Isaiah 39: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Merodach-baladan, king of Babylon, sends letters and a gift to Hezekiah after hearing that Hezekiah has been sick and has gotten well. Hezekiah shows the messengers everything he owns: his treasures, his spices, his oil, and his whole armory. Isaiah then asks what the men saw, and tells Hezekiah that one day everything in his palace will be carried off to Babylon, and that some of his own sons will be taken to serve as eunuchs in the palace of Babylon's king. Hezekiah answers that the word of the LORD is good, and adds that there will be peace and security while he is alive.

Claim by Claim

1. 39:1
   • At that time Merodach-baladan, son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters to Hezekiah.
   • Merodach-baladan also sent a gift to Hezekiah.
   • Merodach-baladan had heard that Hezekiah had been sick.
   • Merodach-baladan had heard that Hezekiah had recovered.
2. 39:2
   • Hezekiah was glad because of the letters and gift.
   • Hezekiah showed the messengers his treasure house.
   • He showed them the silver.
   • He showed them the gold.
   • He showed them the spices.
   • He showed them the fine oil.
   • He showed them all the house of his weapons.
   • He showed them everything found in his storehouses.
   • There was nothing in Hezekiah's house that he did not show them.
   • There was nothing in all his dominion that he did not show them.
3. 39:3
   • Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah.
   • Isaiah asked Hezekiah what the men had said.
   • Isaiah asked Hezekiah where the men had come from.
   • Hezekiah said the men had come to him from a far country.
   • Hezekiah said the men had come from Babylon.
4. 39:4
   • Isaiah asked what the men had seen in Hezekiah's house.
   • Hezekiah answered that they had seen everything in his house.
   • Hezekiah said there was nothing among his treasures that he had not shown them.
5. 39:5
   • Isaiah told Hezekiah to hear the word of the LORD of hosts.
6. 39:6
   • Days are coming when everything in Hezekiah's house will be carried to Babylon.
   • What Hezekiah's fathers had stored up until that day will also be carried to Babylon.
   • Nothing will be left.
   • The LORD said this.
7. 39:7
   • Some of Hezekiah's sons who come from him will be taken away.
   • These are sons Hezekiah will father.
   • They will be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.
8. 39:8
   • Hezekiah said to Isaiah that the word of the LORD which Isaiah had spoken is good.
   • Hezekiah further said that there would be peace and truth in his days.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

39:1

Merodach-baladan was a Chaldean chief who twice seized the throne of Babylon (roughly 721–710 BC and again briefly around 703 BC) and led revolts against Assyria, the empire that then dominated the region and to which Judah paid tribute. In the diplomacy of the time, a letter and a gift from one king to a distant one were the standard opening move in seeking an alliance; congratulating Hezekiah on his recovery gave the embassy a public reason for coming.

39:2

Showing envoys the royal treasury and the armory was itself a diplomatic act: it displayed the wealth and military strength a possible partner would be bringing to an alliance. "Precious ointment" in the King James means costly perfumed oil, a luxury trade good, not medicine.

39:3

Babylon lay some seven hundred miles east of Jerusalem, at the far end of the trade routes, and in Hezekiah's day it was a rebellious province of the Assyrian empire rather than a great power. The empire that would later carry Judah into exile was more than a century away.

39:5

Where the King James prints LORD in capital letters it stands for the personal name of God in Hebrew, four consonants usually written YHWH, which Jewish readers replaced with the word "Lord" when reading aloud. "Hosts" is old English for armies.

39:6

"Thy fathers" means Hezekiah's ancestors, the kings before him. About a hundred years after Hezekiah, Babylon's army did carry the treasures of Jerusalem away.

39:7

"Issue from thee" and "beget" are old English for children fathered by him, meaning his descendants generally, not only his immediate sons. Eunuchs were castrated men; ancient courts used them as palace servants and officials, particularly in areas where the king's women lived, since they could father no rival line. The Hebrew word can also be used more loosely of a court official, but the threat here is that the royal line's own sons will end up as servants in a foreign palace.

39:8

"Truth" in 1611 English carried the sense of firmness and reliability, and the Hebrew word behind it means steadiness or faithfulness rather than accurate statement; paired with "peace" it describes settled, secure conditions. The Hebrew of the second sentence can be read either as something Hezekiah said aloud or as what he thought to himself, and it leaves open whether he speaks in relief, in resignation, or in simple acceptance.