In the past, I have taken the story of Hezekiah and Babylon (2 Kings 20; Isaiah 39) as a sort of “fall” of Hezekiah. On further consideration, I don’t think this is sustainable. The episode seems to have another function in Isaiah, and I have concluded that there is no condemnation of Hezekiah from Isaiah or Yahweh.

In the final episode of the narrative section of Isaiah, Hezekiah gets a visit from Merodach-baladan, king of Babylon. He hears of Hezekiah’s sickness and recovery and pays tribute ( minchah , a grain offering) and sends a message to the king. This is quite a different sort of visit from Sennacherib’s. Sennacherib also sent letters to Hezekiah, but they were blasphemous and threatening. Sennacherib didn’t send tribute, but was punishing Hezekiah for not sending him tribute. The implication seems to be that Merodach-baladan had heard of the miracle of Hezekiah’s recovery and was showing respect, not only for the king but for the king’s King, Yahweh.

Hezekiah rejoices at the visit (v. 2), and there is no hint that this is a prideful joy in his own accomplishments. He has been sick, and recovered, and Gentiles come and honor him. His city has been besieged, and delivered, and Gentiles pay tribute to him and, implicitly, to Yahweh. It is a foretaste of the effect of the restoration of Jerusalem after exile. When the Lord restores Zion, “foreigners who join themselves to the Lord . . . I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar” (Isaiah 56:6-8). The final vision of Isaiah is that the Gentiles will bring Judah’s brothers like a minchah /tribute to the holy mountain of Jerusalem (66:19-20). Hezekiah receives the visitors from Babylon the way Solomon received the queen of Sheba. He showed her all their treasures, as Hezekiah shows the silver, gold, spices, oil, and armor that is in his treasuries.

Isaiah meets Hezekiah and asks him about the visit. Isaiah’s message is that the Babylonians will return and take the treasures that they have been shown, and that they will also take the children of Hezekiah into the Babylonian court as eunuchs. Now the Babylonians bring tribute to Jerusalem; days are coming, Isaiah says, when the flow of treasure will be reversed. Hezekiah recognizes that the prophecy would interrupt the peace of his days, and is glad that the prophecy won’t be fulfilled in his own time. Isaiah’s prophecy doesn’t describe the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple that we know happens later. But he implies it: Babylon might take some of Jerusalem’s treasure in tribute, but how could Babylon end up with all the treasures of Jerusalem without plundering the city? How could they take royal princes to Babylon except with exile? But in Hezekiah’s time the threat is relatively mild, not to mention distant.

But to grasp this fully, we need to realize that Babylon is going to play a different role in Israel’s history than Assyria did. Assyria was merely a hammer and an axe, merely an instrument and tool for Yahweh to judge and discipline His people. Babylon is going to be something different. Babylon, and the empires that follow it, are going to provide refuge for the people of God. The treasure of the temple, and the tasks of the Davidic kings, are going to be taken up by Babylon, then Persia, Greece, and Rome. Cyrus, Isaiah says later, will be the anointed king, a second Solomon who builds a second temple.

The introduction of Babylon also means that we are in a new phase of Isaiah’s prophecy. The first half of the book is obsessed with the Assyrian threat. After chapter 38, the Assyrians are mentioned only once in passing (52:4); after the siege is broken and Sennacherib is chased back to his temple and killed by his sons, Assyria is no longer a threat. The Assyrian threat was like Hezekiah’s sickness: It brought Jerusalem and the Davidic dynasty to the “gates of Sheol,” but Yahweh rescued them from destruction. Babylon will be a greater threat: They will actually remove the treasures that Sennacherib never got, and will take Davidic princes into the Babylonian court. Babylon will not only bring Judah to the gate of Sheol, but will take Judah and the Davidic dynasty all the way to the grave. But Hezekiah’s experience with the siege, and his prayer, assures him, and should assure Judah, that the God who delivers from Assyria will also deliver from Babylon. He who rescues from the edge of the grave can also raise the dead.