6 'Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried to Babylon. Nothing will be left,' says Yahweh.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
And nothing shall be left It is proper to observe the kind of punishment which the Lord inflicts on Hezekiah; for he takes from his successors those things of which he vaunted so loudly, in order that they may have no ground for boasting of them. Thus the Lord punishes the ambition and pride of men, so that their name or kingdom, which they hoped would last for ever, is blotted out, and they are treated with contempt, and the remembrance of them is accursed. In a word, he overthrows their foolish thoughts, so that they find by experience the very opposite of those inventions by which they deceive themselves. If it be objected that it is unreasonable, that the sacking of a city and the captivity of a nation should be attributed to the fault of a single man, while the Holy Spirit everywhere declares (2 Chronicles 36:14-17) that general obstinacy was the reason why God delivered up the city and the country to be pillaged by the Babylonians; I answer, that there is no absurdity in God's punishing the sin of a single man, and at the same time the crimes of a whole nation. For when the wrath of the Lord overspread the whole country, it was the duty of all to unite in confessing their guilt., and of every person to consider individually what he had deserved; that no man might throw the blame on others, but that every man might lay it on himself. Besides, since the Jews were already in many ways liable to the judgment of God, he justly permitted Hezekiah to fail in his duty to the injury of all, that he might hasten the more his own wrath, and open up a way for the execution of his judgment. In like manner we see that it happened to David; for Scripture declares that it was not an accidental occurrence that David numbered the people, but that it took place by the fault of the nation itself, whom the Lord determined to punish in this manner. "The anger of the Lord was kindled against the nation, and he put it into the heart of David to number the people." (2 Samuel 24:1.) Thus in this passage also punishment is threatened against Hezekiah; but his sin, by which he provoked God's anger, was also the vengeance of God against the whole nation.
Behold, the days come - The captivity of the Jews in Babylon commenced about one hundred and twenty years after this prediction (compare Jeremiah 20:5).
That all that is in thine house - That is, all the treasures that are in the treasure-house Isaiah 39:2.
And that which thy fathers have laid up in store - In 2-Kings 18:15-16, we are told that Hezekiah, in order to meet the demands of the king of Assyria, had cut off even the ornaments of the temple, and taken all the treasures which were in 'the king's house.' It is possible, however, that there might have been other treasures which had been accumulated by the kings before him which he had not touched.
Nothing shall be left - This was literally fulfilled (see 2-Chronicles 36:18). It is remarkable, says Vitringa, that this is the first intimation that the Jews would be carried to Babylon - the first designation of the place where they would be so long punished and oppressed. Micah Micah 4:10, a contemporary of Isaiah, declares the same thing, but probably this was not before the declaration here made by Isaiah. Moses had declared repeatedly, that, if they were a rebellious people, they should be removed from their own to a foreign land; but he had not designated the country Leviticus 26:33-34; Deuteronomy 28:64-67; Deuteronomy 30:3. Ahijah, in the time of Jeroboam 1-Kings 14:15, had predicted that they should be carried 'beyond the river,' that is, the Euphrates; and Amos Amos 5:27 had said that God would carry them 'into captivity beyond Damascus.' But all these predictions were now concentrated on Babylon; and it was for the first time distinctly announced by Isaiah that that was to be the land where they were to suffer so long and so painful a captivity.
To Babylon - בבלה babelah, so two MSS., (one ancient); rightly, without doubt as the other copy (2-Kings 20:17) has it. This prediction was fulfilled about one hundred and fifty years after it was spoken: see Daniel 1:2, Daniel 1:3-7. What a proof of Divine omniscience!
Behold, the days come, that all that [is] in thy house, and [that] which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be (e) carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the LORD.
(e) By the grievousness of the punishment is declared how greatly God detested ambition and vain glory.
Behold, the days come,.... Or, "are coming (e)"; and which quickly came; after a few reigns more, even in Jehoiakim's time:
that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; as it was, when Jehoiakim king of Judah, his mother, servants, princes, and officers, were taken by the king of Babylon, and carried captive, and along with them the treasures of the king's house, and also all the treasures of the house of the Lord, 2-Kings 24:12,
nothing shall be left, saith the Lord; this was, as Jarchi says, measure for measure; as there was nothing that was not shown to the ambassadors, so nothing should be left untaken away by the Babylonians.
(e) "venientes", Montanus; "venturi sunt", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
days come--one hundred twenty years afterwards. This is the first intimation that the Jews would be carried to Babylon--the first designation of their place of punishment. The general prophecy of Moses (Leviticus 26:33; Deuteronomy 28:64); the more particular one of Ahijah in Jeroboam's time (1-Kings 14:15), "beyond the river"; and of Amos 5:27, "captivity beyond Damascus"; are now concentrated in this specific one as to "Babylon" (Micah 4:10). It was an exact retribution in kind, that as Babylon had been the instrument of Hezekiah and Judah's sin, so also it should be the instrument of their punishment.
*More commentary available at chapter level.