Isaiah · chapter 39 of 66
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Isaiah 39 tells how Merodach-baladan, king of Babylon, sends letters and a gift to Hezekiah after hearing of his illness, and how Hezekiah shows the envoys all his treasures and his armory. Isaiah announces that one day everything in his house will be carried to Babylon and some of his descendants will serve in a palace there. Hezekiah replies that the word of the Lord is good, since there will be peace in his days.
Isaiah 39 closes the historical narratives of chapters 36-39 and is parallel to 2 Kings 20:12-19. After the deliverance from Assyria and the king's healing, this short episode shows a failing of Hezekiah and announces for the first time in the book that Judah's final destination will be Babylon. In this way it prepares the turn toward the comfort of chapter 40 onward.
At that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sends envoys with letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he had heard that he had been sick and had recovered. Hezekiah is glad of them and shows them his treasure house: the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, all his armory and all that is found in his storehouses. There is nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah does not show them.
Then the prophet Isaiah goes to King Hezekiah and asks what those men said and where they came from. Hezekiah answers that they came from a far country, from Babylon. Isaiah asks what they saw in his house, and Hezekiah replies that they saw all that is in it; there is nothing among his treasures that he did not show them.
Isaiah gives him the word of the Lord of hosts: days are coming when all that is in his house, and what his fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried to Babylon; nothing will be left. Some of his own sons, who will be born to him, will be taken away, and they will be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. Hezekiah says: the word of the Lord that you have spoken is good. And he adds that there will be peace and security in his days.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Hezekiah is glad of the envoys and shows them everything he has: treasures, oils, weapons, all of it. With no mention of prayer or asking God, the king displays what he owns to the one who will later claim it.
Isaiah announces that days are coming when everything in Hezekiah's house will be carried to Babylon, and nothing will be left. It is the first explicit mention in Isaiah of Judah's fate at the hands of that power, which was not yet the dominant empire.
Some of Hezekiah's descendants will be taken away and will serve as court officials in the palace of the king of Babylon. The announcement points to the exile, which Daniel and his companions embody later on.
Hezekiah answers that the word of the Lord is good, because there will be peace and security in his days. The phrase can be read as submission to God's word, but also as indifference toward future generations.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon. — Isaiah 39:1
Answer: Because he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick and had recovered. — Isaiah 39:1
Answer: He showed them his treasure house, his armory and all that was in his storehouses and in all his realm. — Isaiah 39:2
Answer: From a far country, from Babylon. — Isaiah 39:3
Answer: That everything in his house would be carried to Babylon and that some of his sons would be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. — Isaiah 39:6-7
Answer: He said the word of the Lord was good, since there would be peace and security in his days. — Isaiah 39:8
Isaiah 39 is a warning about what happens after a blessing. Hezekiah had just come from a deliverance and a healing, and still showed his treasures without consulting the Lord. In a Sunday school class you can ask how we guard our blessings, and when display or trust in what we own takes the place of gratitude to God.
It also raises an uncomfortable question: do we think about the next generations? Hezekiah was content with the peace of his own days. In a small group you can talk about how to leave children and grandchildren a testimony of faith and faithfulness, not just comfort, and about the importance of listening to the correction of a brother who tells us the truth.
Isaiah 39 ends with the announcement of Babylon and an ambiguous answer from Hezekiah. That announcement of exile opens the way to chapter 40, which begins with a word of comfort for God's people: comfort, comfort my people.
The text does not state it in a single sentence, but Isaiah's reaction shows that showing all his treasures to Babylon's envoys was a fault. Readers understand it as pride and lack of discernment, trusting in his wealth or a possible alliance rather than consulting the Lord.
In Hezekiah's day Babylon was a lesser power looking for allies against Assyria. Isaiah announces that Babylon, not Assyria, would be the power that carried Judah into exile, which happened more than a century later, in the time of Nebuchadnezzar.
Interpreters take it in two ways: as a humble acceptance of God's will or as selfish relief that the judgment would not come in his days. The text does not decide, and leaves both possibilities open.