And the king of Assyria hearkened unto him: for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried [the people of] it captive to Kir, and slew Rezin.
Ver. 9. And carried the people of it captive to Kir.] According to Amos 1:5. This Kir some will have to be that Cyrene mentioned in Acts 2:10; others, Syromedia, which was so called from these Syrians translated thither, and Kir, that is a wall, because walled about, as it were, by the mountain Zagrus.
And slew Rezin.] And so the event of this war proved answerable to the king of Assyria's ambition, to the king of Syria's wickedness, and to the king of Judah's desires; who yet enjoyed it not long; for he was afterwards distressed by the same king of Assyria who now relieved him. 2Ch 28:20 So little is there got at length by such carnal combinations. It is better to trust in the Lord, &c. And here was an end of the kingdom of Damascus, as also of Hamath, Amo 6:2 of Arpad, Jer 49:23 Isaiah 10:9 ; Isaiah 36:19 ; Isa 37:12-13 and other places not a few; all which were swallowed up in the greatness of the Assyrian empire, as itself is now - together with the most glorious empire of the Greeks, the renowned kingdoms of Macedonia, Peloponnesus, Epirus, Bulgaria, Egypt, Judea, &c. - swallowed up in the greatness of the Turkish empire. As for this kingdom of Damascus, it had continued for ten generations, as Nicolaus Damascenus in Josephus a affirmeth; and as it began in Rezon, 1Ki 11:23-24 so in Rezin it ended. The like is observed of the Greek empire: which as it began in Constantine the Great, so it determined in Constantine Paleologus.
a Lib. vii., Antiq., cap. 6.