Biblion Bible Commentary
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The Envoys From Babylon
Isaiah 39:1-8
1 At that time, Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick, and had recovered. · WEB
A good king shows visitors everything he owns, and the book turns from Assyria to Babylon on that one afternoon.
At that time, Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick, and had recovered Isaiah 39:1.
Babylon was a subject city of Assyria at this point and its king was in periodic revolt. The stated occasion is a get-well delegation; the real business was almost certainly an anti-Assyrian coalition.
Hezekiah was pleased with them, and showed them the house of his precious things, the silver, the gold, the spices, and the precious oil, and all the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah didn't show them Isaiah 39:2.
The inventory is listed at length because the point is the completeness of it. He was pleased with them — flattered by attention from a distant power — and the tour covers the treasury and the armory, which are the two things a future invader would want surveyed.
Nothing here is wicked. It is vanity, and it is the same king who spread a letter before God two chapters earlier. The book places the two scenes side by side.
Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and asked him, "What did these men say? From where did they come to you?" Isaiah 39:3.
The prophet asks two questions and the king answers only the second, and answers it with a boast: they have come from a country far from me.
"What have they seen in your house?" Hezekiah answered, "They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them" Isaiah 39:4.
He repeats the word all without hearing it.
Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up until today, will be carried to Babylon. Nothing will be left Isaiah 39:6.
The sentence uses his own word back. Everything shown will be taken, by the people it was shown to, and the destination is named a century before it mattered. They will take away your sons... and they will be eunuchs in the king of Babylon's palace Isaiah 39:7.
Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "Yahweh's word which you have spoken is good." He said moreover, "For there will be peace and truth in my days" Isaiah 39:8.
The last words of the first half of the book, and they are hard to read charitably. He accepts the sentence and gives his reason: it will not happen while he is alive.
The book turns here. Assyria is finished as a subject, Babylon has been named, and everything from the next chapter addresses the exile this afternoon set in motion.
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