Our chapter comes after the downfall of Sancheriv and after the illness of Chizkiyahu and his recovery, including the great sign that Yeshayahu the prophet gave him: returning the shadow of the sun ten degrees backward. From here on, the chapter deals with what followed in the wake of that miracle: a delegation from Bavel that arrives to Chizkiyahu, the showing of the treasures, Yeshayahu's rebuke and the decree of the exile of Bavel, and finally the end of Chizkiyahu's days. We will proceed according to the order of the verses and explain based on the Malbim and Chazal.
וַיִּקְרָא יְשַׁעְיָהוּ הַנָּבִיא אֶל יְהוָה וַיָּשֶׁב אֶת הַצֵּל בַּמַּעֲלוֹת אֲשֶׁר יָרְדָה בְּמַעֲלוֹת אָחָז אֲחֹרַנִּית עֶשֶׂר מַעֲלוֹת׃ - And Yeshayahu the prophet called to Hashem, and He brought back the shadow ten degrees, by which it had gone down on the dial of Achaz, backward.
בָּעֵת הַהִיא שָׁלַח בְּרֹאדַךְ בַּלְאֲדָן בֶּן בַּלְאֲדָן מֶלֶךְ בָּבֶל סְפָרִים וּמִנְחָה אֶל חִזְקִיָּהוּ כִּי שָׁמַע כִּי חָלָה חִזְקִיָּהוּ׃ - At that time Berodach Baladan son of Baladan, king of Bavel, sent letters and a gift to Chizkiyahu, for he had heard that Chizkiyahu had been ill.
Berodach Baladan was the king of Bavel. Bavel and Ashur were many times in very close proximity, to the point that at times they were literally one kingdom (as we saw that the king of Ashur exiled Israel to Bavel), and at times they were two separate kingdoms. "Letters" means missives, and "a gift" means a gift of honor. But we must ask: what is the significance of his hearing that Chizkiyahu had fallen ill, is that a reason to send him letters and a gift?
Rashi explains: "for he had heard that he had been ill" - and until that day no person had ever been ill and lived. Chizkiyahu is the first in history to reach his deathbed and recover. And how did the king of Bavel hear about the miracle? Chazal say: Baladan was accustomed to eat at the third hour of the day (the third hour of the day is roughly eight in the morning, the end of the time for reciting the Shema). Apparently he would rise, recite the Shema and eat breakfast, and then return to bed and sleep until the ninth hour, that is, until three or four hours after midday. On that day he awoke at the ninth hour and found that it was morning: the sun was smiling at him through the window from the eastern side. He was certain that his servants had let him sleep an entire "watch" - from yesterday morning until tomorrow morning, and had not woken him at all. He wanted to kill them: you let me sleep a whole day and night?! They said to him: the orb of the sun has gone back.
Now, such an excuse before a king would have made the rebels lower their heads: are you mocking me, the sun went backward? But the matter was so open and clear that it did not sound like a joke. They said to him: come and ask everyone, everyone sees the sun going and returning backward. He said to them: and who returned it? He sent men and spies, he set up a kind of investigative committee: how did the sun change its course and by whose merit? The Malbim explains that they investigated for a certain period of time and clarified, and then it became clear to him that it was the God of Chizkiyahu. When he heard this he said: I must come to know this God, to find out who He is and what is happening there. And therefore he sent letters and a gift: if the Holy One, blessed be He, moves the sun for you, you are a great man. He heard that he was ill, and now he sees that he recovered - an enormous wonder.
Here the Malbim resolves a fundamental question: how is it possible that the Holy One, blessed be He, would perform a miracle for nothing, that is, in vain and without need? In order for Chizkiyahu to be assured that he would recover, does the Holy One, blessed be He, need to perform a wonder the like of which had not occurred since the days of Yehoshua bin Nun? To this the Malbim says: that was not the purpose. For Chizkiyahu's assurance, a small sign and wonder would have sufficed. Rather, there was in this a great purpose for the entire nation.
For we are situated after the exile of the ten tribes, and significant portions of the people of Israel are already scattered among the nations. And the Holy One, blessed be He, wants to encourage them, to arouse their spirit and to bring them back in repentance. Therefore He created a stir throughout the whole world: behold, the Holy One, blessed be He, moves the sun backward - in whose honor? In honor of Chizkiyahu the king. And why? So that you will awaken and see "Hashem our Master, how mighty is Your name throughout all the earth" - the Holy One, blessed be He, still exists, still watches over, still bestows His goodness and protects those who fear Him. Those cast-off ones in the lands of their exile needed to awaken, to want to return to Tziyon and to repent. And the proof that the miracle was talked about throughout the whole world: even a mighty king like Berodach Baladan son of Baladan, king of Bavel, trembled and was in awe before Him, and sent letters and a gift.
And from here there is an additional depth in the words of Chazal: the Holy One, blessed be He, wished to make Chizkiyahu the Mashiach. How so? In the wake of the miracle everyone would awaken, the scattered ones of Israel would gather and come, and who would stand at their head as king? Chizkiyahu. He would become the Mashiach and the redemption would arrive. They were already almost worthy of a complete redemption, and for this purpose the miracle was performed. And why did they not merit it? This we will see in the continuation of the chapter.
The Malbim adds: know that Berodach Baladan did not send his letters out of love for Chizkiyahu. Indeed Chizkiyahu himself says "they came from a distant land, from Bavel," meaning: I have no connection with them and I do not know them. If so, why did they come? On the contrary, they came as spies. They saw the downfall of Sancheriv, and before that they saw the immense wonder of the sun returning backward, and they investigated and found that this too was connected to Chizkiyahu. They want to clarify what this power is and where it comes from, and what practical difference does it make? Is there any point in coming again and launching another campaign, or is there no point.
It emerges that there is no honor here and no interest in exalting Chizkiyahu, but rather an inquiry: where did these missiles come from? What is the magnitude of this power? And to whom does the merit belong? If this is a private power of Chizkiyahu, there is nothing to fear: here is a tzaddik who has influence above; Chizkiyahu will die and then we will come. But if this is a power belonging to all of Yisrael, we are in trouble: even if Chizkiyahu departs, tomorrow the Holy One, blessed be He, will perform another miracle for them, and there is no point in bringing again one hundred and eighty thousand army commanders to fall at the gates of Yerushalayim. Ashur and Bavel are, after all, twins who go together, and after the first searing defeat they came a second time to scout the terrain.
And the Malbim says: come and see that indeed after the passing of Chizkiyahu, in the days of Menashe his son, they returned and came here. From this you learn that they waited for an opportune moment, and why specifically after the passing of Chizkiyahu? Because they understood that the miracle was performed privately for Chizkiyahu alone, and not in order to save all of Yisrael. And where do we see this explicitly in the verses?
וַיִּשְׁמַע עֲלֵיהֶם חִזְקִיָּהוּ וַיַּרְאֵם אֶת כׇּל בֵּית נְכֹתֹה אֶת הַכֶּסֶף וְאֶת הַזָּהָב וְאֶת הַבְּשָׂמִים וְאֵת שֶׁמֶן הַטּוֹב וְאֵת בֵּית כֵּלָיו וְאֵת כׇּל אֲשֶׁר נִמְצָא בְּאוֹצְרֹתָיו לֹא הָיָה דָבָר אֲשֶׁר לֹא הֶרְאָם חִזְקִיָּהוּ בְּבֵיתוֹ וּבְכׇל מֶמְשַׁלְתּוֹ׃ - And Chizkiyahu listened to them and showed them all his treasure house, the silver and the gold and the spices and the fine oil and his armory and all that was found in his storehouses; there was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Chizkiyahu did not show them.
"Vayishma aleihem" is like "vayishma aleihem," he listened to them. He accepted their great esteem, the matter flattered him, and he showed them all that he had. "Beit nechotoh" means his treasure house, from the expression "nechot, balm and myrrh," every pleasant thing. And Chazal ask: what is "beit nechotoh"? Some of them said: his wife served them drink, and this is not modesty; why bring your wife to serve in front of them? And some of them said: "iron ruling over iron," he had a special iron capable of shattering other iron, and this is a great advantage in war. And some of them said: he showed them his treasury.
And why all this? Because he was certain that all who came were coming in his honor, and he was certain that the miracle was performed in his honor. But according to what has been explained, the miracle was performed for the honor of the people of Yisrael, in order to arouse and encourage the exiles in the lands of their exile. Here there was an error and mistake on Chizkiyahu's part, and therefore we find in Divrei HaYamim that Chizkiyahu sinned through the pride of his heart against Hashem. And this was the sin: that he relied upon them to boast before them: do you see how close I am to Hashem? How many miracles the Holy One, blessed be He, performs for me? Not only do I succeed among people, but I have succeeded even with G-d.
The Malbim says that there were two sins here. The first: a mistake in governance. In their time no king would reveal his treasures, and that is why it is called "beit nechotoh," a place of stored things, matters that are kept hidden. For one who reveals his treasures only encourages nations to come and conquer him. Furthermore: from where did Chizkiyahu obtain such great treasures? From Sancheriv. Sancheriv's camp came with enormous treasures after he defeated Kush, and we already asked why Sancheriv needed to go back and fight Tirhaka king of Kush and Mitzrayim and then return here, in order that he bring all their treasures here and fall here not as a pauper but as a very wealthy man, leaving everything behind. And now the treasures of Sancheriv and the treasures of all of them are found here, and the men of the king of Bavel see this and their eyes pop out: this is ours, they took it from Ashur. And even if it is not theirs, at the sight of such great treasures their appetite is aroused, and they say: we must find an opportune moment to come and conquer here, and this is indeed what ultimately happened in the days of Menashe his son. In terms of political governance this was not a wise act.
And the second sin: the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded the king not to amass treasures for himself, and why? "So that his heart not be raised above his brothers." And all the more so not to boast with these treasures against the gentiles, and this is what he did, he went and showed them: see how much the Holy One, blessed be He, loves me and esteems me, see what treasures He gives me. It emerges that both things encourage them to come: one, there is a point in coming here, there are very great treasures here. And the second, the miracle was performed privately for Chizkiyahu; we will wait for Chizkiyahu to depart and then we will come upon his son Menashe. And so indeed it was.
And this is what our Sages say: the Holy One, blessed be He, wished to make Chizkiyahu the Mashiach, so why did He not make him Mashiach? Because he did not sing a song of praise. According to our approach an additional depth emerges here: "he did not sing a song" means that he attributed the entire miracle to himself. Had you attributed the miracle to God, you would have created an awakening, and people would have understood that a miracle was performed here for the sake of Klal Yisrael, Klal Yisrael would have been aroused, you would have been fit to be Mashiach and the people of Israel would have been redeemed. But since he did not sing a song and did not praise the Creator of the world but rather himself, as if the miracle were done for him and by his merit - you are no longer fit to be Mashiach. And as a result the kings of Babylon will come here and conquer everything.
And notice according to this: this is not a punishment at all. That they will come and take everything is not a punishment but a consequence. You provoked the bear here, you are "one who passes by and grabs a dog by its ears" - why did you go and pull the dog's ears and then wonder why it bites? You should not have shown them the treasures, but rather said: the people of Israel are a great nation, the Holy One, blessed be He, performs miracles for them - and they would have left here in fear and dread. But you attributed the matter to yourself, and through this the nations understand that they need only wait.
In Divrei HaYamim the matter appears more explicitly: "And so with the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent to him to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him, to test him, to know all that was in his heart." The Holy One, blessed be He, tested him "to know all that was in his heart," that is, whether you believe and trust in Hashem, or whether you attribute the miracle to yourself and see in it a distinction that was done only for you. And here he failed, for out of his pride he boasted of it.
וַיָּבֹא יְשַׁעְיָהוּ הַנָּבִיא אֶל הַמֶּלֶךְ חִזְקִיָּהוּ וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו מָה אָמְרוּ הָאֲנָשִׁים הָאֵלֶּה וּמֵאַיִן יָבֹאוּ אֵלֶיךָ וַיֹּאמֶר חִזְקִיָּהוּ מֵאֶרֶץ רְחוֹקָה בָּאוּ מִבָּבֶל׃ - And Yeshayahu the prophet came to King Chizkiyahu and said to him: What did these men say, and from where did they come to you? And Chizkiyahu said: From a distant land they came, from Babylon.
Yeshayahu comes to Chizkiyahu and opens a conversation with him. And what was the natural response the king should have given? My master the prophet, you are supposed to know; as a prophet you need not ask me who the men are and why they came to me. And regarding this our Sages say: Chizkiyahu is one of three whom the Holy One, blessed be He, tested and found to be a vessel of urine (a vessel of murky water): Kayin, Chizkiyahu and Bilam. Kayin - the Holy One, blessed be He, asks him "Where is Hevel your brother," and what should he have answered? You know. And what did he answer? "I do not know, am I my brother's keeper" - the Holy One, blessed be He, is testing you, and he failed the test. And likewise with Bilam: the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him "Who are these men with you," and he should have said: You, Hashem, know. And what did he say? They came to me to inquire of my welfare and honor, the king of Moav sent them, I am important to him; perhaps You do not esteem me so much, but there is one who esteems me. Here too Chizkiyahu should have said: You know, You are a prophet, and if you were sent to me surely you have something to say to me, and you know what I said to them. And instead: "And Chizkiyahu said: From a distant land they came, from Babylon."
And there are two difficulties here. The first: to "What did these men say" he did not answer at all, but only to "and from where did they come to you." And the second: "From a distant land they came, from Babylon" - did the prophet not study geography and not know where Babylon is? Babylon was very well known and famous in its time, so what need was there to tell him "from a distant land"?
The Malbim explains: when the prophet arrived, Chizkiyahu, who was wise and righteous, immediately understood what the prophet wanted from him, and understood that Yeshayahu had come to him with a rebuke. Therefore to the question "What did these men say" he did not answer, for then he would also have to say what he himself said, and woe to that shame: I attributed the entire miracle to myself as if everything were by my merit. And when a person has no answer to a question, what does he do? He ignores it and moves on to the next question. And to the second question, from where they came, he anticipates and responds to the rebuke: I understand what you want to tell me, Yeshayahu - why did you go and show them your treasures, do you not understand that you are provoking the bear against you and they will come to fight you? To this he responds: this is not a nation that comes to fight us, it was never so. If they were our neighbors, there would be room to say that tomorrow they will position all their artillery here, bombard us and come and take. But these are far away, from the other end, "from a distant land they came, from Babylon," and there is no reason to fear that they will provoke us to war.
וַיֹּאמֶר מָה רָאוּ בְּבֵיתֶךָ וַיֹּאמֶר חִזְקִיָּהוּ אֵת כׇּל אֲשֶׁר בְּבֵיתִי רָאוּ לֹא הָיָה דָבָר אֲשֶׁר לֹא הִרְאִיתִם בְּאֹצְרֹתָי׃ - And he said: What did they see in your house? And Chizkiyahu said: Everything that is in my house they saw; there was nothing that I did not show them among my treasures.
Chizkiyahu says to him: since they came from a distant place and there is nothing to fear from them in battle, I therefore showed them all the treasures. Had I been afraid, I certainly would not have shown them anything, but since they came from a distant land, there is no room for concern.
וַיֹּאמֶר יְשַׁעְיָהוּ אֶל חִזְקִיָּהוּ שְׁמַע דְּבַר יְהוָה׃ הִנֵּה יָמִים בָּאִים וְנִשָּׂא כׇּל אֲשֶׁר בְּבֵיתֶךָ וַאֲשֶׁר אָצְרוּ אֲבֹתֶיךָ עַד הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה בָּבֶלָה לֹא יִוָּתֵר דָּבָר אָמַר יְהוָה׃ - And Yeshayahu said to Chizkiyahu: Hear the word of Hashem. Behold, days are coming when everything that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up until this day, shall be carried off to Babylon; nothing shall be left, says Hashem.
The Malbim asks: is this a punishment? Such a terrible punishment merely for showing his treasures? After all, Shlomo showed his treasures to the nations. And in Divrei HaYamim it is written that Chizkiyahu's heart grew haughty, "and there was wrath upon Yehudah and Yerushalayim" - what haughtiness of heart is there here? According to what has been explained, however, the matter is beautifully understood: the haughtiness of heart lay in attributing the miracle to himself, and that is the essence of the punishment. Showing the treasures is a small detail; the main thing is the haughtiness of heart in attributing all of this to yourself.
And if you wish to understand, naturally there is no punishment here at all. For you showed them the treasures, you enticed them to come here, and this is a matter of cause and effect: you brought this about, and I do not need to punish you - you brought this upon yourself. Why did you go to entice them and awaken their appetite? Therefore there is no claim here of "the fathers ate sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge," since through his own actions he caused the damage with his own hands. This is not a punishment that Hashem gives, but damage that you caused.
And as for what he says, "nothing shall be left" - Rashi says: measure for measure. You said, "there was nothing that I did not show them," and therefore it was said to you, "nothing shall be left."
וּמִבָּנֶיךָ אֲשֶׁר יֵצְאוּ מִמְּךָ אֲשֶׁר תּוֹלִיד יִקָּחוּ וְהָיוּ סָרִיסִים בְּהֵיכַל מֶלֶךְ בָּבֶל׃ - And some of your sons who will issue from you, whom you will beget, will be taken, and they will be officials in the palace of the king of Bavel.
And who are "of your sons"? These are Chananyah, Mishael, and Azaryah, who will be officials in the house of the king of Bavel. And the term "sarisim" (officials/eunuchs) has several meanings: there are actual eunuchs, who were castrated and set as guards over the house of women, and there are "sarisim" in the sense of servants of the king, and there is also the expression "sarisim" for ministers and important people.
וַיֹּאמֶר חִזְקִיָּהוּ אֶל יְשַׁעְיָהוּ טוֹב דְּבַר יְהוָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבַּרְתָּ וַיֹּאמֶר הֲלוֹא אִם שָׁלוֹם וֶאֱמֶת יִהְיֶה בְיָמָי׃ - And Chizkiyahu said to Yeshayahu: Good is the word of Hashem which you have spoken. And he said: Is it not so, if there will be peace and truth in my days?
An enormous wonder. This sounds very egotistical: after such a terrible decree was decreed, he says "Good is the word of Hashem," because in my days there will be peace? It is unthinkable to say such a thing about Chizkiyahu. And the explanation of the matter is this: from an evil decree the Holy One, blessed be He, retracts if the people repent, but from a decree He decreed for good the Holy One, blessed be He, never retracts (except for one time). If so, what did the prophet promise me? That there will be peace in my days - and from that Hashem will not retract. And this in itself is a wondrous promise, for there is no one who received such a promise that there would be peace in his days, and about this one must certainly say "good."
And as for what he said, that after your days there will be war - what is good about that? To this he says: this is not immediate, and if it is not immediate it is possible to repent, for this is a decree for evil, and about a decree for evil the Holy One, blessed be He, accepts repentance. The matter thus turns out to be very wondrous: had Hashem told me that the evil would come immediately and the good would be in who knows how long, that would be bad. But here the good is immediate and the evil is at a later time: about the good Hashem will not retract, and about the evil we have time to repent. This is "Good is the word of Hashem which you have spoken."
וְיֶתֶר דִּבְרֵי חִזְקִיָּהוּ וְכׇל גְּבוּרָתוֹ וַאֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה אֶת הַבְּרֵכָה וְאֶת הַתְּעָלָה וַיָּבֵא אֶת הַמַּיִם הָעִירָה הֲלֹא הֵם כְּתוּבִים עַל סֵפֶר דִּבְרֵי הַיָּמִים לְמַלְכֵי יְהוּדָה׃ - And the rest of the deeds of Chizkiyahu and all his might, and how he made the pool and the conduit and brought the water into the city, behold, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Yehudah?
This is what you find with the waters of Gichon, that he brought them into the city, as we explained.
וַיִּשְׁכַּב חִזְקִיָּהוּ עִם אֲבֹתָיו וַיִּמְלֹךְ מְנַשֶּׁה בְנוֹ תַּחְתָּיו׃ - And Chizkiyahu slept with his fathers, and Menashe his son reigned in his stead.
The great miracle of turning back the sun was not done for no reason, nor for Chizkiyahu's private security, but in order to shake the world, to awaken the scattered of Israel in the lands of their exile and bring them back in repentance and to Zion. Through this Chizkiyahu could have become the Mashiach and the redemption would have arrived. The king of Bavel sent letters and a gift not out of love but as a spy, to check where the power lay and whether it was worthwhile to come again. Chizkiyahu, who was certain that all this came in his honor, showed them all his treasures: in this he erred in political leadership and provoked the bear against himself, and in this too he attributed the miracle to himself, for he did not recite a song of praise. From here on the decree is not merely a punishment but a direct outcome of his deeds, measure for measure: "there was nothing that I did not show them" set against "nothing shall be left." And with all this, Chizkiyahu accepted the word of Hashem with faith and with wisdom: regarding the good that was promised for his days the Holy One, blessed be He, does not go back, and regarding the future evil there remained time for repentance. Therefore, "Good is the word of Hashem which you have spoken."