Albert Barnes Commentary Isaiah 20:1

"In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it;" — Isaiah 20:1 (ASV)

In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod - Tartan was one of the generals of Sennacherib.

Ashdod, called by the Greeks Azotus, was a seaport on the Mediterranean, between Askelon and Ekron, and not far from Gaza (Reland’s “Palestine,” iii). It was one of the five cities of the Philistines, assigned to the tribe of Judah, but never conquered by them (Joshua 13:8; Joshua 15:46–47).

The temple of Dagon stood here, and here the ark of God was brought after the fatal battle of Eben-ezer (1 Samuel 5:1 and following). Ashdod sustained many sieges and was regarded as an important place concerning Palestine and also Egypt.

It was taken by Tartan and remained in the possession of the Assyrians until it was besieged by Psammetichus, the Egyptian king, who took it after a siege of twenty-nine years (Herod. ii. 157). It was about thirty miles from Gaza. It is now a small village and is called “Esdud.”

This siege and capture by Tartan were preparatory to the conquest of Egypt. If the king here called “Sargon” was Sennacherib, it is probable that Ashdod was taken before Sennacherib threatened Jerusalem.

Sargon the king of Assyria - Who this “Sargon” was is not certainly known. Some have supposed that it was Sennacherib; others that it was Shalmaneser, the father of Sennacherib; and others that it was Esar-haddon, the successor of Sennacherib - (Michaelis). Rosenmuller and Gesenius suppose that it was a king who reigned “between” Shalmaneser and Sennacherib.

Tartan is known to have been a general of Sennacherib (2 Kings 18:17), and it is natural to suppose that Sennacherib is the king intended here. Jerome says that Sennacherib had seven names, and Kimchi says that he had eight; and it is not improbable that “Sargon” was one of those names. Oriental princes often had several names, which explains the difficulty of identifying them. See Vitringa on this place.