Hezekiah Shows the Envoys His Treasures

… of God, the one, I mean, shown in Hezekiah's case. And we say that Merodach marvelled in another way too, at what had happened, beyond all expectation, to those who besieged Jerusalem with Rabshakeh: the hand of an angel fell upon them and destroyed them in one night, so that in the morning all the bodies were found dead (Isaiah 37:36). So the envoys came, Merodach having marvelled at Hezekiah's righteousness because of these very signs from God, which pass all telling.

Hezekiah ought to have given those who had come from Babylon a splendid account of the help that God, who can do all things, had given at each time of need, and of the greatness of His wonders, so that, marvelling even more at the divine pre-eminence and at the invincible authority of the Master of all through the words in which he had instructed them, they might return to their own land enriched with the knowledge of God. For in this way they could also have helped others by proclaiming what they had learned.

This he did not do. Instead he was carried away into human boastfulness. He did not order his own glory by the things for which God had honoured him, but by the wealth of his kingdom, and he made these the limit of all the glory he possessed. For he showed them, it says, the house of Nechotha (Nechotha means “of the spices”), and of the oil of myrrh, and of the perfume, and of the silver and of the gold, and all the houses of the vessels of his gaza, that is, of his wealth (Isaiah 39:2). For gaza is said to be a Persian word, and it means riches or wealth.

“And Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him: What do these men say, and from where have they come to you? And Hezekiah said: They have come to me from a land far off, from Babylon. And Isaiah said: What did they see in your house? And Hezekiah said: They saw everything in my house, and there is nothing in my house that they did not see; they even saw what is in my treasuries. And Isaiah said to him: Hear the word of the Lord of hosts: Behold, days are coming, and they will take everything in your house, and all that your fathers have gathered up to this day will go to Babylon, and they will leave nothing behind. And God said: They will also take some of your children whom you have begotten, and they will make them eunuchs in the house of the king of the Babylonians” (Isaiah 39:3-7).

The prophet had been sent by God; yet at first, when he met Hezekiah, he made as if he were speaking on his own account, as though he had come of his own accord. That is why he says, “What do these men say?” And his words are framed with great art. For the Babylonians had come, perhaps eager, as I said, to learn the cause of the sun's turning back, and for what …