Pass ye unto Calneh, and see; and from thence go ye to Hamath the great: then go down to Gath of the Philistines: be they better than these kingdoms? or their border greater than your border?
Pass ye unto Calneh - on the east bank of the Tigris. Once powerful, but recently subjugated by Assyria (Isaiah 10:9, "Is not Calno as Carchemish?" Ezekiel 27:23 calls it "Canneh." It was one of the four cities built by Nimrod in the land of Shinar, and formed "the beginning of his kingdom" (Genesis 10:10). The Assyrian king Shamasiva was probably its conqueror, as he is mentioned in the cuneiform inscriptions as having taken above 200 towns in Babylonia (Rawlinson, 'Herodotus,' 1: 464), about B.C. 794.
And from thence go ye to Hamath - subjugated by Jeroboam II (2 Kings 14:25). Also by Assyria subsequently, And from thence go ye to Hamath - subjugated by Jeroboam II (2 Kings 14:25). Also by Assyria subsequently, (2 Kings 18:34, "Where are the gods of Hamath?") Compare Amos 6:14, below "They shall afflict you from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of the wilderness."
Then go down to Gath - subjugated by Uzziah (2 Chronicles 26:6). The name means 'wine-press,' implying that it was situated in a vine-abounding country.
Be they better than these kingdoms? - No. Their so recent subjugation renders it needless for me to tell you they are not. And yet they once were: still they could not defend themselves against the enemy. How vain, then, your secure confidence in the strength of Mount Zion and Mount Samaria! How ungrateful too your conduct is! The pagan cities were destroyed. Israel, guiltier than they, is spared still. But, now that she has become more paganish than the pagan themselves, she must not expect to escape judgment anymore than they. He takes cities respectively east, north, and southwest of Israel, to show that, look in whatever quarter they will, there are cases of warning to them before their eyes, (cf. Nahum 3:8, "Art thou better than populous No?")