This verse is presented in the form of another rhetorical question. But even in languages where such questions are used, the length and complexity of this question may make it unsuitable for literal translation. Good News Translation provides a helpful model for restructuring it as a statement.
The gods of the nations: This same expression is used in a very similar rhetorical question in 2 Kgs 18.33 (see the comments there).
My fathers: The Assyrian king is referring to his ancestors and this should be stated in the most natural way possible in translation. Like Good News Translation, most modern English versions say “my ancestors.” But it would also be possible to say “my predecessors” in this context.
The geographical names in this verse refer to towns or cities on the western edge of the Assyrian Empire in northern Syria, and this implicit information that these are cities should be made clear in translation. Gozan is mentioned in 2 Kgs 17.6 and 18.11, and the name of the city of Haran occurs frequently in Genesis (for example, 11.31). But Rezeph occurs nowhere else in the Old Testament except in the parallel passage in Isa 37.12. The location of this town is disputed, but it was almost certainly somewhere in the vicinity of the better-known city of Haran, which was on the upper part of the Euphrates River about 80 kilometers (or 50 miles) to the east of the city of Carchemish. It is usually a good idea to add the classifier term “cities” or “towns.”
The people of Eden is literally “the sons of Eden” or “the children of Eden” (King James Version). This expression refers to the people of Betheden who are mentioned in Amos 1.5. They had been defeated by a previous Assyrian king (Shalmaneser III) and evicted from their home territory to be settled along the Euphrates River near Haran at a place called Telassar. It would therefore be possible to translate the people of Eden who were in Telassar as “the people of Betheden who had been deported to Telassar.” New Jerusalem Bible and La Bible Pléiade have “Tel Basar” in place of Telassar, but this is based on a conjecture rather than manuscript evidence since Tel Basar was the capital of Betheden. This correction of the spelling is not recommended. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project gives an {A} rating to the text followed by Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation. Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament does not even discuss this problem since it is not really a textual problem.
Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .