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2 Kings 20:14
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The Babylonian Envoys

12 aAt that time1 Berodach-Baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick.  
13 And aHezekiah was attentive to them, and showed them all the house of his treasures—the silver and gold, the spices and precious ointment, and1 all his armory—all that was found among his treasures. There was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.  
14 Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say, and from where did they come to you?” So Hezekiah said, “They came from a far country, from Babylon.”
15 And he said, “What have they seen in your house?” So Hezekiah answered, a“They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.”  
16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord:
17 ‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have accumulated until this day, ashall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,’ says the Lord.  
18 ‘And athey shall take away some of your sons who will1 descend from you, whom you will beget; band they shall be ceunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’ ”  
19 So Hezekiah said to Isaiah, a“The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good!” For he said, “Will there not be peace and truth at least in my days?”  
Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
<< 2 Kings 20:13   2 Kings 20:15 >>


2 Kings 20:14

Hezekiah did not answer Isaiah' s first question, "What said these men?" but only his second. Probably he knew that Isaiah would oppose reliance on an "arm of flesh."

Babylon now for the first time became revealed to the Jews as an actual power in the world, which might effect them politically. As yet even the prophets had spoken but little of the great southern city; up to this time she had been little more to them than Tyre, or Tarshish, or any other rich and powerful idolatrous city. Henceforth, all this was wholly changed. The prophetic utterance of Isaiah on this occasion II Kings 20:16-18 never was, never could be, forgotten. He followed it up with a burst of prophecy Isa. 40-66, in which Babylon usurps altogether the place of Assyria as Israel' s enemy, and the captivity being assumed as a matter of certainty, the hopes of the people are directed onward beyond it to the Return. Other prophets took up the strain and repeated it Habakkuk 1:6-11; Habakkuk 2:5-8; Micah 4:10. Babylon thus became henceforth, in lieu of Assyria, the great object of the nation' s fear and hatred.




Other Barnes' Notes entries containing 2 Kings 20:14:

Isaiah 33:23
Micah 4:10

 

<< 2 Kings 20:13   2 Kings 20:15 >>

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