchemish? Is not Hamath, as Arpad? Is not Samaria, as Damascus?

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Is not Chalno as easie to winne, as Charchamis? Is it harder to conquer Hamath, then Arphad? or is it lighter to ouercome Damascus, then Samaria?

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
then shall he say, Have I not taken the country above Babylon and Chalanes, where the tower was built? and have I not taken Arabia, and Damascus, and Samaria?

English Revised Version
Is not Calno as Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus?

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Whether not as Carcamys, so Calanno; and as Arphat, so Emath? whether not as Damask, so Samarie?

Update Bible Version
Isn't Calno as Carchemish? isn't Hamath as Arpad? isn't Samaria as Damascus?

Webster's Bible Translation
[Is] not Calno as Carchemish? [is] not Hamath as Arpad? [is] not Samaria as Damascus?

New English Translation
Is not Calneh like Carchemish? Hamath like Arpad? Samaria like Damascus?

New King James Version
Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?

New Living Translation
We destroyed Calno just as we did Carchemish. Hamath fell before us as Arpad did. And we destroyed Samaria just as we did Damascus.

New Life Bible
Is not Calno like Carchemish, or Hamath like Arpad, or Samaria like Damascus?

New Revised Standard
Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Is not, Calno, like Carchemish? Is not, Hamath, like Arpad? Is not, Samaria, like Damascus?

Douay-Rheims Bible
Are not my princes as so many kings? is not Calano as Charcamis: and Emath as Arphad? is not Samaria as Damascus?

Revised Standard Version
Is not Calno like Car'chemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Sama'ria like Damascus?

Young's Literal Translation
Is not Calno as Carchemish? Is not Hamath as Arpad? Is not Samaria as Damascus?

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Is not Calno like Carchemish, Or Hamath like Arpad, Or Samaria like Damascus?

Contextual Overview

⁵"Doom to Assyria, weapon of my anger. My wrath is a cudgel in his hands! I send him against a godless nation, against the people I'm angry with. I command him to strip them clean, rob them blind, and then push their faces in the mud and leave them. But Assyria has another agenda; he has something else in mind. He's out to destroy utterly, to stamp out as many nations as he can. Assyria says, ‘Aren't my commanders all kings? Can't they do whatever they like? Didn't I destroy Calno as well as Carchemish? Hamath as well as Arpad? Level Samaria as I did Damascus? I've eliminated kingdoms full of gods far more impressive than anything in Jerusalem and Samaria. So what's to keep me from destroying Jerusalem in the same way I destroyed Samaria and all her god-idols?'" ¹²When the Master has finished dealing with Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he'll say, "Now it's Assyria's turn. I'll punish the bragging arrogance of the king of Assyria, his high and mighty posturing, the way he goes around saying, "‘I've done all this by myself. I know more than anyone. I've wiped out the boundaries of whole countries. I've walked in and taken anything I wanted. I charged in like a bull and toppled their kings from their thrones. I reached out my hand and took all that they treasured as easily as a boy taking a bird's eggs from a nest. Like a farmer gathering eggs from the henhouse, I gathered the world in my basket, And no one so much as fluttered a wing or squawked or even chirped.'" Does an ax take over from the one who swings it? Does a saw act more important than the sawyer? As if a shovel did its shoveling by using a ditch digger! As if a hammer used the carpenter to pound nails! Therefore the Master, God -of-the-Angel-Armies, will send a debilitating disease on his robust Assyrian fighters. Under the canopy of God's bright glory a fierce fire will break out. Israel's Light will burst into a conflagration. The Holy will explode into a firestorm, And in one day burn to cinders every last Assyrian thornbush. God will destroy the splendid trees and lush gardens. The Assyrian body and soul will waste away to nothing like a disease-ridden invalid. A child could count what's left of the trees on the fingers of his two hands. And on that Day also, what's left of Israel, the ragtag survivors of Jacob, will no longer be fascinated by abusive, battering Assyria. They'll lean on God , The Holy—yes, truly. The ragtag remnant—what's left of Jacob—will come back to the Strong God. Your people Israel were once like the sand on the seashore, but only a scattered few will return. Destruction is ordered, brimming over with righteousness. For the Master, God -of-the-Angel-Armies, will finish here what he started all over the globe. Therefore the Master, God -of-the-Angel-Armies, says: "My dear, dear people who live in Zion, don't be terrorized by the Assyrians when they beat you with clubs and threaten you with rods like the Egyptians once did. In just a short time my anger against you will be spent and I'll turn my destroying anger on them. I, God -of-the-Angel-Armies, will go after them with a cat-o'-nine-tails and finish them off decisively—as Gideon downed Midian at the rock Oreb, as Moses turned the tables on Egypt. On that day, Assyria will be pulled off your back, and the yoke of slavery lifted from your neck." Assyria's on the move: up from Rimmon, on to Aiath, through Migron, with a bivouac at Micmash. They've crossed the pass, set camp at Geba for the night. Ramah trembles with fright. Gibeah of Saul has run off. Cry for help, daughter of Gallim! Listen to her, Laishah! Do something, Anathoth! Madmenah takes to the hills. The people of Gebim flee in panic. The enemy's soon at Nob—nearly there! In sight of the city he shakes his fist At the mount of dear daughter Zion, the hill of Jerusalem. But now watch this: The Master, God -of-the-Angel-Armies, swings his ax and lops the branches, Chops down the giant trees, lays flat the towering forest-on-the-march. His ax will make toothpicks of that forest, that Lebanon-like army reduced to kindling. ¹⁴You Who Legislate Evil Doom to you who legislate evil, who make laws that make victims— Laws that make misery for the poor, that rob my destitute people of dignity, Exploiting defenseless widows, taking advantage of homeless children. What will you have to say on Judgment Day, when Doomsday arrives out of the blue? Who will you get to help you? What good will your money do you? A sorry sight you'll be then, huddled with the prisoners, or just some corpses stacked in the street. Even after all this, God is still angry, his fist still raised, ready to hit them again. "Doom to Assyria, weapon of my anger. My wrath is a cudgel in his hands! I send him against a godless nation, against the people I'm angry with. I command him to strip them clean, rob them blind, and then push their faces in the mud and leave them. But Assyria has another agenda; he has something else in mind. He's out to destroy utterly, to stamp out as many nations as he can. Assyria says, ‘Aren't my commanders all kings? Can't they do whatever they like? Didn't I destroy Calno as well as Carchemish? Hamath as well as Arpad? Level Samaria as I did Damascus? I've eliminated kingdoms full of gods far more impressive than anything in Jerusalem and Samaria. So what's to keep me from destroying Jerusalem in the same way I destroyed Samaria and all her god-idols?'" When the Master has finished dealing with Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he'll say, "Now it's Assyria's turn. I'll punish the bragging arrogance of the king of Assyria, his high and mighty posturing, the way he goes around saying, "‘I've done all this by myself. I know more than anyone. I've wiped out the boundaries of whole countries. I've walked in and taken anything I wanted. I charged in like a bull and toppled their kings from their thrones. I reached out my hand and took all that they treasured as easily as a boy taking a bird's eggs from a nest. Like a farmer gathering eggs from the henhouse, I gathered the world in my basket, And no one so much as fluttered a wing or squawked or even chirped.'" ¹⁵Does an ax take over from the one who swings it? Does a saw act more important than the sawyer? As if a shovel did its shoveling by using a ditch digger! As if a hammer used the carpenter to pound nails! Therefore the Master, God -of-the-Angel-Armies, will send a debilitating disease on his robust Assyrian fighters. Under the canopy of God's bright glory a fierce fire will break out. Israel's Light will burst into a conflagration. The Holy will explode into a firestorm, And in one day burn to cinders every last Assyrian thornbush. God will destroy the splendid trees and lush gardens. The Assyrian body and soul will waste away to nothing like a disease-ridden invalid. A child could count what's left of the trees on the fingers of his two hands.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Calno: Amos 6:1, Amos 6:2, Calneh

Carchemish: 2 Chronicles 35:20, Jeremiah 46:2

Hamath: Isaiah 36:19, Isaiah 37:13, 2 Samuel 8:9, 2 Kings 17:24, Jeremiah 49:23

Samaria: Isaiah 7:8, Isaiah 17:3, 2 Kings 16:9, 2 Kings 17:5, 2 Kings 17:6, 2 Kings 18:9, 2 Kings 18:10

Reciprocal: Genesis 10:10 - Calneh Genesis 10:18 - Hamathite Joshua 13:5 - unto the 2 Kings 19:17 - the kings 2 Chronicles 32:13 - I and my Isaiah 9:9 - even Ephraim Isaiah 9:11 - set up Isaiah 11:11 - Hamath Isaiah 17:1 - Damascus is Isaiah 33:8 - he hath despised Isaiah 37:19 - And have Ezekiel 25:8 - the house Ezekiel 27:8 - Arvad Ezekiel 27:23 - Canneh Amos 3:11 - General

Cross-References

Genesis 6:4
This was back in the days (and also later) when there were giants in the land. The giants came from the union of the sons of God and the daughters of men. These were the mighty men of ancient lore, the famous ones.

Genesis 6:11
As far as God was concerned, the Earth had become a sewer; there was violence everywhere. God took one look and saw how bad it was, everyone corrupt and corrupting—life itself corrupt to the core.

Genesis 13:13
The people of Sodom were evil—flagrant sinners against God .

Genesis 25:27
The boys grew up. Esau became an expert hunter, an outdoorsman. Jacob was a quiet man preferring life indoors among the tents. Isaac loved Esau because he loved his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

Genesis 27:30
And then right after Isaac had blessed Jacob and Jacob had left, Esau showed up from the hunt. He also had prepared a hearty meal. He came to his father and said, "Let my father get up and eat of his son's game, that he may give me his personal blessing."

2 Chronicles 28:22
But King Ahaz didn't learn his lesson—at the very time that everyone was turning against him, he continued to be against God ! He offered sacrifices to the gods of Damascus. He had just been defeated by Damascus; he thought, "If I worship the gods who helped Damascus, those gods just might help me, too." But things only went from bad to worse: first Ahaz in ruins and then the country. He cleaned out The Temple of God of everything useful and valuable, boarded up the doors of The Temple, and then went out and set up pagan shrines for his own use all over Jerusalem. And not only in Jerusalem, but all over Judah—neighborhood shrines for worshiping any and every god on sale. And was God ever angry!

Jeremiah 16:16
"Now, watch for what comes next: I'm going to assemble a bunch of fishermen." God 's Decree! "They'll go fishing for my people and pull them in for judgment. Then I'll send out a party of hunters, and they'll hunt them out in all the mountains, hills, and caves. I'm watching their every move. I haven't lost track of a single one of them, neither them nor their sins.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

[Is] not Calno as Carchemish?.... Jarchi's note is,

"as the children of Carchemish are princes and rulers, so are the children of Calno;''

as if this was giving an instance of the grandeur of his subjects; but much better is the Targum,

"as Carchemish is subdued before me, shall not Calno be so?''

as I or my ancestors have conquered the one, it is as easy for me to conquer the other; or as sure as the one is subject to me, so sure shall the other be; for Carchemish was a city belonging to the Assyrians, situated upon the river Euphrates, 2 Chronicles 35:20 called by Ammianus k Circusium; the Syriac version calls it Barchemosh; and Calno is the same with Calneh in the land of Shinar, a city built by Nimrod, Genesis 10:10 in the Septuagint version it is called Chalane, and it is added,

"where the tower was built;''

from whence the country, called by Pliny l Chalonitis, had its name, the chief city of which was Ctesiphon, thought to be the same with Calneh.

[Is] not Hamath as Arphad? Hamath and Arphad were both cities conquered by the Assyrians; see 2 Kings 18:34 and are both mentioned along with Damascus, Jeremiah 49:23.

[Is] not Samaria as Damascus? Damascus was the metropolis of Syria, and was taken by the Assyrians; and Samaria was the metropolis of Ephraim, or the ten tribes; see Isaiah 7:8 and was as easy to be taken as Damascus was. The Targum is,

"as Arphad is delivered into my hands, shall not Hamath be so? As I have done to Damascus, so will I do to Samaria.''

k L. 23. c. 5. p. 360. l Nat. Hist. l. 6. c. 26. and 27.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Is not Calno as Carchemish? - The meaning of this confident boasting is, that none of the cities and nations against which be had directed his arms, had been able to resist him. All had fallen before him; and all were alike prostrate at his feet. Carchemish had been unable to resist him, and Calno had shared the same fate. Arpad had fallen before him, and Hamath in like manner had been subdued. The words which are used here are the same nearly that Rabshakeh used when he was sent by Sennacherib to insult Hezekiah and the Jews; Isaiah 36:19; 2 Kings 18:34. “Calno” was a city in the land of Shinar, and was probably the city built by Nimrod, called in Genesis 10:10, “Calneh,” and at one time the capital of his empire. It is mentioned by Ezekiel, Ezekiel 27:23. According to the Targums, Jerome, Eusebius, and others, Calno or Calneh, was the same city as “Ctesiphon,” a large city on the bank of the Tigris, and opposite to Selcucia. - “Gesenius” and “Calmet.”

Carchemish - This was a city on the Euphrates, belonging to Assyria. It was taken by Necho, king of Egypt, and re-taken by Nebuchadnezzar in the fourth year of Jehoiachin, king of Judah; 2 Kings 23:29. Probably it is the same city as Cercusium, or Kirkisia, which is situated in the angle formed by the junction of the Chebar and the Euphrates; compare Jer 46:2; 2 Chronicles 25:20.

Hamath - This was a celebrated city of Syria. It is referred to in Genesis 10:18, as the seat of one of the tribes of Canaan. It is often mentioned as the northern limit of Canaan. in its widest extent; Numbers 13:21; Joshua 13:5; Judges 3:3. The Assyrians became masters of this city about 753 years before Christ; 2 Kings 17:24. Burckhardt mentions this city as situated on both sides of the river Orontes. The town is at present of considerable extent, and contains about 30,000 inhabitants. There are four bridges over the Orontes, in the town. The trade of the town now is with the Arabs, who buy here their tent-furniture, and their clothes. This city was visited by Eli Smith, in 1834. It lies, says he, on the narrow valley of the ‘Asy; and is so nearly concealed by the high banks, that one sees little of it until he actually comes up to the gates: “see” Robinson’s “Bib. Researches,” vol. iii. App. pp. 176, 177.

Arpad - This city was not far from Hamath, and is called by the Greeks Epiphania; 2 Kings 18:34.

Samaria - The capital of Israel, or Ephraim. From the mention of this place, it is evident that this prophecy was written after Samaria had been destroyed; see the notes at Isaiah 7:9; Isaiah 28:1.

As Damascus - The capital of Syria; see the note at Isaiah 7:9, and the Analysis of Isaiah 17:1-14. The Septuagint has varied in their translation here considerably from the Hebrew. They render these verses, ‘And he saith, Have I not taken the region beyond Babylon, and Chalane, where the tower was built? and I have taken Arabia, and Damascus, and Samaria.’ The main idea, however - the boast of the king of Assyria, is retained.