2 Kings 19:37 - Exposition

And it came to pass —seventeen or eighteen years afterwards; not "fifty-five days" after, as the author of Tobit (1. 21) says— as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god. The word Nisroch offers considerable difficulty. It has been connected with nesher ( נֶשֶׁר ), "eagle," and explained as a reference to the eagle-headed genius sometimes seen in the Assyrian sculptures. But there is no evidence that the genii were ever worshipped in Assyria, much less that they had temples of their own, nor is any name resembling "Nisroch" attached to any of them. The word itself is somewhat doubtful, and different manuscripts of the Septuagint, here and in Isaiah 37:38 , have the variants of Nasaraeh , Esorach , Meserach , and Asarach , while Josephus has Araskas . Asarach might conceivably be a strengthened form of Asshur; but the substitution of samech for shin is against this explanation. Still, Asshur was certainly Sennacherib's favorite god, the deity whom he principally worshipped. Josephus regards the name as belonging, not to the god, but to the temple ( ἐν τῷ ἰδίῳ ναῷ αράσκῃ λεγομένῳ ), which is perhaps the true solution of the difficulty. Translate—"as he was worshipping his god in the house Nisroch." That Adram-melech and Sharezer his sons. Adram-melech is called "Adrammeles" by Abydenus, "Ardamazanes" by Polyhistor. Neither form resembles any known Assyrian name, but Adrammelech has a good Semitic derivation (see the comment on 2 Kings 18:31 ). "Sharezer" is probably a shortened form of Nergal-shar-ozer (comp. "Shalman," Hosea 10:14 ), which was a name in use at the time. Abydenus seems to have called him Nergilus. Smote him with the sword. So Josephus ('Ant. Jud.,' 10.1. § 5) and Mos. Chor. ('Hist. Armen.,' 1.22). A mutilated inscription of Esarhaddon's seems to have described his war with his brothers at the commencement of his reign, but the earlier part is wanting. And they escaped into the land of Armenia ; literally, of Ararat . The Hebrew "Ararat" is the Assyrian "Ur-arda"—the ordinary name for the country about Lakes Van and Urumiyeh. The name "Armenia" is not found earlier than the inscriptions of Darius Hystaspis. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead. Esarhaddon (the Sarchedon of Tobit 1:21, and the Asshur-akh-iddin of the Assyrian inscriptions) succeeded his father in B.C. 681, and was engaged for some time in a war with his brothers on the Upper Euphrates, after which he made himself master of Nineveh. He reigned from B.C. 681 to B.C. 669, when he was succeeded by his son, Asshur-bani-pal. Assyria reached the acme of her prosperity in his time.