Commentaria in Isaiam
Chapter Thirty-nine. Synopsis of the Chapter
Merodach, king of Babylon, sends ambassadors to congratulate Ezechias on his health miraculously recovered; and Ezechias shows them all his riches. Whence, verse 3, he is rebuked by Isaias, and hears that all his riches will be carried off to Babylon, and that his sons will be eunuchs of the king. This hard decree of God, verse 8, he accepts with equanimity, saying: “Let peace and truth be in my days.”
1. At that time Merodach Baladan the son of Baladan king of the Babylonians, sent letters and presents to Ezechias: for he had heard that he had been sick and was recovered. 2. And Ezechias rejoiced at their coming, and he shewed them the storehouse of his aromatical spices, and of the silver, and of the gold, and the sweet-smelling ointments, and all the storehouses of his furniture, and all that was found in his treasures. There was nothing that Ezechias did not show them in his house, and in all his power. 3. And Isaias the prophet came to king Ezechias, and said to him: What said these men, and from whence came they to thee? And Ezechias said: They came to me from a far country, from Babylon. 4. And he said: What saw they in thy house? And Ezechias said: They saw all that is in my house: there was nothing among my treasures that I did not show them. 5. And Isaias said to Ezechias: Hear the word of the Lord of hosts. 6. Behold the days shall come, that all that is in thy house, and that thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried into Babylon: there shall not anything be left, saith the Lord. 7. And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, whom thou shalt beget, they shall take away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. 8. And Ezechias said to Isaias: The word of the Lord, which thou hast spoken, is good. And he said: Let there be only peace and truth in my days.
1. MERODACH BALADAN SENT, that is, the king Baladan sent. For “Merodach” was a common name of the kings of Babylon, as Ptolemy of Egypt, Caesar of the Romans. Hence the son of Nabuchodonosor was called Evilmerodach, and Balthasar is called Merodach, Jeremias 50:2, perhaps from the first king of Babylon, who was called Merodach and was reckoned among the gods. As therefore we say Ptolemy Philadelphus, Ptolemy Euergetes, Ptolemy Philopator, so we say Merodach Baladan, Merodach Balthasar, and so on.
The Hebrews are mistaken, therefore, who think “Merodach” to be Nabuchodonosor, who transferred the monarchy from the Assyrians to the Chaldeans: for from the 15th year of Ezechias, in which his sickness and healing occurred, to the 4th year of Joakim, in which Nabuchodonosor began to reign, 106 years passed. Probably Scaliger, book 5 On the Emendation of Times, and from him Tornielli, in the year of the world 3306, think this Baladan to be Nabonassar, from whom the era of the Babylonians was constituted, and from whom Ptolemy writes that he received the ancient astronomical observations down to his own time, Almagest, book 3, chapter 7, who flourished in the time of the Emperor Hadrian, and consequently that Merodach, son of Baladan, is the one whom Ptolemy calls Mardocempad, son of Nabonassar. For Nabonassar, as is deduced from Ptolemy, began to reign about the 6th year of Ezechias, at the same time as Baladan in Babylon.
LETTERS (epistles: so the Chaldee and Septuagint; for this is the Hebrew sepher).
FOR HE HAD HEARD THAT HE HAD BEEN SICK AND WAS RECOVERED, and that on account of his sickness the sun had gone back. He sent ambassadors, therefore, both for friendship’s sake, to congratulate Ezechias on his health, and to inquire into and learn the truth, manner and cause of this portent, namely the going back of the sun, as is said in 2 Paralipomenon 32:31. The books of the Babylonian Astrologers have perished; otherwise this would be established from them. For there is no doubt that they recorded it in their tables. So Cajetan on 4 Kings, chapter 20.
Note here how kings of old, even heathen, cultivated friendship and salutations and other offices of humanity with other, especially neighboring, princes, even Jews, so that they sent ambassadors to them to congratulate them on their good fortune, to condole with them on their misfortune. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob made friendship with Abimelech and other kings of the Canaanites. So Hiram king of Tyre, Thou king of Emath, and others made alliance with David and Solomon and congratulated them: David himself also sent ambassadors to console Hanon king of Ammon on the death of his father, 2 Kings 10. So Jonathan and Simon the Machabees entered into close treaties of alliance with the Romans and Spartans.
2. THERE WAS NOTHING (no thing; Septuagint: not anything) IN ALL HIS POWER, in all his kingdom; the Chaldee, in all his dominion.
6. BEHOLD THE DAYS SHALL COME, AND ALL SHALL BE CARRIED AWAY. From this punishment it appears that Ezechias here sinned by some vanity and pride, namely in the ostentation of his riches, to which so honorable an embassy of the Babylonians urged him: for thence he pleased himself and swelled with pride (although perhaps this pride of his was only venial). So St. Jerome, Tertullian, book 4 Against Marcion, chapter 21; on Psalm 118, at the words: “I am humbled exceedingly;” Cajetan and others.
Note the just punishment: whoever makes ostentation of his riches deserves to be stripped of them. Whence tropologically Eucherius and Bede, on 4 Kings 20: “Ezechias,” they say, “vainly displaying his treasures signifies the servant of God, who, when he has betrayed his virtues for vainglory, soon loses them, and the treasures of good works pass, by an unhappy exchange, into the dominion of the demons.”
8. THE WORD OF THE LORD IS GOOD, that is, the sentence of the Lord punishing my vanity pleases me, I accept it, I submit myself to him. So Semei, hearing from Solomon: “On what day soever thou shalt pass over the torrent Cedron, know that thou shalt be put to death,” accepting the sentence answered: “The saying is good: as my lord the king hath spoken, so will thy servant do.”
The Hebrews therefore wrongly blame Ezechias as less solicitous for posterity than for himself. For constrained, he accepted the sentence of divine vengeance, and since he could not wholly avert it, he asks for such mitigation of it as could be hoped, that it should not be committed to execution in his days.
LET THERE BE ONLY PEACE AND TRUTH IN MY DAYS, namely that God keep me peaceful in life and kingdom, and overthrow my enemy Sennacherib, as he has promised; for this is truth, that is, the fidelity of God, which he demands. Others understand by truth Christ, promised to David and to me.