ARPAD

(Arʹpad).

A royal city of N Syria always associated in the Bible with the city of Hamath. Arpad has been identified with Tell Erfad (Tell Rifʽat) about 30 km (19 mi) NNW of Aleppo. Situated on the road leading S to Hamath and Damascus, it came under frequent attack from the Assyrians and was eventually conquered by Tiglath-pileser III and later by Sargon II. Thus Sargon’s son, Sennacherib, when threatening Jerusalem in 732 B.C.E., had his spokesman Rabshakeh refer to the fate of Arpad as an evidence of the inability of the gods of the nations to resist Assyria’s mighty power. (2Ki 18:34; 19:12, 13; Isa 36:19; 37:12, 13) The prophet Isaiah had earlier foretold such boasting. (Isa 10:9) Later Jeremiah prophesied that Hamath and Arpad would become ashamed and disintegrate before “a bad report,” evidently concerning the conquests of Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar.​—Jer 49:23.