He said, “What have they seen in your house?”: Once again, the verb said may better rendered “asked” (Contemporary English Version, New International Version) since Isaiah asks another question here. This question shows he is aware of what happened. He asks Hezekiah what the Babylonian envoys saw in his palace. Your house refers to the royal palace, so many versions say “your palace” (New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Bible en français courant, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch).

Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them”: Hezekiah tried to impress the Babylonians with the extent of his wealth (see the comments on Isa 39.2). There is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them uses two negatives to make a strong statement. In some languages it may be better to state this positively by saying “I showed them absolutely everything in my storehouses.”

Several translation models for this verse are:

• Isaiah then asked, “What did they see in your palace?”
And the king replied, “They saw everything in my palace; there is nothing in the storehouses that I didn’t let them see.”

• Isaiah asked what they had seen in his palace, to which Hezekiah replied that they had seen everything. Not one thing in the storehouses did he fail to show them.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .