International Standard Version

718/1189

Isaiah 39

1 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.

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.”