The Isaiah Project: Chapter 39, or, Peace in My Days

It's an auspicious day, folks, because we have reached the end of Part I (chapters 1-39) of Isaiah's prophecy. See below as ever for the translation and then the essay. Thank you, thank you for coming with me on this adventure.

1. In that period Merdoach-baladan, son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent a letter and a gift to Hezekiah: he had heard that he had been ill, and had recovered his strength.

2. And Hezekiah was delighted with them. He showed them the storehouse of his prized possessions — the silver and the gold; the spices and the good oil; the armory with all his gear; and everything he could find in his treasure troves. There was not one thing Hezekiah didn’t show in his household, or in his whole dominion.

3. Then Isaiah came, the prophet, to King Hezekiah. He said to him, ‘what did these men say? And where did they come to you from?’ And Hezekiah said, ‘from a territory far away — they came to me from Babylon.’

4. And he said, ‘what did they see in your house?’ Hezekiah said, ‘they saw my entire house — there wasn’t a thing that I didn’t show them in my treasure troves.’

5. And Isaiah said to Hezekiah, ‘listen to this proclamation from the God of Legions.

6. ‘“Look: see days approaching when everything in your house and everything amassed by your fathers up until this day is carried off to Babylon. Not a thing will be left, says God.

7. ‘“And they will take from the sons which come from you, to whom you give birth. They will be eunuchs in the courts of Babylon’s king.’”

8. Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, ‘Good. The proclamation of God, which you have proclaimed, is good,’ he said, ‘because there will be peace and security in my days.’

Merodach-baladan was the rebel king of Babylon when that region was still under Assyria's thumb. Twice in the 8th century (from 721-710 BC and again in 703), he seized control of his native land. Babylon, capital city of Babylonia, was south of Assyria and east of Israel. It would not gain full control of the Mesopotamian region until 612 BC, after Merodach-baladan had died. Then, at the Assyrian capitol of Nineveh, the Babylonians under Nabopolassar defeated their longtime rivals and became dominant until 539.

But this chapter takes place before all that, when Babylonia was, like Israel, a rebel power. Merodach-baladan sent envoys to Hezekiah, doubtless looking to form a coalition against Assyria. Hezekiah had just recovered, miraculously, from a life-threatening illness. God had vouchsafed Israel a few more years before it would be conquered -- not by Assyria, but by Babylon itself once it took command of the region. The exchange in this chapter is therefore a conversation between an as-yet-unwitting Jerusalem, and her conqueror-in-waiting.

Isaiah was given to know all this in advance, which is why he reacted to what seems like a mutually successful conference with forewarnings of doom. '"They will take the sons . . . to whom you give birth. They will be eunuchs in the courts of Babylon's king,'" says Isaiah on behalf of God in verse 7. Once again the prophet reiterates what he has been insisting all along -- that no geopolitical alliance, however promising, can be fruitful if undertaken against the guidance of heaven.

Hezekiah, for his part, shows his will totally broken by the illness and the existential threat from Assyria, both of which he has just narrowly avoided. The typical interpretation of Hezekiah's reaction here attributes it to pride: saved from disaster by God, the king of Jerusalem now considers himself untouchable. But I hear in his words something more like resignation: 'there will be peace and security in my days' (verse 8). Pride may be a part of this response. But really it seems as if, having had his nerves wrung out far past the point of endurance, the last good king of Israel was simply not up for going through it all again. At least, he thought wearily, there would be peace in his days.

I therefore cannot fault Hezekiah here, though I know his behavior was disastrous and nearsighted. I cannot help but speculate -- cannot help but fear -- that any one of us would have done the same in his position. He was facing a burden that was too much for him to bear, a fall from grace that had become inevitable long before his birth. And so now, with Ahaz dead and Israel on the path to exile, he could only admit defeat: salvation was not within his power. This first half of Isaiah's prophecy (Chapters 1-39) ends therefore not with a bang, but with a sigh of resignation. Peace in our time.

Intriguingly, this final chapter of Part I is also the turning point from despair to hope in Isaiah's message. Some believe (I do not) that this is because Part II was written after the exile, to give encouragement to those in captivity. But even if you suspect, as I do, that Isaiah was one man, you can see that he pivots here.

This, I think, is because by this point the damage was done. This final shrug of acquiescence on Hezekiah's part is the last abandonment of hope in humanity for Isaiah: no merely mortal king is coming to save him or his people. And from that moment on, God spoke to Isaiah words of comfort and consolation. It was when he realised that someone more than human was needed, that Isaiah began to understand that someone more than human would be forthcoming. That someone -- that suffering servant-king who would at last right Israel's and the world's every wrong -- will be the object of focus in Part II, to which we now turn.

Rejoice evermore,
Spencer