Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the LORD: The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD."" Isaiah's prophecy announces that the very treasures and power that Hezekiah has just displayed to the Babylonian envoys will eventually be carried off to Babylon as spoils of war, making Hezekiah's display not merely foolish but prophetically self-defeating. The judgment is comprehensive and absolute—nothing will be left—indicating that Babylon will eventually conquer Judah and strip the temple and palace of their wealth, a historical event that occurred in 586 BCE. The irony is devastating: in attempting to impress Babylon with displays of power and wealth, Hezekiah has actually invited the very power that will eventually despoil his kingdom. Isaiah's pronouncement teaches that failure of faith and trust in human political alliances produces the very disasters that such alliances are meant to prevent, and that the God against whom one acts by abandoning faith becomes the instrument of judgment.

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