Lives of Scripture

Merodach-baladan (called Berodach-baladan in 2 Kings 20:12), king of Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a gift to Hezekiah of Judah after hearing that Hezekiah had been mortally ill and miraculously recovered (2 Kings 20:1-11, 12; Isaiah 39:1). The visit was likely also political -- Babylon was a rebellious vassal of Assyria seeking allies against their common overlord. Hezekiah, pleased by the attention, welcomed the envoys and showed them everything of value in his kingdom: silver, gold, spices, fine oil, his armory, and all his treasuries -- "there was nothing... that Hezekiah did not show them" (20:13). The prophet Isaiah then confronted Hezekiah, asking what the men had seen and where they had come from. When Hezekiah answered plainly, Isaiah delivered a sobering oracle: everything in the palace, everything Hezekiah's fathers had stored up, would one day be carried off to Babylon, and some of Hezekiah's own descendants would be taken as eunuchs in the Babylonian king's palace (20:14-18; Isaiah 39:3-7). Hezekiah's response -- relief that peace and security would last in his own lifetime (20:19) -- is left in Scripture without comment, a quiet warning about pride and short-sightedness. Merodach-baladan's embassy, though brief, becomes the hinge on which Isaiah's prophecy of the Babylonian exile turns.