Arpad

ARPAD (ar'păd). A town and its surrounding region in the northern part of Syria near Hamath (modern Hamah), with which it is associated in all six biblical references. Rabshakeh, representing Sennacherib before Jerusalem in 701 b.c., boasts that the gods of Arpad could not stand before his master, therefore neither could the Lord deliver Jerusalem (2Kgs.18.34-2Kgs.18.35). In Jeremiah’s time (c. 580) Arpad had lost its power (Jer.49.23).

The modern Tell Refad, twenty-five m. N of Aleppo, most prob. marks the site today.

The violent history of Arpad led to its being used as a proverbial expression by Rabshakeh (2 Kings 18:34; 19:13; Isa 36:19; 37:13). The proverb is attributed to the Assyrians (Isa 10:9). The city was overrun by the Assyrians in 740 b.c. under Tiglath-pileser III and in 720 b.c. by Sargon II. The inability of Arpad and Hamath to withstand the Assyrian attack led to Rabshakeh’s claim that Israel could not stand as well.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)

ar’-pad; ar’-fad (’arpadh, "support"): A city of Syria, captured frequently by the Assyrians, and finally subjugated by Tiglath-pileser III in 740 BC, after a siege of two years. It is now the ruin Tell Erfad, 13 miles Northwest of Aleppo. Arpad is one of the conquered cities mentioned by Rabshakeh, the officer of Sennacherib, in his boast before Jerusalem (2Ki 18:34; 19:13; Isa 36:19; 37:13; the King James Version Arphad). Isaiah puts a boast about its capture in the mouth of the Assyrian king (Isa 10:9), and Jeremiah mentions it as "confounded" because of evil tidings, in the oracle concerning Damascus (Jer 49:23). On every occasion Arpad is mentioned with Hamath.