The Visit by Merodach-baladan

39 At that time Merodach-baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, when^[a] he heard he had been sick and had survived.^{[b] 2} Hezekiah was delighted with them, and showed them everything in^[c] his treasure-houses^[d]—the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oils, his entire armory, and everything found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom^[e] that Hezekiah did not show them.

Isaiah Rebukes Hezekiah

³ Then the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah and asked him, “What did these men have to say? And from where did they come to you?”

Hezekiah replied, “From a distant land—they came to me from Babylon.”

⁴ “What did they see in your palace?” he asked.

“They saw everything in my palace,” Hezekiah replied. “There is nothing in my treasuries that I did not show them.”

⁵ Then Isaiah told Hezekiah, “Listen to this message^[f] from the Lord of the Heavenly Armies: ⁶ ‘The days are surely coming when everything in your palace and all that your ancestors have stored up to this day will be carried off^[g] to Babylon. They will come in, and^[h] nothing will be left,’ says the Lord. ⁷ ‘Then some of your own sons, who will come from your loins,^[i] whom you will father, will be taken away to become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’”

⁸ “The message from the Lord that you have spoken is good,” Hezekiah replied to Isaiah, since he was thinking, “…at least there will be peace and security in my lifetime.”