39:6-7 carried off to Babylon: This prophecy was given before the prophecy of the rescue of Jerusalem (37:35). Although this pronouncement of judgment and exile comes as a surprise ending to the story of Hezekiah, the exile of both Israel and Judah had been in the background from the beginning (10:3-4, 20-23). The Lord had promised that he would spare Judah and Jerusalem when the Assyrians attacked in 701 BC, but he had clearly revealed to Isaiah that worse things would come if they did not change their ways. God had demonstrated the truth of his sovereignty and trustworthiness in his defeat of the Assyrians, but that did not mean the people had changed. The only way the promises of 2:1-5 and 4:2-6 were going to be realized was through the fires of judgment (4:4). Until the burning coal of exile was applied to the nation’s unclean lips (6:5-7), their mission to the nations would fail.