Isaiah 20:1

In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod,.... Or Azotus, as the Septuagint here call it; and which is its name in the New Testament, [See comments on Acts 8:40].

In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod, (when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him,) and fought against Ashdod, and took it; In the reign of Sargon (722 BC - 715 BC), the successor of Shalmaneser,

ISAIAH CHAPTER 20 The captivity of Egypt and Ethiopia represented, to take off the Jews from seeking to them for help. Tartan; a great commander in Sennacherib’ s army, . Ashdod; an eminent and strong city of the Philistines, , in the utmost part of the land of Canaan, towards Egypt. Sargon: what king of Assyria this was is much disputed. It is well known, and confessed, that one and the same person hath frequently several names, both in Scripture, as hath been observed again and again, and in other authors. And therefore this may be either, 1. Shalmaneser, who, when he took Samaria, might also by Tartan take this place. Or, 2. Sennacherib, who, before he came to Jerusalem, came up against and took all the fenced cities of Judah, , of which Ashdod might be reckoned one, as being in the tribe of Judah, 15:47, and taken by Hezekiah from the Philistines, as it seems very probable from that passage, , He smote the Philistines, even unto Gaza, and the borders thereof, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city. Or, 3. Esarhaddon, Sennacherib’ s son, who, by cutting off the first letter, is called Sarchedon, /APC , and thence possibly, by abbreviation, Sargon; who might do this thing in Hezekiah’ s time, some years after his father’ s death, and his coming to the empire, although it be not recorded in Scripture; for no man doubts that there were many great actions in those times which are wholly omitted in the sacred writings.

Isaiah 20:1 In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod, (when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him,) and fought against Ashdod, and took it;Ver. 1. In the year that Tartan.] A certain commander under Sennacherib, who came against Ashdod, among other cities of Judah, about the twelfth year of king Hezekiah. Came to Ashdod.] Called also Azotus, and much praised by Herodotus in Euterpe. When Sargon.] That is, Sennacherib most likely, who had seven names, saith Jerome, eight, say some Rabbis. Commodus, the Roman emperor, took unto himself as many names as there are months in the year, which also he changed ever and anon, but constantly-kept that of Exuperans, because he would have been thought to excel all men. The like might be true of Sargon. And fought against Ashdod, and took it.] Psammeticus, king of Egypt, had before taken it after a very long siege; now it is taken again from the Egyptian by the Assyrian, to teach them and others not to trust to forts and fenced cities. Dion. Herod., lib. ii.

XX. (1) In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod.—Better, the Tartan. The word was an official title borne by the generalissimo of the Assyrian armies, who was next in authority to the king. He may, or may not, have been the same with the officer of the same rank who appears in 2 Kings 18:17 as sent by Sennacherib to Jerusalem. When Sargon the king of Assyria sent him.—Much light has been thrown by the Assyrian inscriptions on the events connected with this king. Prior to that discovery, there was no trace of his name to be found elsewhere than in this passage, and his very existence had been called in question. As it is, he comes before us as one of the greatest of Assyrian monarchs. He succeeded Shalmaneser VI,, the conqueror of Israel, in B.C. 721, at first as guardian and co-regent of his son Samdan-Malik, and afterwards in his own name. His reign lasted till B.C. 704, when he was succeeded by Sennacherib. Long inscriptions, giving the annals of his reign, were found by M. Botta at Khorsabad, and have been interpreted by M. Oppert (Records of the Past, vii. 21, 9:1, 11:17, 27, 33) and others. And fought against Ashdod.—The occasion of the campaign is related by Sargon in the annals just mentioned as happening in his eleventh year. Azuri, the king of Ashdod, refused to pay tribute, and revolted. Sargon deposed him, and placed his brother Akhismit, on the throne. The people, in their turn, rose against Akhismit, and chose Yaman as their king. Sargon then marched against the city, took it, and carried off its gods and its treasures as booty (Records of the Past, vii. 40). These events naturally excited the minds of Hezekiah and his counsellors, and led them to look to an alliance with Egypt as their best protection.

CHAPTER XX The Prophet Isaiah a sign to Egypt and Cush or Ethiopia, that the captives and exiles of these countries shall be indignantly treated by the king of Assyria, 1-6. NOTES ON CHAP. XX Tartan besieged Ashdod or Azotus, which probably belonged at this time to Hezekiah's dominions; see 2Kg 18:8. The people expected to be relieved by the Cushites of Arabia and by the Egyptians. Isaiah was ordered to go uncovered, that is, without his upper garment, the rough mantle commonly worn by the prophets, (see Zechariah 13:4,) probably three days to show that within three years the town should be taken, after the defeat of the Cushites and Egyptians by the king of Assyria, which event should make their case desperate, and induce them to surrender. Azotus was a strong place; it afterwards held out twenty-nine years against Psammitichus, king of Egypt, Herod. ii. 157. Tartan was one of Sennacherib's generals, 2Kg 18:17, and Tirhakah, king of the Cushites, was in alliance with the king of Egypt against Sennacherib. These circumstances make it probable that by Sargon is meant Sennacherib. It might be one of the seven names by which Jerome, on this place, says he was called. He is called Sacherdonus and Sacherdan in the book of Tobit. The taking of Azotus must have happened before Sennacherib's attempt on Jerusalem; when he boasted of his late conquests, Isaiah 37:25. And the warning of the prophet had a principal respect to the Jews also, who were too much inclined to depend upon the assistance of Egypt. As to the rest history and chronology affording us no light, it may be impossible to clear either this or any other hypothesis, which takes Sargon to be Shalmaneser or Asarhaddon, &c., from all difficulties.-L. Kimchi says, this happened in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah.

1, 2. A narrative introduction.

In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod - Tartan was one of the generals of Sennacherib.

1. In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod — There is uncertainty as to date, but it lay probably between B.C. 727 and 720. “Tartan” is an official name, like captain-general.