Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Kings 7:6

"For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us." — 2 Kings 7:6 (ASV)

For. — This word means Now and introduces a new paragraph.

Even the noise. — Rather, a noise. The Syriac and the Arabic, as well as some Hebrew manuscripts, read “and a noise.” This reading is preferable. (Compare to 2 Kings 6:14, where chariots, horses, and a host [of infantry] are distinguished from each other.) The word qôl (literally, “voice”) is commonly used for thunder (compare to Psalms 29, where it appears throughout). The noise the Syrians heard was doubtless a sound in the air among the neighbouring hills.

The kings of the Hittites. — Compare to 1 Kings 9:20 and 1 Kings 10:29. The region of northern Syria between the Euphrates and the Orontes was the cradle of the Hittite race, and these kings of the several tribes ruled over it. In the thirteenth century B.C., their power extended over a great part of Asia Minor, as rock inscriptions prove. Carchemish, Kadesh, Hamath, and Helbon (Aleppo) were their capitals. Rameses II made a treaty of peace with Heta-sira, the prince of the Hittites.

In the time of Tiglath Pileser I (B.C. 1120), the Hittites were still paramount from the Euphrates to the Lebanon. Shalmaneser II mentions a Hittite prince, Sapalulme, king of the Patinâa, a tribe on the Orontes. The Hittites from whom Solomon exacted forced labour were those remaining in the land of Israel (compare to Genesis 23, Genesis 26:34, and 1 Samuel 31:6), not the people of the great cities mentioned earlier, which remained independent, as we know from the Assyrian inscriptions. (Regarding Hamath, compare to Amos 6:2 and 2 Chronicles 8:4.)

Tiglath Pileser II conquered Hamath (B.C. 740). Twenty years later it revolted under Yahubihdi (meaning “Jah is around me”), but was again subdued and made an Assyrian prefecture by Sargon, who afterwards stormed Carchemish (B.C. 717). (Compare to 2 Kings 17:24 and 2 Kings 17:30.)

The kings of the Egyptians. — The plural may be rhetorical. (Compare to 2 Chronicles 28:16: The kings of Assyria, and the accompanying note.) Little is known of the state of Egypt at this time (towards the end of the twenty-second dynasty). The Syrians were seized with panic, believing that they were about to be attacked on all sides at once.

A wild rumor, like the one expressed in the text, must have spread through the camp. However, we need not insist on the literal accuracy of the statement, for who was there to report the exact nature of the alarm to the historians of Israel?

Moreover, it is evident from the style of the narrative in chapters 6 and 7 that it rests on oral tradition, so it would be a mistake to insist on subordinate details. Professor Robertson Smith considers that the sudden retreat of the Syrians is explained by the fact that the Assyrians were already pressing upon them.