Isaiah 39 · a question people ask
"For there will be peace and truth in my days" (39:8). Was Hezekiah accepting the LORD's word, or glad it wouldn't touch him?
Isaiah gives his words, and doesn't say what he was thinking or judge them. He said two things: "The LORD’s word which you have spoken is good" (39:8), and "For there will be peace and truth in my days" (39:8). 2 Kings tells the same answer with its own second sentence: "Isn’t it so, if peace and truth will be in my days?" (2 Kings 20:19). 2 Chronicles tells more of Hezekiah in its own account: "But Hezekiah didn’t reciprocate appropriate to the benefit done for him, because his heart was lifted up" (2 Chronicles 32:25), "However, Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart" (2 Chronicles 32:26), and of the ambassadors from Babylon, "God left him to test him, that he might know all that was in his heart" (2 Chronicles 32:31). Christians read these words in two main ways, each resting on verses; the two views are given here as the chapter on 2 Kings 20 sets them out, in 2 Kings' words. Both agree that he called the LORD's word "good" (39:8), and that the word was about his house and the sons who would issue from him (39:6-7).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Accepting the LORD's word
Those who read it this way start with his first words, "The LORD’s word which you have spoken is good" (2 Kings 20:19), and hear them beside Eli's answer to a hard word about his house: "It is the LORD. Let him do what seems good to him" (1 Samuel 3:18). They read the second sentence as accepting the word with thanks that there would be peace and truth in his days, and they point to 2 Chronicles: "Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the LORD’s wrath didn’t come on them in the days of Hezekiah" (2 Chronicles 32:26).
2 Kings 20:19 · 1 Samuel 3:18 · 2 Chronicles 32:26
Glad it would not come in his own days
Those who read it this way start with the second sentence, "Isn’t it so, if peace and truth will be in my days?" (2 Kings 20:19), set beside the word it answers: "They will take away some of your sons who will issue from you" (2 Kings 20:18). They read it as a king glad that the loss would not come in his own days, and they point to 2 Chronicles, which says after his sickness that "his heart was lifted up" (2 Chronicles 32:25), and of the ambassadors from Babylon, "God left him to test him, that he might know all that was in his heart" (2 Chronicles 32:31).
2 Kings 20:18-19 · 2 Chronicles 32:24-25 · 2 Chronicles 32:31
The verses
“‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up until today, will be carried to Babylon. Nothing will be left,’ says the LORD. ‘They will take away your sons who will issue from you, whom you shall father, and they will be eunuchs in the king of Babylon’s palace.’” Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The LORD’s word which you have spoken is good.” He said moreover, “For there will be peace and truth in my days.””
“Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The LORD’s word which you have spoken is good.” He said moreover, “Isn’t it so, if peace and truth will be in my days?””
“But Hezekiah didn’t reciprocate appropriate to the benefit done for him, because his heart was lifted up. Therefore there was wrath on him, Judah, and Jerusalem. However, Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the LORD’s wrath didn’t come on them in the days of Hezekiah.”
“However, concerning 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, that he might know all that was in his heart.”