Isaiah 37:12
Ver. 12. Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed,.... They have not. But what then? is the God of Israel to be put upon a level with such dunghill gods? so Sennacherib reckoned him, as Rabshakeh before, in his name, Isa 36:18:
as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden, which were in Telassar. Gozan was the same, it may be, with the Gausanitis of Ptolemy {z} which he makes mention of in his description of Mesopotamia; and the rather, since Haran or Chapman was a city of Mesopotamia, Ge 11:31 called by Ptolemy by the name of Carrae {a}; and who also, in the same place, makes mention of Rezeph, under the name of Rhescipha; though he likewise speaks of another place in Palmyrene in Syria, called Rhaesapha {b}, which some think to be the place here intended. Eden was also in Mesopotamia, in the eastern part of which was the garden of Eden; and this Telassar, inhabited by the children of Eden, was a city in that country, which is by Ptolemy {c} called Thelda; though Hillerus {d} is of opinion that the city Thalatha is meant, which is placed {e} near the river Tigris, a river of paradise. A very learned {f} men is of opinion, that the Eden, Isaiah here speaks of, belongs either to Syria of Damascus, and to the Lebanon and Paneas from whence Jordan arose; or to Syro-Phoenicia, and the Mediterranean sea, which the name Thalassar shows, as if it was yalassa, the Syrians being used to derive not a few of their words from the Greeks: and certain it is, that there is now a village called Eden on Mount Lebanon, which Thevenot {g} mentions; and another, near Damascus, Mr. Maundrell {h} speaks of; see Am 1:5 and Tyre in Phoenicia is called Eden, Eze 28:13.
{z} Geograph, l. 5. c. 18. {a} Ibid. {b} Ibid. c. 15. {c} lbid. c. 18. {d} Onomast. Sacr. p. 945. {e} Geograph. l. 5. c. 20. {f} Nichol. Abrami Pharus Vet. Test. l. 2. c. 16. p. 57. {g} Travels, part 1. B. 2. ch. 60. p. 221. {h} Journey from Aleppo, p. 119, 120. Ed. 7th.