John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 39:6

"Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in thy house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith Jehovah." — Isaiah 39:6 (ASV)

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 boasted so loudly, so that they may have no reason to boast of them. Thus the Lord punishes the ambition and pride of men, so that their name or kingdom, which they hoped would last forever, is blotted out, and they are treated with contempt, and their memory is accursed. In short, He overthrows their foolish thoughts, so that they find by experience the very opposite of those false ideas by which they deceive themselves.

If it is 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 spread over the whole country, it was the duty of all to unite in confessing their guilt. Every person was to consider individually what he had deserved, so that no one might throw the blame on others, but that everyone might lay it on himself.

Besides, since the Jews were already in many ways liable to God’s judgment, He justly permitted Hezekiah to fail in his duty, to the injury of all, so that He might all the more hasten His wrath and open a way for the execution of His judgment. Similarly, we see this happened to David. For Scripture declares that David’s numbering of the people was not an accidental occurrence, but that it took place because of 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, punishment is also threatened against Hezekiah; but his sin, by which he provoked God’s anger, was also God’s vengeance against the whole nation.