Bible Strands
Isaiah 10:9
“Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Assyrian king addresses his commanders and the nations, boasting that his recent campaigns prove his invincibility. He frames his military record as irrefutable evidence of his power.
The words — הֲלֹא (ha.lo) translates literally as “is not?” and כְּכַרְכְּמִישׁ (ke.karkemish) means “like Carchemish.” These terms structure a series of rhetorical comparisons.
The thread — Calno appears in Genesis 10:10 as part of Nimrod’s early kingdom, Carchemish is noted in 2 Chronicles 35:20 as a battle site, and Damascus falls in 2 Kings 16:9. The verse anchors its claims in these documented conquests.
Why it lands — The text states that the king equates past military successes with future security. It asks the reader to identify the logical flaw in assuming human conquest dictates historical outcomes.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Is not Calno as Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus?
Cross-references
- 2 Kings 16:9 So the king of Assyria responded to him, marched up to Damascus, and captured it. He took its people to Kir as captives and put Rezin to death.
- 2 Chronicles 35:20 After all this, when Josiah had set the temple in order, Neco king of Egypt marched up to fight at Carchemish by the Euphrates, and Josiah went out to confront him.
- Genesis 10:10 His kingdom began in Babylon, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
- Jeremiah 46:2 concerning Egypt and the army of Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt, which was defeated at Carchemish on the Euphrates River by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah:
- 2 Samuel 8:9 When King Toi of Hamath heard that David had defeated the entire army of Hadadezer,
- 2 Kings 17:5 Then the king of Assyria invaded the whole land, marched up to Samaria, and besieged it for three years.
- 2 Kings 17:24 Then the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites. They took possession of Samaria and lived in its towns.
- 2 Kings 18:9 In the fourth year of Hezekiah’s reign, which was the seventh year of the reign of Hoshea son of Elah over Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria marched against Samaria and besieged it.
- Isaiah 7:8 For the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered as a people.
- Isaiah 17:3 The fortress will disappear from Ephraim, and the sovereignty from Damascus. The remnant of Aram will be like the splendor of the Israelites,” declares the LORD of Hosts.