Isaiah 37:12
Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed, as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Telassar?
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, Isaiah 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, Genesis 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 Amos 1:5 and Tyre in Phoenicia is called Eden, Ezekiel 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.