2 Kings 20:12-21
"12 At that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick. 13 And Hezekiah welcomed them, and he showed them all his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them. 14 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say? And from where did they come to you?” And Hezekiah said, “They have come from a far country, from Babylon.” 15 He said, “What have they seen in your house?” And Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them.”
16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord: 17 Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord. 18 And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” 19 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?”
20 The rest of the deeds of Hezekiah and all his might and how he made the pool and the conduit and brought water into the city, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 21 And Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and Manasseh his son reigned in his place."
The comments in 2 Chronicles 32:24-26, 31, should be read along with this passage in order to understand its full implications. There are two points. In the first place, Isaiah had always consistently denounced foreign alliances as indicating deviation from absolute trust in the Lord, and one can sense the urgent alarm with which he strode into the king's presence on this occasion. The sorry history of former years should have been sufficient to convince Hezekiah of the foolhardiness of such alliances. It is the king's failure to see the outcome of his action that stands out, reminding us of the blinding power of sin. Isaiah on the other hand, saw far ahead, beyond the Assyrian domination of the world scene to their conquest by Babylon, whose emissaries, even at this early stage, had come to size up the situation in Judah. This ability to see further ahead than others is one we would do well to recognize and heed when we meet it. In the second place, we note the reason given in 2 Chronicles for Hezekiah's lapse. His heart was lifted up in pride and vanity. The Babylonian embassy was an occasion by which God tried him, to make proof of the inward tendencies of his heart. And it is an unlovely picture that we see as the king's self confidence and vanity were played upon by the skilful representatives of Judah's future conquerors and oppressors. We may see in this an illustration of Satan's wily overtures to the souls he plans to seduce. He knows where to attack us, and if we deviate by a hairsbreadth from our only position of security, and indulge any measure of self-confidence, we will prove no match for his wiles. As Hezekiah found to his cost!