In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him, and said to him, “Yahweh says, ‘Set your house in order, for you will die, and not live.’ ”
Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to Yahweh, and said, “Remember now, Yahweh, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight.” Then Hezekiah wept bitterly.
Then Yahweh’s word came to Isaiah, saying, “Go, and tell Hezekiah, ‘Yahweh, the God of David your father, says, “I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city. This shall be the sign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do this thing that he has spoken. Behold, I will cause the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down on the sundial of Ahaz with the sun, to return backward ten steps.” ’ ” So the sun returned ten steps on the sundial on which it had gone down.
The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and had recovered of his sickness.
I said, “In the middle of my life I go into the gates of Sheol. I am deprived of the residue of my years.”
I said, “I won’t see Yah, Yah in the land of the living. I will see man no more with the inhabitants of the world.
My dwelling is removed, and is carried away from me like a shepherd’s tent. I have rolled up my life like a weaver. He will cut me off from the loom. From day even to night you will make an end of me.
I waited patiently until morning. He breaks all my bones like a lion. From day even to night you will make an end of me.
I chattered like a swallow or a crane. I moaned like a dove. My eyes weaken looking upward. Lord, I am oppressed. Be my security.”
What will I say? He has both spoken to me, and himself has done it. I will walk carefully all my years because of the anguish of my soul.
Lord, men live by these things; and my spirit finds life in all of them: you restore me, and cause me to live.
Behold, for peace I had great anguish, but you have in love for my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for you have cast all my sins behind your back.
For Sheol can’t praise you. Death can’t celebrate you. Those who go down into the pit can’t hope for your truth.
The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do today. The father shall make known your truth to the children.
Yahweh will save me. Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments all the days of our life in Yahweh’s house.
Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a poultice on the boil, and he shall recover.” Hezekiah also had said, “What is the sign that I will go up to Yahweh’s house?”
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 Soon after that the Assyrians were slain: so that…
Soon after that the Assyrians were slain: so that God will have the exercise of his children continually, that they may learn only to depend upon God and aspire to the heavens.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–22 Isa 38:1 In those days was Hezekiah sick unto…
Isa 38:1 In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live.
Ver. 1. In those days was Hezekiah sick.] See 2Ki 20:1-2 2Ch 32:24 {See Trapp on "2Ki 20:1"} {See Trapp on "2Ki 20:2"} {See Trapp on "2Ch 32:24"}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv9–22 Hezekiah was a good man, and full of the…
Hezekiah was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost, and inspired by him to write this, both as a testimony of his own gratitude to God, and for the instruction of after-ages.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 9 We may hence observe, among others, these good lessons:…
We may hence observe, among others, these good lessons: - 1. That neither men's greatness nor their goodness will exempt them from the arrests of sickness and death. Hezekiah, a mighty potentate on earth and a mighty favourite of Heaven, is struck with a disease, which, without a miracle, will certainly be mortal; and this in the midst of his days, his comforts, and usefulness. Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. It should seem, this sickness seized him when he was in the midst of his triumphs over the ruined army of the Assyrians, to teach us always to rejoice with trembling. 2. It concerns us to prepare when we see death approaching: "Set thy house in order, and thy heart especially; put both thy affections and thy affairs into the best posture thou canst, that, when thy Lord comes, thou mayest be found of him in peace with God, with thy own conscience, and with all men, and mayest have nothing else to do but to die." Our being ready for death will make it come never the sooner, but much the easier: and those that are fit to die are most fit to live. 3. Is any afflicted with sickness? Let him pray, Jam 5:13. Prayer is a salve for every sore, personal or public. When Hezekiah was distressed by his enemies he prayed; now that he was sick he prayed. Whither should the child go, when any thing ails him, but to his Father? Afflictions are sent to bring us to our Bibles and to our knees. When Hezekiah was in health he went up to the house of the Lord to pray, for that was then the house of prayer. When he was sick in bed he turned his face towards the wall, probably towards the temple, which was a type of Christ, to whom we must look by faith in every prayer. 4. The testimony of our consciences for us that by the grace of God we have lived a good life, and have walked closely and humbly with God, will be a great support and comfort to us when we come to look death in the face. And though we may not depend upon it as our righteousness, by which to be justified before God, yet we may humbly plead it as an evidence of our interest in the righteousness of the Mediator. Hezekiah does not demand a reward from God for his good services, but modestly begs that God would remembers, not how he had reformed the kingdom, taken away the high places, cleansed the temple, and revived neglected ordinances, but, which was better than all burnt-offerings and sacrifices, how he had approved himself to God with a single eye and an honest heart, not only in these eminent performances, but in an even regular course of holy living: I have walked before thee in truth and sincerity, and with a perfect, that is, an upright, heart; for uprightness is our gospel perfection. 5. God has a gracious ear open to the prayers of his afflicted people. The same prophet that was sent to Hezekiah with warning to prepare for death is sent to him with a promise that he shall not only recover, but be restored to a confirmed state of health and live fifteen years yet. As Jerusalem was distressed, so Hezekiah was diseased, that God might have the glory of the deliverance of both, and that prayer too might have the honour of being instrumental in the deliverance. When we pray in our sickness, though God send not to us such an answer as he here sent to Hezekiah, yet, if by his Spirit he bids us be of good cheer, assures us that our sins are forgiven us, that his grace shall be sufficient for us, and that, whether we live or die, we shall be his, we have no reason to say that we pray in vain. God answers us if he strengthens us with strength in our souls, though not with bodily strength, Psa 138:3. 6. A good man cannot take much comfort in his own health and prosperity unless withal he see the welfare and prosperity of the church of God. Therefore God, knowing what lay near Hezekiah's heart, promised him not only that he should live, but that he should see the good of Jerusalem all the days of his life (Psa 128:5), otherwise he cannot live comfortably. Jerusalem, which is now delivered, shall still be defended from the Assyrians, who perhaps threatened to rally again and renew the attack. Thus does God graciously provide to make Hezekiah upon all accounts easy. 7. God is willing to show to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, that they may have an unshaken faith in it, and therewith a strong consolation. God had given Hezekiah repeated assurances of his favour; and yet, as if all were thought too little, that he might expect from him uncommon favours, a sign is given him, an uncommon sign. None that we know of having had an absolute promise of living a certain number of years to come, as Hezekiah had, God thought fit to confirm this unprecedented favour with a miracle. The sign was the going back of the shadow upon the sun-dial. The sun is a faithful measurer of time, and rejoices as a strong man to run a race; but he that set that clock a going can set it back when he pleases, and make it to return; for the Father of all lights is the director of them.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–21 In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death,.... This…
In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death,.... This was about the time that Sennacherib invaded Judea, threatened Jerusalem with a siege, and his army was destroyed by an angel from heaven; but, whether it was before or after the destruction of his army, interpreters are not agreed. Some of the Jewish writers, as Jarchi upon the place, and others (a), say, it was three days before the ruin of Sennacherib's army; and that it was on the third day that Hezekiah recovered, and went up to the temple, that the destruction was; and that it was the first day of the passover; and that this was before the city of Jerusalem was delivered from him; and the fears of him seem clear from Isa 38:6 and some are of opinion that his sickness was occasioned by the consternation and terror he was thrown into, by reason of the Assyrian army, which threatened ruin to him and his kingdom. Though Josephus (b) says, that it was after his deliverance from it, and when he had given thanks to God for it; however, it is certain it was in the same year, since it was in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah's reign that Sennacherib invaded Judea, and from this his sickness and recovery fifteen years were added to his days, and he reigned no more than twenty nine years, Kg2 8:2 what this sickness was cannot be said with certainty; some have conjectured it to be the plague, since he had a malignant ulcer, of which he was cured by a plaster of figs; but, be it what it will, it was a deadly one in its own nature, it was a sickness unto death, a mortal one; though it was not eventually so, through the interposition of divine power, which prevented it. The reason of this sickness, which Jarchi gives, that it was because he did not take to himself a wife, is without foundation; more likely the reason of it was, to keep him humble, and that he might not be lifted up with the deliverance, or be more thankful for it:
and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came unto him: not of his own accord to visit him, but was sent by the Lord with a message to him:
Read full note →
and said unto him, thus saith the Lord, set thine house in order; or, "give orders to thine house" (c): to the men of thine house, as the Targum; his domestics, his counsellors and courtiers, what they should do after his death; how his personal estate should be disposed of; how the throne should be filled up; who should succeed him, since he had no son: the family and secular affairs of men should be put in order, and direction given for the management of them, and their substance and estates should be disposed of by will before their death; and much more a concern should be shown for the setting in order their spiritual affairs, or that they may be habitually ready for death and eternity;
for thou shall die, and not live: or not recover of thy sickness, as the Targum adds: "for thou art a dead man", as it may be rendered, in all human appearance; the disease being deadly, and of which he could not recover by the help of any medicine; nothing but almighty power could save him; and this is said, to observe to him his danger, to give him the sentence of death in himself, and to set him a praying, as it did.
(a) Seder Olam Rabba, c. 23. p. 65. (b) Antiqu. l. 10. c. 2. sect. 1. (c) "praecipe domui tuae", Musculus, Vatablus, Pagniaus, Montanus.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 13, 16, 18, 20 Hezekiah in his sickness receives from Isaiah a message…
Hezekiah in his sickness receives from Isaiah a message of death, ver. 1. By prayer, ver. 2, 3. hath his life lengthened; the sun goeth backward for a sign thereof, ver. 4-8. His song of praise to God, ver. 9-20.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 21 Account of Hezekiah's dangerous sickness and miraculous
CHAPTER XXXVIII
Account of Hezekiah's dangerous sickness and miraculous
Read full note →
recovery, 1-9.
Tender and beautiful song of thanksgiving, in which this pious
king breathed out the sentiments of a grateful heart, when his
life was, as it were, restored. This ode may be adapted to
other cases; and will always afford profit and pleasure to
those who are not void of feeling and piety, 10-22.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXXVIII
Verse 1. In those days] The reader is requested to consult the notes on 2Kg 20:1-21. in reference to the principal parts of this chapter.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21 Isa 38:1-8. In those days was Hezekiah sick —…
Isa 38:1-8. In those days was Hezekiah sick — See notes on 2Ki 20:1-11.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–22 In those days - That is, his sickness commenced…
In those days - That is, his sickness commenced about the period in which the army of Sennacherib was destroyed. It has been made a question whether the sickness of Hezekiah was before or after the invasion of Sennacherib. The most natural interpretation certainly is, that it occurred after that invasion, and probably at no distant period. The only objection to this view is the statement in Isa 38:6, that God would deliver him out of the hand of the king of Assyria, which has been understood by many as implying that he was then threatened with the invasion. But this may mean simply that he would be perpetually and finally delivered from his hand; that he would be secure in that independence from a foreign yoke which he had long sought 2Ki 18:7; and that the Assyrian should not be able again to bring the Jews into subjection (see the notes at Isa 37:30-31; compare the note at Isa 38:6). Jerome supposes that it was brought upon him lest his heart should be elated with the signal triumph, and in order that, in his circumstances, he might be kept humble. Josephus (Ant. x. 2. 1) says that the sickness occurred soon after the destruction of the army of Sennacherib. Prideaux (Connection, vol. i. p. 137) places his sickness before the invasion of the Assyrians.
Was sick - What was the exact nature of this sickness is not certainly known. In Isa 38:21 it is said that it was ‘a boil,’ and probably it was a pestilential boil. The pestilence or plague is attended with an eruption or boil. ‘No one,’ says Jahn, ‘ever recovered from the pestilence unless the boil of the pestilence came out upon him, and even then he could not always be cured’ (Biblical Antiquities, Section 190). The pestilence was, and is still, rapid in its progress. It terminates the life of those who are affected with it almost immediately, and at the furthest within three or four days. Hence, we see one ground of the alarm of Hezekiah. Another cause of his anxiety was, that he had at this time no children, and consequently he had reason to apprehend that his kingdom would be thrown into contention by conflicting strifes for the crown.
Read full note →
Unto death - Ready to die; with a sickness which in the ordinary course would terminate his life.
Set thine house in order - Hebrew, ‘Give command (צו tsâv) to thy house,’ that is, to thy family. If you have any directions to give in regard to the succession to the crown, or in regard to domestic and private arrangements, let it be done soon. Hezekiah was yet in middle life. He came to the throne when he was twenty-five years old 2Ki 18:2, and he had now reigned about fourteen years. It is possible that he had as yet made no arrangements in regard to the succession, and as this was very important to the peace of the nation, Isaiah was sent to him to apprize him of the necessity of leaving the affairs of his kingdom so that there should not be anarchy when he should die. The direction, also, may be understood in a more general sense as denoting that he was to make whatever arrangements might be necessary as preparatory to his death. We see here -
1. The boldness and fidelity of a man of God. Isaiah was not afraid to go in and freely tell even a monarch that he must die. The subsequent part of the narrative would lead us to suppose that until this announcement Hezekiah did not regard himself as in immediate danger. It is evident here, that the physician of Hezekiah had not informed him of it - perhaps from the apprehension that his disease would be aggravated by the agitation of his mind on the subject. The duty was, therefore, left, as it is often, to a minister of religion - a duty which even many ministers are slow to perform, and which many physicians are reluctant to have performed.
2. No danger is to be apprehended commonly from announcing to those who are sick their true condition. Friends and relatives are often reluctant to do it, for fear of agitating and alarming them. Physicians often prohibit them from knowing their true condition, under the apprehension that their disease may be aggravated. Yet here was a case in which pre-eminently there might be danger from announcing the danger of death. The disease was deeply seated. It was making rapid progress. It was usually incurable. Nay, there was here a moral certainty that the monarch would die. And this was a case, therefore, which particularly demanded, it would seem, that the patient should be kept quiet, and free from alarms. But God regarded it as of great importance that he should know His true condition, and the prophet was directed to go to him and faithfully to state it. Physicians and friends often err in this.
There is no species of cruelty greater than to suffer a friend to lie on a dying bed under a delusion. There is no sin more aggravated than that of designedly deceiving a dying man, and flattering him with the hope of recovery when there is a moral certainty that he will not, and cannot recover. And there is evidently no danger to be apprehended from communicating to the sick their true condition. It should be done tenderly, and with affection; but it should be done faithfully. I have had many opportunities of witnessing the effect of apprizing the sick of their situation, and of the moral certainty that they must die. And I cannot now recall an instance in which the announcement has had any unhappy effect on the disease. Often, on the contrary, the effect is to calm the mind, and to lead the dying to look up to God, and peacefully to repose on him. And the effect of that is always salutary. Nothing is more favorable for a recovery than a peaceful, calm, heavenly submission to God; and the repose and quiet which physicians so much desire their patients to possess, is often best obtained by securing confidence in God, and a calm resignation to his will.
3. Every man with the prospect of death before him should set his house in order. Death is an event which demands preparation - a preparation which should not be deferred to the dying moment. In view of it, whether it comes sooner or later, our peace should be made with God and our worldly affairs so arranged that we can leave them without distraction, and without regret.
For thou shalt die, and not live - Thy disease is incurable. It is a mortal, fatal disease. The Hebrew is, ‘for thou art dead’ (מת mēth); that is, you are a dead man. A similar expression occurs in Gen 20:3, in the address which God made to Abimelech: ‘Behold thou art a dead man, on account of the woman which thou hast taken.’ We have a similar phrase in our language, when a man is wounded, and when he says, ‘I am a dead man.’ This is all that we are required to understand here, that, according to the usual course of the disease, he must die. It is evident that Isaiah was not acquainted himself with the secret intention of God; nor did he know that Hezekiah would humble himself, and plead with God; nor that God would by a miracle lengthen out his life.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv9, 10, 11, 14, 18, 22 Ezechias. Sanchez groundlessly thinks it was composed by Isaias.…
Ezechias. Sanchez groundlessly thinks it was composed by Isaias. (Calmet) --- Ezechias was afflicted lest he should give way to dangerous joy. (Worthington)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Isaiah 38, 39
II.—THE WAY PREPARED FOR THE RELATIONS WITH BABYLON. HEZEKIAH’S SICKNESS AND RECOVERY, AND THE EMBASSY FROM BABYLON THIS OCCASIONED
Isaiah 38, 39
Read full note →
1. HEZEKIAH’S SICKNESS AND RECOVERY
38
a) The Sickness. Isa_38:1-3
1In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, 1Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live. 2Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the Lord, 3and said, Remember now, O Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept2 sore.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa_38:1. In למות we have a constructio prægnans, in as much as the preposition depends on a notion of movement onward, nearing, that is latent in the verb חָלָה. Unless לְ be regarded as a particle denoting design; he was sick in order to die, in which case the consequence would be represented as intention, as elsewhere similarly the reason is substituted as an object in clauses with בֵּי ,עַל ,כֵּן. It is said in like manner Jdg_16:16, וַתִּקְצַר נַפְשׁוֹ לָמוּת. In the parallel place 2Ch_32:24 עַד־לָמוּת stands for our לָמוּת, which corresponds essentially with the first of the two explanations given above.——The expression “to command his house,” for “to make his last will known to his house” is found again only 2Sa_17:23, where, however, the preposition אֶל is used instead of לְ. The expression כי־מת אתה ולא תחיה denotes the dying as certain, surely determined, by using the positive affirming participle (which presents death as abstract, timeless fact, thus a fact determined as to substance, though undetermined as to form, comp. Gen_20:3) and the negative clause ולא תחיה that excludes the contrary. As analogous to the meaning “to remain living,” comp. חִיָּה = “to retain alive,” Isa_7:21 and the comment.
The differences between our text and 2Ki_20:1-3 are inconsiderable as to sense, and yet are characteristic: חזקיהו omitted at the beginning of Isa_38:2, and לאמרsubstituted at the end for our ויאמר beginning Isa_38:2. Here our passage again gives evidence of an amended text. The absence of a subject for ויסב, when previously Hezekiah and Isaiah and Jehovah had been named, and Hezekiah in fact the furthest from the predicate, lets it be possible (though only grammatically) to think of Isaiah or Jehovah as subject. And the emphatic ויאמִד Isa_38:3 corresponds to the importance of the brief prayer much better than the short לאמר, that is only equivalent to our quotation marks. Thus we see here again that 2 Kings has the more original text. For it is inconceivable that the correcter and completer text has been changed into that which is less correct and complete. [The foregoing reasoning on the differences of the two texts must strike most readers as simply the fruit of a foregone conclusion. When, moreover, one takes the latter statement concerning ויאמר and לאמר and compares the two texts at Isa_37:15 and 2Ki_19:15, this impression is confirmed. See the Author’s comm. on Isa_37:15 under Text. and Gram. There we find precisely the reverse of what the Author remarks here on the occurrence of the two words in the parallel texts. In using לאמר Isa_37:15, instead of the ויאמר found in 2 Kings, does the Isaiah text do injustice to the importance of the solemn prayer of Hezekiah in the Temple? And does he fail to observe how much better “the emphatic ויאמר corresponds to that importance?” The reader is also referred to the comparison between Isa_7:1 (in loc.) and 2Ki_16:5. When all the details of this argument, (viz. for the text of 2 Kings being more original and the Isaiah text being amended from that, and so still more remote from a genuine Isaiah text), have been gone over, we may anticipate that the conclusion of most students will agree with the opinion of J. A. Alex., (see his comment on Isa_37:17-18), who characterizes most of it as “special pleading” and “perverse ingenuity.”—Tr.].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. In the fourteenth year of his reign, Hezekiah fell dangerously ill. It was no doubt a proof of especial divine grace when Isaiah announced to him his approaching end, and thereby gave him time to command his house. But Hezekiah was terrified at the intelligence. He prayed weeping to the Lord, and appealing to his life spent in the fear of God.
2. In those days——wept sore.
Isa_38:1-3. We have, above in the introduction to chaps. 36–39sufficiently shown what is the relation of chaps. 38–39 to the two that precede it. It can no longer be a matter of doubt that the time of Hezekiah’s sickness preceded the overthrow of Sennacherib. The former as certainly belonged to the year 714 as the latter to the year 700. The transposition of the chapters, which was for the sake of the connection of the subject matter in them with the general contents of the book, occasioned the belief that the overthrow of Sennacherib also happened in the year 714. In consequence of this, expositors only differ in this respect, that some put all the events narrated 36–37 before those narrated 38–39 while others put the sickness of Hezekiah before 36–37 but the embassy after them. An end is made to all this by the fact, now put beyond doubt, that Sennacherib only began to reign in the year 705, and made his first and only campaign against Phœnicia, Judea and Egypt in the year 700. For these reasons “in those days” Isa_38:1 and “at that time,” Isa_39:1 are equally unauthentic and not genuine. Both must owe their origin to emendation. [See introduction before 36 Comp. Smith’sDict. of the Bible, article Hezekiah.].
It cannot be certainly determined what was the nature of Hezekiah’s sickness. Many have inferred from הַשְּׁחִין Isa_38:21; 2Ki_20:7, that he had the plague, and have associated this with the plague in the Assyrian camp. (Isa_37:36), and even used this as proof that Hezekiah’s sickness occurred after Sennacherib’s overthrow. But שְׁחִין, (שָׁחַן a root unused in Hebrew, but meaning in the dialects (“incaluit, calidus fuit”) stands not only for the plague boil (bubo), but also for other burning ulcers, as it occurs in reference to leprosy (Lev_13:18 sqq.), and other inflammable cutaneous diseases (Exo_9:9 sqq.; Deu_28:27; Deu_28:35; Job_2:7). If השׁחין Isa_38:21 be not taken collectively, so that there was only one boil, then the next meaning would be a carbuncle (i.e., a conglomeration of ulcerous roots). In respect to God’s promises and threatenings being, as it were, dependent on the subjective deportment of men, for their realization, comp. Jer_18:7 sqq.; where especially the רֶגַע, connecting with the celerity with which the potter transforms the clay, denotes the celerity with which the Lord, under circumstances alters His decrees. Comp. my remarks in loc. Hezekiah turned his face to the wall because at that moment he neither wished to see the face of men, nor to show his countenance to men. He would, as much as possible, speak with his God alone. It was different with Ahab, 1Ki_21:4. לֵב שָׁלֵם is animus integer, i.e., a whole, full, undivided heart (1Ki_8:61; 1Ki_11:4). It is an Old Testament speech, that Hezekiah makes. A Christian could not so speak to God. Hezekiah applies to himself the standard that Psalms 15 offers, and that Christ proposes in the Sermon on the mount (Mat_5:21 sqq.).
Footnotes:
[1]Heb. Give charge concerning thy house.
[2]Heb. With great weeping.
b) The Recovery
Isa_38:4-8
4Then came the word of the Lord to Isaiah, saying, 5Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, 3I will add unto thy days fifteen years. 6And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria: and I will defend 7this city. And this shall be a sign unto thee from the Lord, that the Lord will do this 4thing that he hath spoken; 8Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down 5in the 6sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa_38:5. On the construction of הנני יוסיף see on Isa_28:16; Isa_29:14.
Isa_38:21. The word דְּבֵלָה, st. constr. דְּבֶלֶה, beside the text, and 2Ki_20:7, occurs only 1Sa_30:12; 1Ch_12:40. The Greek word παλάθη, which means a cake of dried fruits, especially of figs, seems to have been derived from דְּבֵלָה through the Aram. דְּבֶלְתָּא.
The 3 pers. plur. יִשְאוּ has for subject those who naturally performed the service in question. We use in such cases the indefinite subject they (Germ. “man”): (comp. Jer_3:16 sq.; Isa_34:16).—מָרַח occurs elsewhere only in the substantive form מָרוֹחַ (contritus scil, testiculos contritos habens, Lev_21:20). The meaning is “to crush, triturate.” It is thus a constructio prœgnans: let them crush figs (and lay them) on the boil. On שׁחין, See on Isa_38:1.
In 2Ki_20:7 at the end of the verse it reads וַיֶּחִֽי, “and he lived,” i.e., recovered, instead of as here וַיֶחִֽי. “that he may live.” Our text appears to be an effort to remove a difficulty. For וַיֶּחִֽי seems primarily to mean that Hezekiah immediately recovered. But that such was not the case is seen from the king’s asking: “what shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up to the temple the third day?” (2Ki_20:8). It was, therefore, no instantaneous cure: and this our text would intimate by ויֱחִֽי. But the word in 2Ki_20:7 is only an anticipation of the narrator, who states the effect immediately after the application of the means although other events intervened.
Isa_38:21-22, are an epitome of 2Ki_20:7-8, with the omission of what is less essential. But it is to be noted, as a further proof of the second-hand nature of our text, that the words “what is the sign,” etc. 2Ki_20:8 have there their proper foundation in that the promise is expressly given (2Ki_20:5) that the king should go up to the temple, whereas that item is wanting in our Isa_38:5.—Whether or not our Isa_38:21-22 were intentionally or accidentally put where they are by some later copyist cannot be certainly determined, and is in itself indifferent. But it seems to me most natural to assume that some later person, with the feeling that there was a disturbing gap, thought he must supply it from 2 Kings. An interpolation between Isa_38:6-7 would have involved a change in his actual text, thus he supplemented at the end. As they are found in the LXX. the addition must be very ancient. They are important, too, as proof in general that the text in our chaps. has suffered alterations; and especially that the dates have been changed.
On the text at Isa_38:8 b. An important difference is to be noted between this and 2Ki_20:9-11. Our text assumes an actual going backward of the sun, probably, as is also assumed by many expositors, because it was thought that this miracle must be put on a level with the sun standing still at Gibeon (Jos_10:12). In the Book of Sirach (Sir_48:23) it is expressly said: “in his days the sun went backward and he lengthened the king’s life.” The older and original text of the Book of Kings knows nothing of this construction.7
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. Then came the word——was, gone down.
Isa_38:4-8. In 2Ki_20:4 we are told that the word of the Lord came to the Prophet when he had hardly left the king, when he had not yet traversed the עִיר תִּיכֹנָה, or, as the K’ri and the ancient versions have it probably more correctly, חָצֵר תִּיכֹנָה, i.e., the inner court of the residence. Therefore actually רֶגַע (Jer_18:7), i.e., suddenly, Jehovah recalled the announcement so categorically made Isa_38:1. Just that so harsh sounding announcement had brought forth that fervent sigh of prayer from the depths of Hezekiah’s heart. Precisely this was intended. Necessity must teach Hezekiah to pray. The Lord calls Himself “the God of thy father David” in order to give Hezekiah one more comforting pledge of deliverance. For He intimates that He will be still the same to him that He had been to David. The Lord had heard the prayer, He had seen the tears. Both were well pleasing to Him, He regarded both. And thus He promises the king that He will add yet fifteen years to his life.
I cannot accord with all that Baehr remarks on our passage (see the vol. on 2Ki_20:4 sqq.). But I agree with him when he says: “The Prophet announces to the suppliant that God has heard him, and promises him not only immediate recovery, but, in fact, that he shall reign as long again as he has already reigned.” Accordingly Hezekiah must already have reigned fifteen years. This could easily be the case if the historian (Isa_36:1) reckoned the fourteen years from the first day of the calendar year, beginning after Hezekiah’s becoming king, while the Lord reckoned so favorably for Hezekiah that He counted the fragment of the first calendar year when he began to reign and the fragment of the current year as a whole year. Then is explained how by divine reckoning Hezekiah reigned 15+15 years, and by human reckoning only 14+15. In 2Ki_20:5 the additional promise for the immediate future is given: “Behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the Lord.” This is manifestly omitted in our text because included in the larger promise. The promise of Isa_38:6 is of course conceivable even after the overthrow of Sennacherib. For the latter was to the Assyrians, though a serious, yet by no means an annihilating blow. They could recover themselves after it, and fall on Judah with augmented force and redoubled rage. But our passage stands primarily in undeniable connection with Isa_37:35, especially when we regard it in the construction of 2 Kings (comp. 2Ki_19:34 with Isa_20:6, where only אֶל for עַל and the להושׁיעה wanting in Isa_20:6 makes the difference). If we are correct in construing the temporal relations of 38, 39, to 36, 37 (see on Isa_38:1), then our passage is older than Isa_37:35. But the latter passage promises deliverance from Sennacherib in words evidently taken on purpose from our passage, so that the promise there given to Hezekiah appears as a renewal and repetition of that he had received already fourteen years before. In addition to this, both our passage and Isa_37:35 have their common root in Isa_31:5. There as here גנין and הציל occur together; there, too, גנין is illustrated by the touching image of a hovering bird. There it is expressly said that, not Egypt shall protect the people of Israel, but Jehovah has reserved this care for Himself. And this deliverance of Judah from Assyria was in fact definitively and forever decided by the defeat of Sennacherib. Assyria, as we have already seen, is done away. The deportation of Manasseh (2 Chronicles 33) was more a benefit for Judah than a punishment. One may say: Sennacherib’s losing his army, not by the sword of Egypt, but by the hand of the Lord, is the true and proper fulfilment of the promises, Isa_31:5; Isa_37:35; Isa_38:6. For these reasons I believe that our passage is to be referred to Sennacherib’s defeat and, because that was decisive for Judah’s relations to Assyria, to no later event. But then our passage also puts a decisive weight in the scale in favor of the assertion that the events narrated 38 precede the events narrated 36 and 37.
In our text are wanting after Isa_38:6 the words that 2Ki_20:7-8 are found in the proper place, viz.: “And Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs,” etc. Instead we have in Isa_38:21-22 an epitome of what is there said. We will, therefore, anticipate here the exposition of these verses. The Prophet proceeds at once to the fulfilment of the promise of Isa_38:5-6. To this end he orders a piece of figcake to be laid on the diseased spot. דבלה means a round (sometimes four-cornered) cake of dried summer figs, that were pounded in a mortar and put up in this form for better preservation and transportation (see Winer,R.-W.-B. art. Feigenbaum [Smith’sBib. Diet. art. Figs]). It is well known that anciently, as now-a-days, too, figs were applied as an emollient to hasten the gathering of a boil. Comp. Gesenius on Isa_38:1 and Baehr on 2Ki_20:7. Already Jerome mentions the opinion that the sweet fig was a contrarium, i. e., an aggravation of the evil, and adds: “Ergo, ut Dei potentia monstraretur, per res noxias et adversas sanitas restituta est.” According to Seb. Schmidt,Hebraei communiter et Christianorum quidam (e.g., Grotius) share this opinion. We are told in the Scriptures of countless miraculous cures in which divine omnipotence made no use of natural means. Why such means were still sometimetimes employed (comp. Mar_7:33; Mar_8:23; Joh_9:6 sq.) we will hardly be able to fathom. If the means used in the present case were already known at that time as a cure of this disease, why did not the physicians apply it? Or was this cure still unknown at that time? Or did the physicians not understand the disease correctly? Or had the Lord, beside the object of the bodily cure, some other higher objects to which that means stood in a relation to us unknown? Such are the questions that men raise here, but can hardly answer to satisfaction.
Asking and giving signs is nothing unusual in the Old Testament, and especially in the life of our Prophet. The more the life of faith stands in the grade of childhood, the more frequent it is. Christ would give no sign on demand (Mat_12:38 sqq.; Isa_16:1 sqq.; Luk_11:16; Joh_2:18; Joh_6:30). But Moses received and gave them in abundance (Exodus 4). Also in the times of the judges and of the kings they were frequent (Jdg_6:17; Jdg_6:36 sqq.; 1Sa_2:34; 1Sa_10:1 sqq.). Isaiah himself was more than once the medium of such signs (Isa_7:11 sqq.; Isa_8:1 sqq.; Isa_20:3 sq.; Isa_37:30). They are sometimes threatening, sometimes comforting in their promissory contents, and are, accordingly, given now to the wicked as a warning, now to the pious for comfort and to strengthen their hopes. Thus Hezekiah here receives the second comforting sign. That his life shall be prolonged the Lord makes known to him by means of an implement used for measuring time. At Hezekiah’s request the Lord actually causes the shadow on the sun-dial to go backward ten steps or degrees. Here we must note the not inconsiderable difference between our text and that of 2Ki_20:9 sqq. According to our text, the Prophet does not propose to the king the choice whether the shadow shall go forwards or backwards; moreover he does not call on the Lord to do the miracle. But the Prophet declares at once that he will (of course by the power of God) turn the shadow back. Finally our text says, Isa_38:8, that the sun returned back the ten degrees that it had gone down, whereas 2 Kings 20 speaks only of the return of the shadow (וַיָּשֶׁב אֶת־הַצֵּל וגו׳). The last mentioned difference is so far especially important because it intensifies the miracle. We have hitherto learned, in the character of an abstract that the Isaiah text bears, to recognize a mark of its later origin. This magnifying the miraculous may be regarded as a further symptom of the same thing. See Text. and Gram.
It is now admitted by all that by מעלות we are to understand a sun-dial. The ancient notion found in the LXX. in Josephus (Antiqq. X. 2, 1), the Syr., various Rabbis, Scaliger (Praef. ad can. chronol.) was that the steps were a simple flight of stairs exposed transversely to the sun. But to this it is objected that one may imagine the withdrawal of the shadow from ten stair-steps, but not the going down. For the sun must stand so that the upright faces or risers of the stair cast their shadows on the flat steps. But then all the flats must be shaded equally from the top to the bottom. One may of course picture that the ten lower steps lost their shade, but not that the shadow descended ten steps further, as all the steps must already have their shadow. This ascent or descent of the shadow is only possible where there is one object to cast the shadow, and serve as an indicator, whatever may be its form. Hence all expositors understand a sun-dial to be meant. [The words in the Hebrew literally mean “the degree or steps of Ahaz in (or by) the sun.” מעלות, like the Latin gradus, first means steps, and then degrees. The nearest approach to the description of a dial is in the words: “degrees of Ahaz,” which certainly do not obviously mean a dial. As investigation shows, there is no historical necessity for assuming that a dial could not be meant, and that we must assume that the shadow here meant was the shadow cast upon the stairs of Ahaz. “The only question is, whether this (latter) is not the simplest and most obvious explanation of the words, and one which entirely exhausts their meaning. If so, we may easily suppose the shadow to have been visible from Hezekiah’s chamber, and the offered sign to have been suggested to the Prophet by the sight of it. This hypothesis relieves us from the necessity of accounting for the division into ten, or rather twenty degrees, as Hezekiah was allowed to choose between a procession and a retrocession of the same extent.” J. A. Alex. A neighboring wall might have cast its shadow on such a stair, which might be called the shadow of the stair, as God’s shadow is called “thy shadow.” צִלְּךָ, Psa_121:5; comp. צִלָם, Num_14:9. The stair may have served designedly or undesignedly for a rude or even comparatively accurate gauge of time, or it may not.—Tr.]
We learn from Herodotus (II. 109) that the Greeks received the sun-dial from the Babylonians, and he says expressly that the Greeks learned from them τὰ δυώδεκα μέρεα τῆς ἡμέρης. Thus the Babylonians seem already to have known the division into twelve day and twelve night hours. The sun-indicator of Ahaz may also have had this division. For the mention of ten degrees does not warrant the inference that it was divided according to the decimal system. The sun-dial could easily pass from the Babylonians to the Syrians, and from the latter to the Jews. Ahaz was disposed to introduce foreign novelties (comp. 2Ki_16:10 sqq.), and may have introduced this with other things from Syria. But this is only conjecture. The same is true of any thing that may be offered concerning the form of Ahaz’s sun-dial [see Barnesin loco;Smith’sBib. Dict.].
As the Prophet offered the choice of letting the shadow rise or fall ten degrees, it must have been at a time of day that allowed room for both on the dial. Of course this room was measured by the length of time represented by the degrees. Did they represent hours or a like larger measure, then a gnomon arranged for only twelve would not have sufficed. But what was proposed could have been done did the degrees mark half or quarter hours. Delitzsch says: “If the performance of the sign took place an hour before sundown, then the shadow, going back ten degrees, of half an hour each, came to where it was at noon.” But how then could the shadow at 5 o’clock, P. M., go also ten degrees further down? Could the dial mark the tenth hour after noon? It is thus more probable that the Prophet came to the king nearer mid-day. [According to the old view defended above, it would be, say halfway, between sunrise and meridian.—Tr.]
The expression סעלות is manifestly used with different meanings. It designates first the degrees or steps, however they may have been marked. And, in my opinion, it has this sense four out of the five times that it occurs in our passage. Moreover צל מעלות seems to me to be “the shadow of the degrees,” not “the shadow of the gnomon.” For it is not correct to say: “the shadow of the gnomon that is gone down on the gnomon of Ahaz.” For if מעלות be taken in the concrete sense, meaning that particular gnomon, that would be to distinguish what in fact is identical. But if the word be taken generally=the sun-dial shadow that is on every dial in general, then מעלות is quite superfluous. Hence I think that מעלות means here the degrees, and “the shadow of the degrees” is the shadow that, connected with the degrees, marks the hours, be it that the degrees themselves cast the shadow, or that the shadow strikes the degrees (be they lines, points, circles, or the like), and thereby marks the position of the sun or the time of day. Moreover, the third, fourth and fifth time the word means “degrees.” For in these it is only said that the sun has retrograded over the same degrees on which it went down. But the expression מעלית אחז is manifestly to be taken as a metonomy, as far as it is pars pro toto. The language had no name for the novelty. It had only a word for the chief features of it, and thus that became the name of the whole. אשׁר מעלות is both times the accusative of measure. בשׁמשׁ stands in an emphatic antithesis: by means of the sun’s movement, thus in consequence of a natural cause, the shadow had gone down; but I, says the Prophet in the consciousness of the will and power of Jehovah, I bring it about that, contrary to nature, it must return ten degrees. This could happen indirectly by refraction of the sun’s rays (comp. Keil on 2Ki_20:9), or perhaps directly by an optical effect. It remains a miracle any way. [See Barnesin loc. for a full presentation of this subject.] Various natural explanations see in Winer,R.-W.-B. Art. Hiskia.Thenius (on 2Ki_20:9) supposes an eclipse of the sun, which, according to Seyffarth, took place September 26th, 713 B. C. But this date does not sufficiently agree with our event, nor would an eclipse explain the retrocession of the shadow. I believe that the Lord desired to give to His anointed, at a very important epoch of his personal and official life, the assurance that He, the Lord, could as certainly restore the sands of Hezekiah’s life that were nearly run out, and strengthen them to renew their running, as He now lets the shadow of the sun-dial return a given number of degrees.
Footnotes:
[3]add.
[4]word.
[5]auf der Stufenuhr Achas’ vermoege der Sonne, or, on the degrees, or steps of Ahaz with the sun.—J. A. Alex.
[6]Heb. degrees by, or, with the sun.
[7][This use of Sir_48:23 conflicts with the appeal the Author makes to the same text in his Introduction, § 4 (at the end), in support of the genuineness of the Isaiah text. If it there serves to prove that an entire section, viz., the historical part, 36–39 is Isaiah’s own work, it must certainly prove as much for the particular language that Sirach actually refers to.—TR].
c) Hezekiah’s Psalm of Thanksgiving
Isa_38:9-20
No one doubts the genuineness of this song. That it was not composed during the sickness, appears from the second half, which contains thanks for recovery. But it is probable, too that the song was no involuntary burst of joyful and grateful feeling, such as might well forth from the heart in the first moments after deliverance. For, as Delitzsch has remarked, the song bears evident marks of art, and of choice, and partly of antiquated expression. Such forms of expression are: פֻּקַּדְתִּי (again only Exo_38:21) and חֶדֶל (ἅπ. λεγ.) Isa_38:11; דּוֹר in the sense of “dwelling” (perhaps again Psa_49:20), רֹעִי (adjective form only here), קִפֵּד and דַּלָּה meaning “licium” (ἅπ. λεγ.) Isa_38:12; שִׁוָּה meaning “composuit animum” (again only Psa_131:2) Isa_38:13; סוּם עָגוּר (again only Jer_8:7) and עָשְׁקָה (ἅπ. λεγ.) Isa_38:14; Hithp. הִדַּדָּה (again only Psa_42:5) Isa_38:15; חָשַׁק Isa_38:17 and נִגֵן Isa_38:20 with the accusative instead of the usual construction with בְּלִי ;בּ as substantive=interitus, and joined with שַׁחַת (only here) Isa_38:17. Added to this are echoes from Job, especially in the first, lamenting part of the song: נִסַּע Niph. Isa_38:12 (again only in Job_4:21). יבצעני Isa_38:12, comp. Job_6:9 (Isa_27:8); תשׁלימני Isa_38:12, comp. Job_23:14. מיום עד־לילה Isa_38:12, Job_4:20; דַּלּוּ וגי׳ Isa_38:14, comp. Job_16:20; ערבני Isa_38:14, comp. Job_17:3; חלם Isa_38:16, comp. Job_39:4. Compare the list by Delitzsch in Drechsler’s Komm. II. p. 620 sq. It is, therefore, conjectured, not without reason, that the learned king, well acquainted with the ancient literature of his people, produced this song later as he had time and leisure for it, as a monument both of his art and learning. Apart from the superscription Isa_38:9, the song has evidently two parts; a lament (Isa_38:10-14), and a joyful thanksgiving (Isa_38:15-20.
____________________
α) SUPERSCRIPTION. Isa_38:9
9The writing of Hezekiah, king of Judah, when he had been sick, and was recovered from his sickness.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
It is doubtful if מִכְתָּם = מִכְתָּב. For although b. and m. are in general kindred sounds, still an interchange specially of the roots כָּתַב and כָּתַם never occurs. For neither נִכְתַּם (Jer_2:22, see my remarks in loc.) nor the noun כֶּתֶם has anything to do with כָּתָב. We have besides, as derived from the unused root כָּתַם only מִכְתָּם in the superscriptions of Psalms 16, 56-60. Why should the exchange of ב and מ be made just for this species of Psalm? Why was not מכתב used in the superscription of those Psalms as well as for our passage, if both words are actually of like meaning? Beside מכתב occurs elsewhere, and means either abstractly the writing, mode of writing (Exo_32:16; Exo_39:30; Deu_10:4; 2Ch_36:22; Ezr_1:1), or in the concrete sense, a something written, piece of scripture, copy (2Ch_21:12; 2Ch_35:4). Here, too, it means a writing, a written document or record. The word would give us to know that another source for this song lay before the author than for other parts of chapters 36–39. The Book of Kings does not contain the song of Hezekiah. From that therefore the author could not take it. There lay before him a document that was either held to be a writing of Hezekiah’s or actually was such. In fact we may take the word “writing” in the sense of original manuscript. For the unusual word, מכתב, doubtless chosen on purpose, and on purpose put first, intimates that not only the contents of the writing came from Hezekiah, but also that the manuscript of it was his. It may be remarked as a curiosity, that Grotius conjectures that the song was dictated to the king by Isaiah, thus was properly the production of the latter. Excepting this no one has doubted Hezekiah’s authorship. He is known to have been a very active man in the sphere of art and literature. He was the restorer of the Jehovah-cultus in general, and of the instrumental and vocal temple music of David in particular (2 Chronicles 29). According to Pro_25:1, he had a college or commission, called the אַנְשֵׁי חִזְקִיָה, which appears to have been charged with collecting and preserving ancient documents of the national literature. See Delitzsch in Drechsl.Komm. II.2, p. 221. From the words בחלתו and ויחימחליו we see that the sickness and recovery are treated as a total. In the second of these periods, inexactly defined, the song originated. The second period is named, not by the infinitive as the first, but by means of the verb. fin., according to that frequent Hebrew usage, in which the discourse quickly returns from subordinate to the principal form. Comp. Isa_18:5.
β) THE DISTRESS
Isa_38:10-14
10 I said in 8the cutting off of my days,
I shall go to the gates of the grave:
I am deprived of the residue of my years.
11 said, I shall not see the Lord,
Even the Lord, in the land of the living:
I shall behold man no more
With the inhabitants of the 9world.
12 10Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd’s tent;
I have 11cut off like a weaver my life:
He will cut me off 12with pining sickness:
From day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.
13 13I reckoned till morning, that, as a lion,
So will he break all my bones:
From day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.
14 Like 14a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter:
I did mourn as a dove;
Mine eyes 15fail with looking upward:
O Lord, I am oppressed; 16 17undertake for me.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa_38:10. Views differ very much about דְּמִי ימי. The Ancient Versions guess at it. The LXX. have ἐν ὕψει (they probably read רמי); the Vulgate, “in dimidio” (if this was not for the sake of resemblance in sound between דמי and dimidium, then it was from a calculation that the point of culmination is at the same time solstitium). The Syrian, also, by reason of the same combination, has in mediis diebus meis;” Targ. Jonatan has in moerore dierum meorum; Aqu. and Symm. have ἐν ἀσθενεἰᾳ (they take the root דָּוָה = דָּמָה); the Arabּ and various Rabbins translate “in ademtione, excisione dierum meorumְ” in which they proceed from the meaning “to destroy,” which דָּמָה certainly has, especially in the Niph. (comp. Hos_10:15; Isa_6:5; Isa_15:1, etc.). Many modern expositors, following the precedent of Eberh. Scheid (Diss. philol. exeg. ad Cant. Hisk. Lugd. Bat. 1769), translate the word as do the Vulg. and Syr., viz., in dimidio, medio (comp. בַּחֲצִי יָמַי Psa_102:25). This meaning is supported by reference to the supposed still-stand of the sun in the midst of its course; but it is over ingenious and entirely isolated here. For in other places of its occurrence דמי undoubtedly means: “being still, pause” (Isa_62:6-7; Psa_83:2). Most expositors now adopt this sense (Gesenius, Maurer, Umbreit, Drechsler, Knobel, Delitzsch). Yet they differ also; some understanding by the stillness the political still-stand consequent on Sennacherib’s defeat (Gesen. Maur., Drechsler), or that promised to follow the hoped-for retreat of the Assyrians (Knobel). Others refer to the expression בִּימֵי חָרְפִּי (“in the days of my harvest” Job_29:4), and suppose the meaning to be “the time of manly maturity when the spirit of men begins to be clearer and quieter” (Umbr.), or “the quiet course of healthful life” (Del.). Thus all these expositors take דמי in a good sense, i. e., of quiet, happy condition, of rest of spirit, of vigor of life, vigor. But I cannot think it has this positive meaning. One must not transfer to דמה the sense of נוּחַ. The root דָּמָה has the predominant meaning “not to be, to bring to nought, to annihilate,” whether this comes from the notion of making like (the earth), or elsewhere. For דמה means “to destroy,” once in Kal. (Hos_4:5), always in Niph. (Hos_4:6; Hos_10:7; Hos_10:15; Isa_15:1; Isa_6:5; Jer_47:5; Oba_1:5; Zep_1:11); in Piel in the solitary instance of this conjugation (2Sa_21:5). Kal. occurs beside only in the sense of negative rest, of being no more, ceasing (cessare): Jer_14:17; Lam_3:49. And also דמי, in the three instances where it occurs (Isa_62:6-7; Psa_83:2), is primarily only a designation for ceasing to speak, being silent, as Delitzsch himself remarks on Isa_62:6. Accordingly I think that דמי ימי means rather “being still, standing still, the quenching of life-power.” Thus the king would say: “as I noted that the clock of my life gradually stopped, I thought: now it goes in the gate of Hades.” It is plain that, with this construction דמי ימי must be referred to אמרתי, whereas those who construe דמי positively must refer it to אלכה. For it is self-evident that one whose life-clock stops must enter the gates of Hades, whereas it needs to be made emphatic that one, still in the vigor of life, must make up his mind to this fatal entry. The Masorets understood the words in the latter sense; hence the pause in אֵלֵֽכָה indicated by Tiphhha. One is necessitated thereby to construe הלך emphatically “to go off,” and the connection with בשׁערי שׁ׳ as a pregnant construction, which is needless with our exposition. The cohortative form in אלכה seems to me to mean that the speaker, as it were, spurs himself on to do what he must do, but does unwillingly (comp. Ewald, 228, a).—Pual פֻקַד occurs again only Exo_38:21, where it means “to be mustered, inscribed, inventoried.” It is plain that it cannot mean this here. Hence some take it=“made to miss, deprived of, frustrari.” But Delitz. justly remarks that then it ought to read הָפְקַדְתִּי (comp. on Isa_29:6). Gesen. translates: “I am missed through the rest of my years,” grammatically correct but flat. The most inviting is the rendering: “I am fined the residue of my years,” which is grammatically possible since פָּקַד occurs with the accusative of the person meaning “to visit, punish” (Jer_6:15; Jer_49:8; Psa_59:6).
Isa_38:11. Concerning יָהּ see on Isa_12:2.—If the words עם ישׁבי חדל are taken as parallel with בארץ החיים, then of course one must cast doubt upon חדל (ἅπ. λεγ.) as Cheyne, Delitzsch, Diestel and others do, and read חָֽלֶד, i. e., “world in the sense of earthly presence” (αίὼν οὗτος) Psa_17:14; Psa_49:2; Psa_89:48. But if we are correct in referring בארץ הח׳ to the object and not to the predicate (see comm. below), and if, according to the principle of parallelism, the same construction obtain in the second half of the verse, then the position of עוֹד after אָדָם and then also the difficulty of connecting הח׳ בארץ and also אדם עם חדל, show that עם ישׁבי חדל is not to be joined to the object but to the predicate, that therefore there is an antithetical parallelism. Therefore חָֽדֶל is correct, and is to be taken the sense μὴ εἶνει of a relative not being, or being no more.
Isa_38:12. If דּוֹר be taken in its usual sense of “œtas, time, life-time” (Drechsler) there ensues the disadvantage that the predicates נסע ונגלה do not fit to it. For they contain the notion breaking off, removal in respect to space, which is applicable to dwelling-space, room, but not to the time of dwelling. Hence most expositors recur to the dialects wherein דור (likely because of a relation to גּוּר) has very constantly the sense of “dwelling.” Thus in Chaldee גּוּר is a very common word for “dwelling;” Dan. 2:38; 3:31; 4:9, 18, 32. Thence come the expressions of the Targum דַּיָּר “the inhabitant,” דִּירַא “the dwelling.” In Syriac, too, dairo, dajoro, dairono is “the dwelling;” and in Arabic dar. It seems that the radical idea “rotundum, orbis” has in Hebrew developed more to the meaning “circuit, periodus, period, age,” whereas in the dialects it has been restricted more to the meaning of the round tent-dwelling. Still there are not wanting examples to prove that in Hebrew also the word has retained its original sense of “being round” in reference to things of space. Thus Isa_22:11 דּוּר means “ball;” Isa_29:3 כַּדּוּר=circumcirca; Eze_24:5 מְדוּרָה = דּוּר “the wood-pile in round layers.” Indeed Psa_49:20 דּוֹר very likely means specifically “dwelling.” It is very probable that Hezekiah, a learned prince and well acquainted with the ancient monuments of the national tongue, in solemn poetry, availed himself of an antiquated expression.—נָסַע used for pulling up the tent-pegs, Isa_33:20; Niph. Found again only Job_4:21, and with the same meaning.—נגלה from גָּלָה “to uncover,” “to clear out the land, evacuare,” then specifically “migrare,” Niph.=“migrare factus, deportatus.—רֹעִי is an adjective formation from רֹעֶה=pastoricius: it occurs only here. That קָפַד (ἅπ. λεγ.) does not mean “to cut off” seems probable to me also. For all kindred roots קפץ ,קפז ,קפא, as also the derivative קִפּוֹד “the porcupine,” indicate that it means “to contract, wrap together, lay together.” Thus many moderns translate: “I have wound up my life.” But if one so understands it: “I regard my life as wound up,” i. e., done, finished, I have finished with life, then it seems to me not to suit the first person, nor the primary sense of קפדתי. My rendering (see Exeg. and Crit. below) makes plain why we find the first and then the third person. יבצעני (reminds strongly of Job_6:9, comp. Isa_27:8).—מיום עד־לילה recall Job_4:20; and תשׁלימנו Job_23:14.
Isa_38:13. שִׁוָּה is “componere, complanare.” We had the word with a physical sense Isa_28:25; here it has a moral sense like Psa_131:2, where it means composui et compescui animum. In our text נפשׁי is wanting. It is seen from this that the poet uses the word in that direct causative sense, so frequent in Hebrew, according to which שִׁוָּה can mean, not only “to make alike, even, mild, quiet,” but also “to effect equality, evenness (aequitatem animi), equanimity, quietness.”—כָּֽאֲרי, (pointed with the art. like Psa_22:17), though referred by the Masorets to שׁויתי still manifestly, as to sense, belongs to what follows. For the lion is no example of that animum componere.—The retrospective כֵּן after a כְּ immediately preceding occurs here like it does directly after, at the beginning of Isa_38:14.
Isa_38:14. The words כסום עגור are difficult. First, as to סוּם it is to be remarked that Jer_8:7, the only other place where the words occur, K’ri would read סִים. This shows that the word has nothing to do with סוּם “horse,” whatever may be the etymology of the latter word. The conjecture of Velthusen (Beitrag zur Aufklaerung des Dankliedes Hiskiae zur Befoerderung theol. Kenntnisse von J. A. Cramer, P. I. p. 61 not.), seems to me reasonable, that the Masorets, beside the pronunciation sus, intimate another süs or sis, because the latter better corresponds to the sound-mimicry of the word. For it is very probable that the bird receives its name from the sound it makes (like cuckoo, Uhu “owl,” etc.).—עגור. There is no root עָגַר in Hebrew. It is regarded as coming by transposition from גָּעַר increpare, but which in Ethiopic is said to mean “to sigh,” in Arabic “to implore plaintively.” Boettcher (Aehrenlese, p. 33) takes עגור for a softened עָכוּר=“disturbed, troubled,” and this “as the peculiar mark of the restless swallow that flies back and forth.” But this does not suit Jer_8:7, where it is pure arbitrariness to omitוְ.—It is, certainly no accident that in many languages the crane is designated by a word containing the sound g (k) and r, and it shows that all these denominations are ’ονοματοποιητικά. The name in Arab, is Kurki; Aram., kurkeja; Greek, γέρανος; Lat. grus, etc. This meaning suits very well Jer_8:7, but is less suitable in our text.—כסים עגור is the same as כסים בעגור (Fuerst): The asyndeton (the like occurs Nah_2:12; Hab_3:11) gives emphasis: “like a swallow, (still more) like a crane I sigh.” There are cases where, not the species, but the individual forms the basis of comparison. Thus the rule that would require it, to read כַּסּוּם if עגור is co-ordinate and not subordinate, cannot be strictly carried out. Beside the examples just given, comp. Num_23:24; Num_24:9; Num_24:6; Job_16:14.—חָנָה is used for the note of the dove also Isa_59:11, comp. Eze_7:16; Nah_2:8.—עָֽשְׁקָה־לִּי; so punctuated עשׁקה can only be perf. 3d per. fern., and the fem. is to be construed as neuter. But עשׁק occurs no where else in an intransitive sense. Hence, and for the sake of antithesis to ערבני (as Luzzatto well remarks, see in Delitzsch), it is better to read עָשְָׁקֽה, which must then be taken as substantative=“oppressio, anxiety.”—דָּלַל “to hang down limp,” Job_28:4, then, generally, “languidum, debilem esse,” comp. Isa_19:6; Psa_79:8; Psa_116:6; Psa_142:7)—ערבני is sponde pro me. The construction with the accusative of the person like Gen_43:9; Gen_44:32; Pro_11:15.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. The poet depicts how he felt in the moment of extreme peril of life, when he thought he must enter the gates of Hades, and, as it were, pay the penalty of the remnant of his days (Isa_38:10). Then he believed he would for ever be robbed of the blessing that is enjoyed in contemplating the works of Jehovah and in the companionship of men, by his exile in the land of unsubstantial shades (Isa_38:11). He sees his body already broken up and removed away like the tent of a wandering shepherd; he was in the midst of the labor of weaving his life and rolling it up, like the weaver his web on the weaver’s beam; but in the midst of this labor he sees his life suddenly cut off. By day still untouched, it is mortally smitten before night comes (Isa_38:12). In anxious expectation he drags on till morning. But that brings only new suffering. Like a lion the disease falls upon him to crush his bones, and anew it seems as if between day and night his life must end (Isa_38:13). Mortally sick, he can only utter weak murmurs and groans, like the complaining sounds of the swallow, the crane, the dove. Yet his languishing eyes look upwards; he has great anguish, but he is able still to call on the Lord to be surety for him (Isa_38:14).
2. I said——of the world.
Isa_38:10-11. אני before אמדתי, beginning Isa_38:10, seems to stand in antithesis to ואמר, Isa_38:15. I thought, the poet would say, that all was up; but the Lord thought otherwise. אמר stands for what one says, i. e., thinks inwardly to himself (comp. Gen_26:9; Gen_44:28; 1Sa_20:3, etc.).
The expression gates of Hades occurs only here: comp. Psa_9:14; Psa_107:18; Job 38. By the rest of my days Hezekiah means, of course, the extent of life he hoped for according to the natural conditions of life. It is the same as is expressed in “the half of my days” (Psa_102:25; Jer_17:11). Having mentioned the evil that was in prospect (10a), and named the good in a general way of which he was to be deprived (10b), Hezekiah proceeds in Isa_38:11 to specify the particulars of this good. He puts first that he shall no more see Jah, namely, Jah in the land of the living. But can one any way see Jah? With the bodily eye, certainly not, and least of all in the land of the living. But to see Jehovah means nothing else than to observe and enjoy the traces of His being and essence. For “to see” stands here, as often, in the wider sense of perception of the senses generally (comp. Psa_37:13; Psa_34:13; Jer_29:32; Ecc_3:13; Ecc_9:9, etc.). [It is both more obvious and more edifying, and more to the honor of Hezekiah, to explain this seeing Jehovah by a reference to Psalms 63, especially Isa_38:2; Isa_38:6; coll. Isa_38:20 of the text. The whole Psalm mutat. mutand. may be taken as the amplification of our Isa_38:11 a; or, vice versa,11a may be taken as Hezekiah’s epitome of Psalms 63, which may have been his solace in the languishing night-watches. It is strong confirmation of this explanation of “the seeing,” that Isaiah communicates to Hezekiah his near recovery by promising that in three days he shall enjoy what he here represents as the prime blessing of life: “the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the Lord” (2Ki_20:5). The promise may be completed in the words of Psa_63:2 : “to see (לראות) Jehovah’s power and glory, as thou hast seen Him in the sanctuary.” According to the exposition that follows, “the third day” might be from the beginning of the disease.—Tr.]
The clause in the land of the living is a limitation and nearer definition. Not that he means that Jehovah is not to be observed in the land of the dead, and as if that land lay outside of Jehovah’s power and dominion. How contrary to Old Testament Scripture that sentiment would be appears from Amo_9:2; Job_26:6; Psa_139:8 : Pro_15:11. Hence the poet defines his meaning: “I thought never more to see theJah who reveals Himself in the land of the living.” This is the first and greatest good that the deceased loses. But he loses also the companionship of men. And this, again, is not to be understood absolutely, but relatively. For in Hades the dead person is with other dead men. But they are even no right and proper men any more, but only shades. Comp. Naegelsbach:Homer Theol. VII. § 25, p. 398 sqq.; Die nachhomer. Theol. des griech. Volksglaubens VII. § 25, p. 413 sqq. (see Text. and Gram.).
3. Mine age——for me.
Isa_38:12-14. The king depicts in these verses, by a succession of images, the progress of his sickness to its culmination, then the turn brought about by his believing prayer, דורי means “my dwelling” and not “mine age” (see Text. and Gram.). By this Hezekiah evidently means his body (comp. 2Co_5:1; 2Co_5:4; 2Pe_1:13-14). Though in the body still, he contemplates the separation of body and soul as already accomplished. Comparing the body to a shepherd’s tent, which after a while is struck, so his tent he regards as already struck and removed. The next image is drawn from the weaver (see Text, and Gram.). I understand the words thus: I sit at the loom and roll up my life continuously on the weaver’s beam; He cuts me off from the thrum (דלה, i.e., the ends of the threads attached to the beam). The Lord, by His cutting off, interrupts the labor of Hezekiah, who is, so to speak, weaving his life. “From day to night thou finishest me.” This seems to depict the feeling of the poet at the close of his first day of suffering. Such was the rapid progress of the disease that it seemed about to do its work in one day. By evening, indeed, he was not dead, but only by the greatest effort the patient wards off despair. “I composed myself to the morning” (on שׁויתי see Text. and Gram.). On the following day the torments of the disease continue. He feels its power like that of a lion that crunches the bones of its prey (comp. Pro_25:15, where is a different sense). A second time he thinks the evening will end his sufferings, and awaits the issue with murmurings and groanings comparable to the querulous notes of the swallow, crane and dove.
The second clause of Isa_38:14 forms the turning point. With painful longing, under severe oppression, the poet lifts his eyes to the Lord. His prayer is only a short one. He regards himself as a debtor hard pressed by his creditor, and prays the Lord to be surety for him. ערבני is, moreover, a literal quotation from Job_17:3. Hezekiah thinks of suffering Job, and concludes a similar event with the same appeal.
γ) THE DELIVERANCE
Isa_38:15-22
15 What shall I say?
He hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it:
I shall 18go softly all my years
19In the bitterness of my soul.
16 O Lord, by these things men live,
20And in all these things is the life of my spirit:
So wilt thou recover me, and make me to live.
17 21Behold, 22for peace I had great bitterness:
But 23thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of 24corruption:
For thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.
18 For the grave cannot praise thee,
Death can not celebrate thee:
They 25that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.
19 The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day:
The father to the children shall make known thy truth.
20 The Lord 26was ready to save me:
Therefore 27we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments
All the days of our life in the house of the Lord.
21 For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaister upon
22 the boil, and he shall recover. Hezekiah also had said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa_38:15. The Hiph. הִדַּדָּה (denoting the solemn walk of those visiting the temple), occurs again only Psa_42:6. To take it as meaning the walk of life seems to me unwarranted in view of that passage, and in the entire absence of any supporting passage. The same may be said of taking עַל here, as in other passages after verbs or nouns denoting cumulation (Isa_38:5; Isa_32:10; Lev_15:25), in the sense of “according to.” Nor may we take על=“spite of,” which it never means. It is here simply causal.
Isa_38:16. The suffix in עליהם can only refer to the two notions אמר ועשׂה. The plur. masc, need not surprise: comp. Eze_18:26; Eze_33:18-19.—עַל joined to חָיָה denotes the ground or cause of life; and it is to be noted that a Hebrew regards as the basis of life what we regard as the means of living. Hence that from which one lives in the usual sense, i. e., his support, is joined with עַל (Gen_27:40; Deu_8:3). Much more הָיָה may stand with עַל when the absolute foundation of life is to be designated. The plural יחיו has for subject the living generally, for which we may use “one.”—Among the many explanations, more or less forced, of the following clause, the most admissible seems to be that of Gesenius, afterwards amplified by Drechsler. It takes all from ולכל to החייני as one clause, and thus has the double advantage of obtaining for ולכל a suitable reference and for the verbs at the close a suitable connection. “And to the totality, i. e., the completeness, full power of the life of my spirit mayest thou by the same both strengthen and make me live.” בָּהֶן refers to אמר ועשׂה Isa_38:15. The change of gender is common in Hebrew. The insertion of בהן between כל and היי corresponds to the frequent insertion of עוד after כל, a form of expression that occurs once in Hos_14:3 in reference to נִשָׂא and in Isaiah even Isa_40:12 in reference to חָלַם .בַּשָּׁלִישׁ with that meaning that alone suits here occurs only in this Hiph. and again in Kal, Job_39:4. The meaning of Kal is “pinguis, fortis fuit;” thus Hiph. would mean “to make fat, strong, healthy.” Instead of החייני the Vulg. and Talmud seem to have read תחייני. One Codex reads thus, and many expositors adopt it. In fact there is no alternative but either to read תַּחֲיֵינִי [Lowth], or to take וְ before תחלימני in that demonstrative retrospective sense in which we had it Isa_37:26; Isa_17:14; Isa_9:4, and which, in fact, occurs generally in clauses that are expanded either extensively or intensively. Comp. 2Sa_14:10; Pro_23:24; Num_23:3; Isa_56:6 sqq. According to this the וְ would refer to the remote וּלְכֹל. But והחייני would denote emphatically the chief result contemplated by the poet. Hezekiah was convalescent when he composed this song. He could therefore wish that he might be restored to the full power of his spirit. But if, instead of this imperative, one reads תחייני, then the double Vav before the verbs=et—et, as in Isa_38:15. The sense remains essentially the same.
Isa_38:17. לשׁלום is not = בשׁלום. But the meaning is “for peace, for good it was bitter to me.” It is not to be objected to this that then היה ought not to be wanting, for, apart from its absence being quite normal here (comp. Isa_38:20), מַר may itself be regarded as a verb [“preterite Kal of מור, not elsewhere used, though the Hiph. is of frequent occurrence.”—J. A. Alex.]. (Comp. Isa_24:9; Job_22:2; Rth_1:20). But it is more likely that מר is adjective used as noun as in Rth_1:13; Lam_1:4. Comp. עשׁקה לי, Isa_38:14.—According to our construction of לשׁלום we must regard ואתה חשׁקת a causal clause expressive of the situation.—חָשַׁק=“to be lovingly attached” (Deu_7:7; Deu_10:15, etc.); but while elsewhere construed with בְּ, it is here (comp. נִגֵן Isa_38:20, with the accusat. though elsewhere always with בּ, joined with the accusat. of the object, and beside this with מִן to designate the terminus a quo of the way of deliverance (construct. prœgnans) [coll. Heb_5:7, καὶ εἰσακουσθεὶς ἀπὸ τῆς εὐλαβείας—Tr.].—The combination שׁחת בלי “the pit of destruction,” occurs only here; even the substantive use of בלי does not occur elsewhere.
Isa_38:18. לא before שׁאול ת׳, by a familiar usage, (Isa_23:4; 1Sa_2:3, etc.) extends to the following clause.—The יודרי בור (comp. Isa_14:19; Psa_28:1; Psa_88:5, etc.) are not those going down, but those gone down. For in Hebrew the Participle is in itself devoid of tense signification, which must be ascertained from the nature of what is affirmed or from the context. Here the hopelessness is during the endless stay in Hades.
Isa_38:19. הודיע with אל arises from the direct causative use of this Hiph. For הודיע = “to make, prepare דַּעַת, knowing, knowledge.” Accordingly he for whom the knowledge is prepared, i. e., to whom it is imparted must be in the dative. The object of knowledge is designated by אֶל in accordance with the frequent use of this preposition with verbis decendi (comp. Gen_20:2; 1Sa_4:19; 2Ki_19:9, etc.).
Isa_38:20. In יהוח להושׁיעני we are to supply הָיָה (comp. Isa_38:17; Isa_21:1; Isa_37:26). We must not translate: “Jehovah was there to save me,” for Hezekiah certainly did not feel the saving hand of God as something that withdrew after accomplishing its work. He felt it as something still present. He still needed it, as appears from Isa_38:16. This is precisely the sense of this periphrastic construction, that it does not represent the verbal notion simply, but with the additional notion of continued occupation with something.—נִגֵּן is pulsare, and is used of playing stringed instruments (1Sa_16:16; 1Sa_16:23, etc.). Hence נְגִינוֹת is to be understood of instrumentum pulsatile, (not cantus), as in the superscriptions of many Psalms 4, 6, 54, etc.; Hab_3:19.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. In this second part of his song Hezekiah expresses his gratitude to the Lord. “What shall I say?” he begins, as if he could not find the proper word to express in a suitable manner what he had been permitted to experience. In two brief words, he first expresses comprehensively what he has to say. “He promised it, and has also done it!” But I, as long as I live, will walk before the Lord, in gratitude for His imparting to me by means of bitter suffering so much joy (Isa_38:15). Such is, as it were, the theme. In what follows the details are amplified. First, the king expresses the great truth that God’s word and act are the foundation of life for all, and adds the petition that God would by word and act, also fully restore him to life (Isa_38:16). This petition forms the transition to further thanksgiving. The poet acknowledges that his suffering had inured to his salvation: the Lord had precisely in the depth of suffering made him to know the height of His love. But how could such salvation accrue to the sinner? Because the Lord graciously forgave his debt (Isa_38:17). But also because it is in a measure important to the Lord Himself to preserve man alive. For in Hades there is no thanksgiving to God nor any more trusting in Him (Isa_38:18). Only the living can do this, and that both for themselves, and by handing down the praise of the divine faithfulness to their posterity (Isa_38:19). Because he knows the Lord to be near as his redeemer and Saviour, he will, in the church and in the house of the Lord, let his song sound as long as he lives (Isa_38:20). Verses 21, 22, which are here out of place, were explained above at Isa_38:6.
2. What shall I say—my soul.
Isa_38:15. The sentiment is, that there is properly an infinite amount to say. What shall the poet select from mass of material. One may compare 2Sa_7:20. Hezekiah resolves to make two things prominent: 1) that the Lord was as good as His word. 2) that he, for his part, will give solemn thanksgiving as long as he lives. The construction ואמר והוא ע׳ must not be taken as giving a reason. The antithesis of “saying” and “doing” reveals that we have here two correlative members, and that וְ before אמר does not point backward, but forward. The וְ—וְ is here simply=et-et. In the second number הוּא “idem” is added for emphasis. For the “truth” that is so lauded Isa_38:18-19 only exists when the performer is identical with the promiser (comp. Num_23:19). Therefore אמר “He hath said” refers back to Isa_38:5, and stands in an emphatic sense, as in general the notion אמר is capable of various emphasis (comp. 2Ch_32:24). The second clause of the verse expresses in brief the thanks that Hezekiah means to pay. He promises zealous Jehovah-worship (on אדדה see Text. and Gram.), as proof of his thanks for the misfortune sent him that had become the source of so much good fortune to him, as he expressly confesses Isa_38:17. The thought recalls Isa_12:2, where the Prophet thanks Jehovah for being angry at him.
3. O Lord—to live.
Isa_38:16. These words contain a nearer definition of “he said and he did,” Isa_38:15, from which is seen that the poet attaches great importance to this thought. By the words עליהם יחיו he first utters the general sentence, that all life rests on God’s word and deed (Drechsler appropriately refers to the creative word and act Genesis 1). The following clause applies this universal truth to the poet himself. (See Text. and Gram.).
4. Behold, for peace—thy truth.
Isa_38:17-19. In these verses the poet gives in brief outline the story of his suffering and the deliverance from it. The bitter distress of death serves him as a foil that lets the light of the deliverance shine all the brighter. He praises the miraculous power of God that has brought it about that precisely what was bitter accrued to his salvation. Therefore he repeats emphatically מר “bitterness” (comp. חי חי Isa_38:19; Isa_24:16; Isa_27:5). This gracious deliverance comes from the Lord’s no more remembering the poet’s sins (Psa_90:8), and casting them behind Him (Psa_51:11; Mic_7:19).
In Isa_38:18-19 Jehovah’s deliverance is explained from another side. It is shown that the Lord Himself has an interest in preserving Hezekiah alive. The Sheol (metonomy: the total for the individuals that constitute it) does not praise the Lord; death (also metonomy) does not celebrate Him: those that have gone down into the pit hope not in His faithfulness. We have here quite the Old Testament representation of the condition of the dead as something that excludes all free and conscious action. Thus in Psa_6:6 (5). “For in death there is no remembrance of thee; in the grave who shall give thee thanks?” Bring together also in one conspectus the expressions Psa_88:11-13; Psa_30:10; Ecc_9:5-6 and comp. Job_14:10 sqq.; Psa_115:17. One sees that the spiritual activity of the dead was looked upon as paralyzed by the shades of death. They cannot hope,etc. points to the future as what precedes does to the past. The dead have as little remembrance of the benefits received from God in life, as they have hope in the faithfulness of God that rules over them and promises a better future. [“The true explanation of the words is given by Calvin,viz., that the language is that of extreme agitation and distress, in which the prospect of the future is absorbed in contemplation of the present, and also that, so far as he does think of futurity, it is upon the supposition of God’s wrath. Regarding death, in this case, as a proof of the divine displeasure, he cannot but look upon it as the termination of his solemn praises.”—J. A. Alex.].
With jubilant emotions, Hezekiah feels that he again belongs to the living, hence the repetition of חַיwho lives, who lives, he praises,etc., and the joyous כמוני היום as I this day, in which appears how much the contrast between the mournful yesterday, and the blessed to-day moves the heart of the poet. The words father to the children,etc., have a peculiar significance in Hezekiah’s mouth. His successor Manasseh, according to 2Ki_21:1, ascended the throne at twelve years of age. Consequently he cannot have been born at this time. Indeed, since it was customary for the eldest son to succeed, it is very probable that at that time Hezekiah had no son at all, which seems to be confirmed by יֵצְאוּ ,וגוּ׳39:7. Considered from this point of view our words appear prophetic. Yet, when one reflects what sort of a son Manasseh was, it would almost seem to have been better had Hezekiah done nothing to avert the sentence of death Isa_38:1.
5. The Lord——house of the Lord.
Isa_38:20. Concluding verse, containing once again the chief thought, and a summons to continual praise of Jehovah. “Jehovah is present to save me,” see Text. and Gram.So will we touch my stringed instruments,ibid. The song accompanying the stringed instrument is not excluded, though the latter alone is mentioned. The plural has been urged as favoring the meaning “song.” But could not the musical King Hezekiah understand various sorts of playing on stringed instruments? Or, if not this, may not the plural be that of the general notion? Some suppose, that by the plural נְנַגֵּן “we will touch,” Hezekiah sets himself as the chorus-leader of his family. But one must not forget the Levitical musicians that he himself had instituted for the service of God’s house (2Ch_29:30). Corresponding to the אדדה Isa_38:15, Hezekiah thinks here not of private divine service, but of the worship of Jehovah in the temple. The preposition עַל is surprising. Perhaps one may compare Hos_11:11. Perhaps, too, the preposition has reference to the elevated way which, according to 2Ki_16:18, led the king into the temple, and afforded him an elevated place from which he saw the greater part of the house beneath him. Moreover it is to be remarked, that tarrying in the house of the Lord has a prominent place in many Psa_15:1; Psa_23:6; Psa_42:5; Psa_43:4; Psa_84:2 sqq. 11, etc.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Isa_36:4 sqq. “Haec proprie est Satanae lingua et sunt non Rabsacis sed ipsissimi Diaboli verba, quibus non muros urbis, sed medullam Ezechiae, hoc est, tenerrimam ejus fidem oppugnat.”—Luther. “In this address the chief-butler, Satan performs in the way he uses when he would bring about our apostacy. 1) He urges that we are divested of all human support, Isa_36:5; Isaiah 2) We are deprived of divine support, Isa_36:7; Isaiah 3) God is angry with us because we have greatly provoked Him by our sins, Isa_36:7; Isaiah 4) He decks out the splendor, and power of the wicked, Isa_36:8-9; Isaiah 5) He appeals to God’s word, and knows how to turn and twist it to his uses. Such poisonous arrows were used by Satan against Christ in the desert, and may be compared with this light (Mat_4:2 sqq.). One needs to arm himself against Satan’s attack by God’s word, and to resort to constant watching and prayer.”—Cramer.
The Assyrian urges four particulars by which he would destroy Hezekiah’s confidence, in two of which he was right and in two wrong. He was right in representing that Hezekiah could rely neither on Egypt, nor on his own power. In this respect he was a messenger of God and announcer of divine truth. For everywhere the word of God preaches the same (Isa_30:1-3; Isa_31:1-3; Jer_17:5; Psa_118:8-9; Psa_146:3, etc.). But it is a merited chastisement if rude and hostile preachers must preach to us what we were unwilling to believe at the mild and friendly voice of God. But in two particulars the Assyrian was wrong, and therein lay Hezekiah’s strength. For just on this account the Lord is for him and against the Assyrian. These two things are, that the Assyrian asserts that Hezekiah cannot put his trust in the Lord, but rather he, the Assyrian is counseled by the Lord against Hezekiah. That, however, was a lie, and because of this lie, the corresponding truth makes all the deeper impression on Hezekiah, and reminds him how assuredly he may build on the Lord and importune Him. And when the enemy dares to say, that he is commissioned by the Lord to destroy the Holy Land, just that must bring to lively remembrance in the Israelite, that the Lord, who cannot lie, calls the land of Israel His land (Joel 4:2; Jer_2:7; Jer_16:18, etc.), and the people of Israel His people (Exo_3:7; Exo_3:10; Exo_5:1, etc.).
2. On Isa_36:12. [“In regard to the indelicacy of this passage we may observe: 1) The Masorets in the Hebrew text have so printed the words used, that in reading it the offensiveness would be considerably avoided. 2) The customs, habits and modes of expression of people in different nations and times, differ. What appears indelicate at one time or in one country, may not only be tolerated, but common in another. 3) Isaiah is not at all responsible for the indelicacy of the language here. He is simply an historian. 4) It was of importance to give the true character of the attack which was made on Jerusalem. The coming of Sennacherib was attended with pride, insolence and blasphemy; and it was important to state the true character of the transaction, and to record just what was said and done. Let him who used the language, and not him who recorded it bear the blame.”—Barnes in loc.].
3. On Isa_36:18 sqq. “Observandum hic, quod apud gentes olim viguerit πολύθεια adeo, ut quaevis etiam urbs peculiarem habuerit Deum tutelarem. Cujus ethnicismi exemplum vivum et spirans adhuc habemus apud pontificios, quibus non inscite objici potest illud Jeremiae: Quot civitates tibi, tot etiam Dei (Jer_2:28).”—Foerster.
4. On Isa_36:21. Answer not a fool according to his folly (Pro_26:4), much less the blasphemer, lest the flame of his wickedness be blown into the greater rage (Sir_8:3). Did not Christ the Lord answer His enemies, not always with words, but also with silence (Mat_26:62; Mat_27:14, etc.)? One must not cast pearls before swine (Mat_7:6). After Foerster and Cramer.
5. On Isa_36:21. “Est aureus textus, qui docet nos, ne cum Satana disputemus. Quando enim videt, quod sumus ejus spectatores et auditores, tum captat occasionem majoris fortitudinis et gravius premit. Petrus dicit, eum circuire et quaerere, quem devoret. Nullum facit insidiarum finem. Tutissimum autem est non respondere, sed contemnere eum.”—Luther.
6. [On Isa_37:1-7. “Rabshakeh intended to frighten Hezekiah from the Lord, but it proves that he frightens him to the Lord. The wind, instead of forcing the traveler’s coat from him, makes him wrap it the closer about him. The more Rabshakeh reproaches God, the more Hezekiah studies to honor Him.” On Isa_37:3. “When we are most at a plunge we should be most earnest in prayer. When pains are most strong, let prayers be most lively. Prayer is the midwife of mercy, that helps to bring it forth.”—M. Henry, in loc.]
7. On Isa_37:2 sqq. Hezekiah here gives a good example. He shows all princes, rulers and peoples what one ought to do when there is a great and common distress, and tribulation. One ought with sackcloth, i. e., with penitent humility, to bring prayers, and intercessions to the Lord that He would look on and help.
8. On Isa_37:6 sq. “God takes to Himself all the evil done to His people. For as when one does a great kindness to the saints, God appropriates it to Himself, so, too, when one torments the saints, it is an injury done to God, and He treats sin no other way than as if done to Himself. He that torments them torments Him (Isa_64:9). Therefore the saints pray: ‘Arise, O God, plead thine own cause: remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily’ (Psa_74:22).”—Cramer.
9. On Isa_37:7. “God raises up against His enemies other enemies, and thus prepares rest for His own people. Example: the Philistines against Saul who pursued David, 1Sa_23:27.”—Cramer.
10. On Isa_37:14. Vitringa here cites the following from Bonfin Rerum Hungar. Dec. III. Lib. VI. p. 464, ad annum Isaiah 1444: “Amorathes, cum suos laborare cerneret et ab Vladislao rege non sine magna caede fugari, depromtum e sinu codicem initi sanctissime foederis explicat intentis in coelum oculis. Haec sunt, inquit ingeminans, Jesu Christe, foedera, quae Christiani tui mecum percussere. Per numen tuum sanctum jurarunt, datamque sub nomine tuo fidem violarunt, perfide suum Deum abnegarunt. Nunc Christe, si Deus es (ut ajunt et nos hallucinamur), tuas measque hic injurias, te quaeso, ulciscere et his, qui sanctum tuum nomen nondum agnovere, violatae fidei poenas ostende. Vix haec dixerat .… cum proelium, quod anceps ac dubium diu fuerat, inclinare coepit, etc.”
[The desire of Hezekiah was not primarily his own personal safety, or the safety of his kingdom. It was that Jehovah might vindicate His great and holy name from reproach, and that the world might know that He was the only true God. We have here a beautiful model of the object which we should have in view when we come before God. This motive of prayer is one that is with great frequency presented in the Bible. Comp. Isa_42:8; Isa_43:10; Isa_43:13; Isa_43:25; Deu_32:39; Psa_83:18; Psa_46:10; Neh_9:6; Dan_9:18-19. Perhaps there could have been furnished no more striking proof that Jehovah was the true God, than would be by the defeat of Sennacherib. The time had come when the great Jehovah could strike a blow which would be felt on all nations, and carry the terror of His name, and the report of His power throughout the earth. Perhaps this was one of the main motives of the destruction of that mighty army.”—Barnes, on Isa_37:2].
11. On Isa_37:15. “Fides Ezechiae verba confirmata magis ac magis crescit. Ante non ausus est orare, jam orat et confutat blasphemias omnes Assyrii. Adeo magna vis verbi est, ut longe alius per verbum, quod Jesajas ei nunciari jussit, factus sit.”—Luther.
12. On Isa_37:17. [“It is bad to talk proudly and profanely, but it is worse to write so, for this argues more deliberation and design, and what is written spreads further and lasts longer, and does the more mischief. Atheism and irreligion, written, will certainly be reckoned for another day.”—M. Henry].
13. On Isa_37:21 sqq. [“Those who receive messages of terror from men with patience, and send messages of faith to God by prayer, may expect messages of grace and peace from God for their comfort, even when they are most cast down. Isaiah sent a long answer to Hezekiah’s prayer in God’s name, sent it in writing (for it was too long to be sent by word of mouth), and sent it by way of return to his prayer, relation being thereunto had: ‘Whereas thou hast prayed to me, know, for thy comfort, that thy prayer is heard.’ Isaiah might have referred him to the prophecies he had delivered (particularly to that of chap. 10), and bid him pick out an answer from thence. The correspondence between earth and heaven is never let fall on God’s side.”—M. Henry.].
14. On Isa_37:31 sqq. “This is a promise of great extent. For it applies not only to those that then remained, and were spared the impending destruction and captivity by the Assyrians, but to all subsequent times, when they should enjoy a deliverance; as after the Babylonish captivity, and after the persecutions of Antiochus. Yea, it applies even to New Testament times from the first to the last, since therein, in the order of conversion to Christ, the Jews will take root and bring forth fruit, and thus in the Jews (as also in the converted Gentiles) will appear in a spiritual and corporal sense, what God at that time did to their fields in the three following years.”—Starke.
15. On Isa_38:1. “Isaiah, although of a noble race and condition, does not for that regard it disgraceful, but rather an honor, to be a pastor and visitor of the sick, I would say, a prophet, teacher and comforter of the sick. God save the mark! How has the world become so different in our day, especially in our evangelical church Let a family be a little noble, and it is regarded as a reproach and injury to have a clergyman among its relations and friends, not to speak of a son studying theology and becoming a servant of the church. I speak not of all; I know that some have a better mind; yet such is the common course. Jeroboam’s maxim must rather obtain, who made priests of the lowest of the people (1Ki_12:31). For thus the parsons may be firmly held in rein (sub ferula) and in political submission. It is not at all good where the clergy have a say, says an old state-rule of our Politicorum.” Feuerlein, pastor in Nuremberg, in his Novissimorum primum, 1694, p. 553. The same quotes Spener: “Is it not so, that among the Roman Catholics the greatest lords are not ashamed to stand in the spiritual office, and that many of them even discharge the spiritual functions? Among the Reformed, too, persons born of the noblest families are not ashamed of the office of preacher. But, it seems, we Lutherans are the only ones that hold the service of the gospel so low, that, where from a noble or otherwise prominent family an ingenium has an inclination to theological study, almost every one seeks to hinder him, or, indeed, afterwards is ashamed of his friendship, as if it were something much too base for such people, by which more harm comes to our church than one might suppose. That is to be ashamed of the gospel.”
16. On Isa_38:1. [“We see here the boldness and fidelity of a man of God. Isaiah was not afraid to go in freely and tell even a monarch that he must die. The subsequent part of the narrative would lead us to suppose that, until this announcement, Hezekiah did not regard himself as in immediate danger. It is evident here, that the physician of Hezekiah had not informed him of it—perhaps from the apprehension that his disease would be aggravated by the agitation of his mind on the subject. The duty was, therefore, left, as it is often, to the minister of religion—a duty which even many ministers are slow to perform, and which many physicians are reluctant to have performed.
No danger is to be apprehended commonly from announcing to those who are sick their true condition. Physicians and friends often err in this. There is no species of cruelty greater than to suffer a friend to lie on a dying bed under a delusion. There is no sin more aggravated than that of designedly deceiving a dying man, and flattering him with the hope of recovery, when there is a moral certainty that he will not and cannot recover. And there is evidently no danger to be apprehended from communicating to the sick their true condition. It should be done tenderly and with affection; but it should be done faithfully. I have had many opportunities of witnessing the effect of apprising the sick of their situation, and of the moral certainty that they must die. And I cannot now recall an instance in which the announcement has had any unhappy effect on the disease. Often, on the contrary, the effect is to calm the mind, and to lead the dying to look up to God, and peacefully to repose on Him. And the effect of that is always salutary.” Barnes in loc.]
17. On Isa_38:2. It is an old opinion, found even in the Chald., that by the wall is meant the wall of the temple as a holy direction in which to pray, as the Mahometans pray in the direction of Mecca. But הקיר cannot mean that. Rather that is correct which is said by Forerius: “Nolunt pii homines testes habere suarum lacrymarum, ut eas liberius fundant, neque sensu distrahi, cum orare Deum ex animo volunt.”
18. On Isa_38:8 :—
Non Deus est numen Parcarum carcere clausum.
Quale putabatur Stoicus esse Deus.
Ille potest Solis cursus inhibere volantes,
At veluti scopulos flumina stare facit.”
—Melanchthon.
19. On Isa_38:12. “Beautiful parables that picture to us the transitoriness of this temporal life. For the parable of the shepherd’s tent means how restless a thing it is with us, that we have here no abiding place, but are driven from one locality to another, until at last we find a resting-spot in the church-yard. The other parable of the weaver’s thread means how uncertain is our life on earth. For how easily the thread breaks.” Cramer. “When the weaver’s work is progressing best, the thread breaks before he is aware. Thus when a man is in his best work, and supposes he now at last begins really to live, God breaks the thread of his life and lets him die. The rational heathen knew something of this when they, so to speak, invented the three goddesses of life (the three Parcas minime parcas) and included them in this little verse:
Clotho colum gestat, Lachesis trahit,
Atropos occat
But what does the weaver when the thread breaks? Does he stop his work at once? O no! He knows how to make a clever weaver’s knot, so that one cannot observe the break. Remember thereby that when thy life is broken off, yet the Lord Jesus, as a master artisan, can bring it together again at the last day. He will make such an artful, subtle weaver’s-knot as shall make us wonder through all eternity. It will do us no harm to have died.” Ibid.—Omnia sunt hominum tenui pendentia filo.
[“As suddenly as the tent of a shepherd is taken down, folded up, and transferred to another place. There is doubtless the idea here that he would continue to exist, but in another place, as the shepherd would pitch his tent in another place. He was to be cut off from the earth, but he expected to dwell among the dead. The whole passage conveys the idea that he expected to dwell in another state.” Barnes in loc.].
20. On Isa_38:17. [“Note 1) When God pardons sin, He casts it behind His back as not designing to look upon it with an eye of justice and jealousy. He remembers it no more, to visit for it. The pardon does not make the sin not to have been, or not to have been sin, but not to be punished as it deserves. When we cast our sins behind our back, and take no care to repent of them, God sets them before His face, and is ready to reckon for them; but when we set them before our face in true repentance, as David did when his sin was ever before him, God casts them behind His back. 2) When God pardons sin, He pardons all, casts them all behind His back, though they have been as scarlet and crimson. 3) The pardoning of sin is the delivering the soul from the pit of corruption. 4) It is pleasant indeed to think of our recoveries from sickness when we see them flowing from the remission of sin; then the cause is removed, and then it is in love to the soul.” M. Henry in loc.]
21. On Isa_38:18. [Cannot hope for thy truth. “They are shut out from all the means by which Thy truth is brought to mind, and the offers of salvation are presented. Their probation is at an end; their privileges are closed; their destiny is sealed up. The idea is, it is a privilege to live because this is a world where the offers of salvation are made, and where those who are conscious of guilt may hope in the mercy of God.” Barnes in loc.] God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2Pe_3:9). Such is the New Testament sense of these Old Testament words. For though Hezekiah has primarily in mind the preferableness of life in the earthly body to the life in Hades, yet this whole manner of representation passes away with Hades itself. But Hezekiah’s words still remain true so far as they apply to heaven and hell. For of course in hell, the place of the damned, one does not praise God. But those that live praise Him. These, however, are in heaven. Since then God wills rather that men praise Him than not praise Him, so He is not willing that men should perish, but that all should turn to repentance and live.
22. On Isa_39:2. “Primo (Deus) per obsidionem et bellum, deinde per gravem morbum Ezechiam servaverat, ne in praesumtionem laberetur. Nondum tamen vinci potuit antiquus serpens, sed redit et levat caput suum. Adeo non possumus consistere, nisi Deos nos affligat. Vides igitur hic, quis sit afflictionum usus, ut mortificent scilicet carnem, quae non potest res ferre secundas.” Luther.
23. On Isa_39:7. “God also punishes the misdeeds of the parents on the children (Exo_20:5) because the children not only follow the misdeeds of their parents, but they also increase and heap them up, as is seen in the posterity of Hezekiah, viz.: Manasseh and Amon.”—Cramer.
HOMILETICAL HINTS
[The reader is referred to the ample hints covering the same matter to be found in the volume on 2 Kings 18-20. It is expedient to take advantage of that for the sake of keeping the present volume within reasonable bounds. Therefore but a minimum is here given of what the Author offers, much of which indeed is but the repetition in another form of matter already given.—Tr.]
1. On Isa_37:36. “1) The scorn and mockery of the visible world. 2) The scorn and mockery of the unseen world.” Sermon of Domprediger Zahn in Halle, 1870.
2. On the entire 38. chapter, beside the 22 sermons in FEUERLEIN’S Novissimorum primum, there is a great number of homiletical elaborations of an early date; Walther Magirus, Idea mortis et vitae in two parts, the second of which contains 20 penitential and consolatory sermons on Isaiah 38. Danzig, 1640 and 1642. Daniel Schaller (Stendal) 4 sermons on the sick Hezekiah, on Isaiah 38. Magdeburg, 1611. Peter Siegmund Pape in “Gott geheilighte Wochenpredigten,” Berlin, 1701, 4 sermons. Jacob Tichlerus (Elburg) Hiskiae Aufrichtigkeit bewiesen in Gesundheit, Krankheit und Genesung, 18 sermons on Isaiah 38. (Dutch), Campen, 1636. These are only the principal ones.
3. On Isa_38:1. “I will set my house in order. This, indeed, will not be hard for me to do. My debt account is crossed out; my best possession I take along with me; my children I commit to the great Father of orphans, to whom heaven and earth belongs, and my soul to the Lord, who has sued for it longer than a human age, and bought it with His blood. Thus I am eased and ready for the journey.” Tholuck, Stunden der Andacht, p. 620.
4. On Isa_38:1. “Now thou shouldest know that our word ‘order his house’ has a very broad meaning. It comprehends reconciliation to God by faith, the final confession of sin, the last Lord’s Supper, the humble committing of the soul to the grace of the Lord, and to death and the grave in the hope of the resurrection. In one word: There is an ordering of the house above. In reliance on the precious merit of my Saviour, I order my house above in which I wish to dwell. Moreover taking leave of loved ones, and the blessing of them belongs to ordering the house. And finally order must be taken concerning the guardianship of children, the abiding of the widow, and the friend on whom she must especially lean in her loneliness, also concerning earthly bequests.” Ahlfeld, Das Leben im Lichte des Wortes Gottes, Halle, 1867, p. 522.
5. On Isa_38:2-8. This account has much that seems strange to us Christians, but much, too, that quite corresponds to our Christian consciousness. Let us contemplate the difference between an Old Testament, and a New Testament suppliant, by noticing the differences and the resemblances. I. The resemblances. 1) Distress and grief there are in the Old, as in the New Testament (Isa_38:3). 2) Ready and willing to help beyond our prayers or comprehension (Isa_38:5-6) is the Lord in the Old as in the New Testament. II. The differences. 1) The Old Testament suppliant appealed to his having done nothing bad (Isa_38:3). The New Testament suppliant says: “God be merciful to me a sinner,” and “Give me through grace for Christ’s sake what it pleases Thee to give me.” 2) The Old Testament suppliant demands a sign (Isa_38:7-8; comp. Isa_38:22); the New Testament suppliant requires no sign but that of the crucified Son of man, for He knows that to those who bear this sign is given the promise of the hearing of all their prayers (Joh_16:23). 3) In Hezekiah’s case, the prayer of the Old Testament suppliant is indeed heard (Isa_38:5), yet in general it has not the certainty of being heard, whereas the New Testament suppliant has this certainty.
Footnotes:
[8]in the pause of my days
[9]non-existence.
[10]My dwelling is broken up.
[11]rolled up.
[12]Or, from the thrum.
[13]I composed myself.
[14]a swallow, a crane.
[15]languished upward.
[16]Or, ease me.
[17]be my surety.
[18]walk solemnly.
[19]For.
[20]And to the full life of my spirit strengthen me thereby and let me live.
[21]Behold for peace bitterness inured to me.
[22]Or, on my peace came great bitterness.
[23]Heb. thou hast loved my soul from the pit.
[24]destruction, or nothingness.
[25]that are gone down.
[26]is present.
[27]we will touch the stringed instruments.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22 The couches in the East run along the walls…
The couches in the East run along the walls of houses. He turned away from the spectators to hide his emotion and collect his thoughts for prayer.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 1. In those days — Probably about the time…
HEZEKIAH’S ILLNESS.
1. In those days — Probably about the time Sennacherib and his host were providentially routed from out of the land: but see Isa_38:6.
Read full note →
Sick unto death — With a sickness to all appearances fatal. Some conjecture that the plague which proved so destructive to the Assyrian army was still lingering in the neighbourhood. Such a mortality, necessarily without adequate burial, would taint the whole atmosphere, and produce, at least, sporadic diseases without discrimination over the land.
Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die — Such was at first the Lord’s determination — graciously turned aside by Hezekiah’s plea. The command implies, Make due arrangements for thy succession, and whatever else is left incomplete in thy plans. The king was not yet in his prime, being but thirty-nine years old, and had not prepared against an unanticipated death.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–21 1. In those days] The incident must have preceded…
1. In those days] The incident must have preceded by some months the embassy of Merodach-Baladan, the probable date of which will be considered in the Introduction to ch. 39. The order of the chapters cannot be chronological, and the vague expression “in those days” need not perhaps mean more than “in the time of Hezekiah.” If, as Delitzsch and others have supposed, ch. 38 f. stood before 36 f. in the original document, the note of time would naturally refer to some other events in Isaiah’s biography which had been previously narrated. The best justification of this hypothesis is the solution it furnishes of the chronological difficulties presented by this group of chapters.
Set thine house in order] Lit. “Give commandment to thy house,” the last duty of a dying man (2Sa_17:23). An example of what is meant may be found in David’s elaborate death-bed charge to Solomon (1Ki_2:1-9).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 (1) In those days.—On any supposition, the narrative of…
XXXVIII.
(1) In those days.—On any supposition, the narrative of Hezekiah’s illness throws us back to a time fifteen years before his death, and therefore to an earlier date than the destruction of the Assyrian army, which it here follows. So in Isa_38:6, the deliverance of the city is spoken of as still future. Assuming the rectified chronology given above, we are carried to a time ten or eleven years before the invasion, which was probably in part caused by the ambitious schemes indicated in Isaiah 39. It follows from either view that we have no ground for assuming, as some commentators have done, (1) that the illness was an attack of the plague that destroyed the Assyrian army, or (2) that the treasures which Hezekiah showed to the Babylonian ambassadors were in part the spoil of that army.
Read full note →
Set thine house in order.—Literally, Give orders to thy house, euphemistic for “make thy will.” The words are a striking illustration, like Jonah’s announcement that Nineveh should be destroyed in three days (Jon_3:4), of the conditional character of prophecy. It would seem as if Isaiah had been consulted half as prophet and half as physician as to the nature of the disease. It seemed to him fatal; it was necessary to prepare for death. The words may possibly imply a certain sense of disappointment at the result of Hezekiah’s reign. In the midst of the king’s magnificence and prosperity there was that in the inner house of the soul, as well as in that of the outer life, which required ordering.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 The present chapter is parallel with 2Ki_20:1-11, but contains…
The present chapter is parallel with 2Ki_20:1-11, but contains some marked differences from that passage, both in what it omits and in what it inserts. The general narrative (vers. 1-8, and 21, 22) is greatly condensed, and in part disarranged, vers. 21, 22 being added, as it would seem, by an after-thought. On the other hand, the psalm of Hezekiah (vers. 9-20) is additional, having nothing corresponding to it in the Book of Kings. There is every appearance of 2Ki_20:1-11 having been composed previously to the present chapter, and of the present chapter having been, in its narrative portion, abridged from 2 Kings.
In those days. The illness of Hezekiah is fixed by ver. 5 (and 2Ki_20:6) to the fourteenth year of his reign, or B.C. 714. The entire narrative of this chapter and the next is therefore thirteen or fourteen years earlier than that of ch. 36., 37., which belongs to Hezekiah"s closing years, B.C. 701-698. (see the comment on Isa_26:1, Isa_26:2) Sick unto death; i.e. attacked by a malady which, if it had run its natural course, would have been fatal. Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz. This double designation of Isaiah, by his office and by his descent, marks the original independence of this narrative, which was not intended for a continuation of ch. 37. Thou shalt die, and not live. Prophecies were often threats, and, when such, were conditional, announcing results which would follow unless averted by prayer or repentance (compare Jonah"s prophecy, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown,". (Jon_3:4)
Read full note →
Ver. 1. The duty of men, in view of death, to set their house in order.
Nothing is more manifest than the duty of all men, in view of that departure which they know to impend over them as an absolute certainty, only doubtful in respect of its date, to arrange their worldly affairs as prudence requires, and not leave them in confusion. In complicated societies, and in states where civilization is advanced, the duty presses more especially, since the greatest care constantly requires to be taken lest, if affairs are not arranged, the most undesirable results should arise.
I IT IS MOST CONVENIENT THAT THE HOUSE SHOULD RE SET IN ORDER BEFORE ANY IMMEDIATE PROSPECT OF DEATH APPEARS. The circumstances of a dangerous illness are generally such as to render it extremely inexpedient that the arrangement of a man"s worldly affairs should be put off to such a time. The time is, for the most part, all too short for the consideration of a man"s spiritual affairs for repentance, confession, restitution, exchange of forgiveness, and the like, which often occupy a considerable space, and need much thought and attention. Worldly affairs distract the mind from the things which most vitally concern it, and, if they are not arranged until the last illness sets in, the result too commonly is that "to the mercy of a moment" are left "the vast concerns of an eternal scene." Further, in sickness the mind is far less fit to make judicious arrangements than in health; it is soon fatigued, often not clear, sometimes altogether confused and incapable of sound judgment not to mention that it may wholly fail, or be quite unequal to any exertion. Men need to he reminded continually, while they are in health, of the duty of arranging their worldly affairs at once, and not waiting till the fiat has gone forth till their hours are numbered, and whatever has to be done must be done in haste.
II STILL, IF THE DUTY HAS BEEN NEGLECTED IN HEALTH, THE IMMEDIATE PROSPECT OF DEATH IS A PEREMPTORY CALL ON US TO DISCHARGE IT. "Set thine house in order," is Isaiah"s first, nay, his sole, charge to Hezekiah, when he warns him that he is to die shortly. The interests of others are involved; and our neglect of them hitherto gives them a claim on us which is more binding than any interests of our own. "If a man provide not for... those of his own house,... he is worse than an Infidel". (1Ti_5:8) The neglected duty must first be attended to; the rights, interests, fair claims of others must be considered, and, so far as possible, secured; and then our own advantage may occupy us, but not before. No man, we may be sure, will be made to suffer in another world for having postponed his own advantage to that of others in this.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON Vers. 1-8. Sickness and recovery of Hezekiah.
All pathos ultimately turns upon contrast, and the greatest of all contrasts is that between death and life. All who have passed through a dangerous illness, and have been brought nigh unto the gates of death, will feel touched by this narrative, which hints meanings that lie below the surface.
I THE WARNING. The king falls into deadly sickness; and the prophet"s voice assures him that his days are numbered. "Thou shalt die, and not live." The king, under the weight of his grief, turns his face to the wall. So Ahab, under the influence of another consuming passion. (1Ki_21:4) It is a sign of sorrow that admits not of society. How seldom do men receive such a warning with calmness! How true is it"Oh our life"s sweetness! That we the pain of death would hourly die Rather than die at once"!
"What are pains and aches, and the torments of the gout and the stone, which lie pulling at our earthly tabernacle, but so many ministers and under-agents of death? What are catarrhs and ulcers, coughs and dropsies, but so many mementoes of a hastening dissolution, so many foretastes of the grave? Add to these the consuming cares and troubles of the mind; the toil and labour and racking intention of the brain, which as really, though not as sensibly, impair and exhaust the vitals as the most visible bodily diseases can do, and let death into the body, though by another door." But there is an instinct within us which refuses to listen to these argumentations. Some noted lines of the Roman noble Maecenas have come down to us, in which he depicts himself as shaken with palsy, attacked from head to foot with disease, still V ita dum superest, bone est. Such experiences put to rout the fallacies of the pessimist, and convince us of the love we bear to life. "Whatever crazy sorrow saith, No soul that breathes with human breath Hath ever truly longed for death. "Tis life whereof our nerves are scant; For life, and not for death, we pant; More life and fuller that we want.
The experience of such a deadly sickness may be the needed lesson to teach us the worth of our days, to stir us up to the useful employment of them.
II THE PRAYER. We must bear in mind that in antiquity generally death is viewed as the effect of Divine visitation, especially sudden and untimely death. The belief was that the days of the good would be prolonged, the years of the wicked would be shortened; (Pro_10:27) that men of deceit and blood would not live out half their days. (Psa_11:2-3) Hezekiah, conscious of his integrity and faithfulness, appeals to the justice of God. His heart had been "perfect" with Jehovah, in the sense in which David"s had been, and Solomon"s had not been. (1Ki_11:4) He had not divided his affections with the gods of idolaters. He had been a reformer he had done what was good in the eyes of Jehovah. After the manner of Oriental lamentation, he loudly weeps. (cf. Jud_1:20:23 1Sa_13:16) There is a childlike simplicity in the scene. What are we all but children in the great hours of life"s trials? But we see here that calm conscience which is the result of a pious life, and which gives confidence in prayer. "Conscience is the great repository and magazine of all those pleasures that can afford any solid refreshment to the soul;" and of that solace which is needed in the moments of weakness. "When this is calm and serene and absolving, then properly a man enjoys all things, and, what is more, himself; for that he must do before he can enjoy anything else. It is only a pious life, led by the rules of religion, that can authorize a man"s conscience to speak comfortably to him; it is this that must word the sentence before the conscience can pronounce it, and then it will do it with majesty and authority; it will not whisper, but proclaim, a jubilee to the mind; it will not drop, but pour in, oil upon the wounded heart. The pleasure of conscience is not only greater than all other pleasures, but may also serve instead of them. They only please and affect the mind in transitu, in the pitiful narrow compass of actual fruition; whereas that of conscience entertains and feeds it a long time after with durable, lasting reflections" (South).
III THE DEATH-WARRANT CANCELLED. "And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying, Turn again". (2Ki_20:4) The doom of death is recalled; a respite of fifteen years granted. Deliverance is promised from the Assyrian, and Jehovah will throw his protecting shield over the city; and a physical phenomenon is to occur as a sign or guarantee of the fulfilment. Prophecy, then, is conditional; Divine judgments are conditional. "It does not always follow," says Jerome, "that because the prophet predicts, that which he has predicted shall come to pass. For he predicted, not that it should come to pass, but that it might not come to pass." Here repentance or prayer may "avail much." We should hesitate, therefore, to speak of absolute decrees, and of irreversible judgments, in connection with human life. Always there is an "if" or an "unless" to break the fall of the severest sentence; and, in fact, the dealings of the merciful God with men are more lenient than they can ever be represented in words. How often has the opinion of the physician doomed the invalid, who has nevertheless recovered! And the like disappointment of expectations occurs in spiritual things. All combine to remind us of the cheering saying, "While there is life, there is hope!" So long as we entrust ourselves in the hands of a gracious God, we need never despair. J.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON Vers. 1-3. A vision of death.
The scene is one of true pathos; it is one of those touches of nature which" make the whole world kin." We have
I DEATH SUDDENLY PRESENTING ITSELF TO MAN IN HIS PRIME. (Ver. 1.) Death is very common in infancy; it must be near in old age. It occasions no surprise, and brings comparatively little pain or grief when it occurs at either of these extremes. Infancy does not understand it, and age accepts or even welcomes it. But occasionally, man in the prime of his powers, woman m the glory of her days, is called upon to look death in the face when life seems to stretch out far into the future. The outbreaking of latent disease, the mysterious and totally unanticipated collapse, the fearful and fatal accident, these or ether things are at work, saying in stern tones to one and another of our race, "Thou shall die, and not live.
II THE PROFOUND HUMAN REGRET WHICH IT THEN OCCASIONS. "Hezekiah wept sore." We differ, according to our individual temperament and our national habits, as to the exhibition of our feelings. The Jewish king gave vent to his sorrow in hot tears and sore lamentation. An Englishman will probably command both voice and feature when he learns that he must die, and may not live. But no one, suddenly taken away from the midst of beloved relations and friends, unexpectedly torn from the activities and enjoyments on which he has set his heart and spent his energy and centred his hopes, can be unmoved, untroubled. It is a transcendently solemn moment when the human heart first learns that, instead of blessed communion and of joyous activity, there must be hopeless separation and the silence of the grave. Sudden death in prime is a wrench sorer and sadder than any which life has known.
III THE REFUGE OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT IN THE LAST RESORT, "Then Hezekiah... prayed unto the Lord." There are some things which, when everything else fails, lead us to God the extremities of joy and sorrow, a crisis in our career, the near presence of death. When human art has failed, and man can do no more for us, then we turn our thought to Heaven we lift up our face unto God. God can intervene, we know, in the very greatest exigency; it may be that he will; we will "pray unto the Lord." And if we do so reverently and resignedly, we do so rightly; for who can tell how or when he may be pleased to act on our behalf, to "see our tears, to hear our prayers," and to "add unto our days" (ver. 5)? Or, if we do not have recourse to God in prayer for deliverance, we can fall back on that which may be better still on a cheerful submission to his holy will.
IV A CONSOLATION AT THE CLOSE OF LIFE. If we do not make it a plea with God, as Hezekiah thought it right to do, viz. that we "have walked before God in truth and with a perfect heart," etc. (ver. 3), we may find in such a fact a very precious consolation to our own spirit. To have to look back from the dying hour on a course of folly, guilt, and mischief, must be bitterness itself. To be able to survey, from that last scene, a life of sincere devotion to God and faithful service of mankind, must be a source of unspeakable thankfulness and serenity.
V A DUTY IN DEATH WHICH IT IS THE DUTY OF LIFE TO REDUCE TO ITS LOWEST POINT. "Set thine house in order" (ver. 1); do the necessary things that remain undone that which is unfinished in the sanctuary of the soul, in the inner circle of the family, in the relationships which are outside. But how excellent it is to live with all these things preserved in such order that, when the end comes, there will be the least possible left to do, and the mind can turn, untroubled, to rest in the presence of the Saviour, and to look for the rest that is so soon to be enjoyed! C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK Ver. 1. The strain of notice to die.
Satan is represented in the Book of Job as poetically describing man"s clinging to life thus: "Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life." Usually death creeps on us with so slow and silent a tread that we grow familiar with it; our powers fade, and passing becomes easy. But sometimes the arrest comes in the very midst of life, when hope smiles, when the future makes large promises, and the claims upon us seem so great that we cannot be spared. Then death is at his worst; and it is beyond man"s power, it is the triumph of Divine grace, to say, "Thy will be done." This is seen in the case of Hezekiah, to whom death seemed an expression of Divine dissatisfaction; a terrible family affliction, seeing he had as yet no heir; and nothing short of a national calamity. Compare the announcement of approaching death made to Aaron and to Moses. But in their cases lifework was done. The strain on Hezekiah was that "his purposes were broken off." We think this to be the severest test under which God puts his people. We are searched through and through by the questions, "Can you die?" "Can you die now?" Physicians" work is often, nowadays, most difficult and trying. They must break , as it is called, to their patients the news of the hopeless character of their disease. What makes this strain?
I NATURAL DREAD OF DEATH. For all creatures on his earth God has made life to be the supreme treasure which they dread to lose. The incentive to all enterprise is our love of life, and passionate clinging to life. The fear of death is the common instinct of humanity. The Christian cannot fix his thoughts quietly on dying; he shrinks as much as any one from putting his foot down into the cold stream. Divine grace alone can overcome this natural fear, which is implanted for the sake of the due preservation of the race.
II DISAPPOINTMENT OF OUR HOPES. It is so hard for death to come just as we have "Canaan"s goodly land in view." It may be that we have tolled, denied ourselves, persevered, overcome difficulties, and see life"s ambition just within reach, when the message comes that we must die. We have pulled down our barns and built greater; we are just ready for the harvest; and "this night we must die.
III UNCERTAINITY OF THE FUTURE. For the disclosures and revelations concerning it are made in such large poetical figures, rather than in such plain statements, that even in the best men faith and fear mingle; and often they hardly know whether faith or fear prevails. From the future, the other world, no traveller has ever returned with a report. It is to us all a terra incognita, a step into the dark.
IV WANT OF FULL SUBMISSION TO GOD. We may think we have this, but news of speedy death searches us, and shows our submission to have been only good, but weak, sentiment. Many a man finds that the true submission has to be won when he stands face to face with death. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22 In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death
Isa_38:1-8
In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death
Read full note →
Hezekiahs sickness: the historical framework
It cannot surprise us now to be carried back to the time when Jerusalem was still under the despotic sceptre of Assyria, since the purpose of the concluding piece Isa_37:36-38) was merely in anticipation to complete the picture ofthe last Assyrian troubles, by relating their termination as foretold by Isaiah Isa_31:8).
(F. Delitzsch, D. D.)
The parallel passage
(2Ki_20:1-11) varies more from that before us than in the preceding chapter. So far as they are parallel, the narrative in Kings is more minute and circumstantial, and at the same time more exactly chronological in its arrangement. On the other hand, the Psalm is wholly wanting in that passage. All these circumstances favour the conclusion that the text before us is the first draft, and the other a repetition by the hand of the same writer. (J. A. Alexander.)
Hezekiahs sickness and recovery
This sickness and recovery of Hezekiah from the gates of death, was an event of such national importance as made it properly find a place here, as well as in the historical books. For the throne of David, as far as we know, was without an heir at this moment; and Hezekiahs death might have been followed by some such interregnum, anarchy, and seizure of the crown by a soldier, as hastened the downfall of the kingdom of Ephraim. Such a failure in the succession, in times of national depression and disorganisation, would be pregnant with evil even in England now; and we must remember that in Judea then, as in all Eastern and patriarchal governments still, the personal character of the hereditary sovereign was of an importance to the people which it has to a great degree, though not utterly, lost in every country of Europe except Russia, Let us contrast the character and acts of Hezekiah with those of his immediate predecessor and successor, and we shall see of what moment it was that the interval by which his reign separated theirs should be prolonged fifteen years; and especially when the country needed a hand disciplined by experience and guided by faith to recover it from the moral and material disorganisation into which (as we know from Isaiahs discourses) it had fallen during the Assyrian supremacy. And thus this crisis in the personal life of Hezekiah--the fact cannot be denied, though here, as in so many like cases, our philosophy cannot trace out the connection of cause and effect became the type and symbol of the like crisis in the life of the nation: it, too, was sick unto death, and was granted a new period of life by God after it was past the help of man. (Sir E. Strachey, Bart.)
Hezekiahs disease
When the prophet first came to him he addressed him in words clearly indicating the gravity of the disease. Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order, &c. We cannot, therefore, think that it was an ordinary simple boil with which the king was affected. Nor have we any ground for supposing, as some have suggested, that the disease was bubo-plague, which does not occur as an isolated case, and we have no evidence to lead us to think that any epidemic of such a disease prevailed. But it might have been, and probably was, a carbuncle, which is often a most severe and painful thing, endangering and often terminating the life of the sufferer. For this a poultice of figs would be an appropriate local remedy, as in the present day are cataplasms of various kinds. But doubtless the recovery of the king was through Divine interposition, by which the danger to life was averted, and of which Isaiahs prescription was but a symbol. The answer to his prayer, accompanied by the promise that on the third day he should go up to the house of the Lord, is sufficient evidence that the cure of a disease by which he had been brought to deaths door, was not brought about by natural means. (Sir Risdon Bennett, M. D. , LL. D.)
What was Hezekiahs disease?
My friend, Dr. Lauder Brunton, tells me that he has been led to view the disease as tonsillitis, from the similarity of the symptoms described by Isaiah with those of some cases of quinsy (tonsillitis). In many cases, says Dr. Brunton, that I have seen, the pains in the bones have been so severe as to attract the attention of the patient, to the exclusion of all mention of sore throat. If Hezekiah suffered from tonsillitis, his comparison of a lion breaking his bones is a very apt one, and the swelling, of the tonsils would also explain the alteration in his speech, which made him chatter like a crane or a swallow. The dried figs would be almost the only poultice that could be applied to the boil in his fauces, and the rapid maturation of the inflamed boil in the throat affected by the poultice would explain the rapid recovery. (Sir Risdon Bennett, M. D. , LL. D.)
Every disease is a little death
I have heard it said that every disease is a little death; therefore God sends us many little deaths to instruct our preparation for the great death. The oftener a man dies, the better he may know how to die well. (T. Adams.)
A sick mans glass
I. THE MESSAGE sent to Hezekiah while he was sick.
1. The time.
2. The person to whom it was sent.
3. The person by whom it was sent.
4. The message itself. Set thine house in order.
5. The reason why the king is advised so to do. Thou shalt die, and not live.
II. THE BEHAVIOUR OF HEZEKIAH when he had heard the message.
1. He turned his face to the wall.
2. He prayed.
3. He wept sore. (R. Hachet, D. D.)
Hezekiahs sickness
1. These words present to our view a person
(1) of the highest rank
(2) in the prime of life
(3) and the full tide of prosperity, seized with a mortal disease: a case which ought strongly to remind the securest of us all, how uncertain our condition is here on earth.
2. By the goodness of God, a prophet was sent to him, to admonish him of the preparation that his state required: and the same goodness hath provided that you shall all be frequently admonished of the same thing, by the ministers of His Word.
3. The admonition given him was the means of prolonging his days in peace and comfort: and those given you, if received in a right manner, may, both naturally and providentially, contribute to procure you longer and happier lives in this world; and will certainly lead you to a life of eternal happiness in the next. (T. Seeker, LL. D.)
The duties of the sick
The text mentions the obligations of sick persons--
I. RESPECTING THEIR FELLOW-CREATURES. Set thine house in order. This direction may well be enlarged to comprehend--
1. Due regulation of all affairs in which the sick are interested.
(1) The principal point at which men should aim in settling their temporal affairs is justice; and one of the most evident branches of justice is paying debts.
(2) Besides those who are commonly called creditors, there is another sort--I mean those to whom we have done injuries, and owe restitution.
(3) But as we have all, more or less, need to ask pardon, another of our duties evidently is to grant it in our turn: when others have used us ill, not to recompense or wish them evil for evil. The expedient to which, it is said, some have had recourse, of forgiving if they die, and being revenged if they live, is as foolish a contrivance to deceive themselves, and to mock God, as the human heart can frame.
(4) The next thing, after providing for the payment of our debts, and which, like that, should be done in health, but much rather in sickness than not at all, is disposing of the remainder of our substance. The principal rule is, that we ought not to be governed in it by fanciful fondnesses, much less by blamable resentments.
2. Proper advice to all persons with whom the sick are connected.
II. RESPECTING MORE IMMEDIATELY GOD AND THEIR OWN SOULS. Then Hezekiah prayed unto the Lord. His prayer, indeed, if the whole of it be recorded in Scripture, was only that he might recover; a request which for the public good he had urgent reasons to make in the first place. And that being instantly granted, he had no need to apply further to God, in relation to his sickness, otherwise than by thanksgiving, which he did. But they who have more extensive wants at that time are both authorised and bound to enlarge in proportion the subject of their addresses to the throne of grace; and therefore I shall endeavour to comprehend under this head all the religious duties of the sick.
1. The first principle of all regard to God is faith. There are indeed very good persons who, m illnesses, are tempted to partial, or even total unbelief. And if any seeming reasons for it be suggested to their minds, they ought to inquire after, and oppose to them reasonable answers.
2. Self-examination.
3. Such repentance as our case requires.
4. The sick ought to be very constant in every other exercise of private piety. For as they are cut off from active life, they have more leisure for religious contemplation. And as they want all the improvement and comfort which they can have, so they will receive the most of both by frequent lifting up of their hearts to the God of patience and consolation. (T. Seeker, LL. D.)
Hezekiahs sickness and recovery
I. THIS SICKNESS WAS VERY GRIEVOUS, upon several accounts.
1. For the nature of the disease, which is supposed to have been pestilential.
2. The pain of his distemper was aggravated with the sentence which the prophet passed upon him in the name of God. The hope of recovery, which contributes very much to the cure of any distemper, was taken away from him.
3. Hezekiahs sickness and sentence of death were embittered with this consideration, that he was going to be cut off in the strength of his age. This shortening of life was always esteemed as one of the calamities of our mortal condition; especially in so high and happy a station as that of a king. David prayed against it, saying, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my age.
4. That which made Hezekiah more lath to leave the world at this time was, that he had no child to succeed him in his throne.
II. HIS REQUEST he enforces with the following arguments.
1. He begs God to remember how he had walked before Him in truth and with a perfect heart.
2. Whereas other kings had been too apt to consult their ease and carnal interests in the practice of religion, Hezekiah had a true and thorough zeal for the glory of God in all that he did.
III. He urged it with importunate cries and tears, WHICH PREVAILED WITH GOD TO HEAR HIM AND GRANT HIS REQUEST. (W. Reading, M. A.)
Supreme attention to spiritual concerns
(with Luk_10:42):--Let us reflect--
I. ON THE ONE THING NEEDFUL, i.e., living religion.
II. ON THE CONSEQUENT DUTY OF SETTING OUR HOUSE IN ORDER, knowing that we shall die, and not live. (W. Graham.)
Hezekiahs sincerity
This verse (Isa_38:3) is not an angry expostulation, nor an ostentatious self-praise, but an appeal to the only satisfactory evidence of his sincerity. (J. A. Alexander.)
Set thine house in order.
Human mortality
I. We have here set before us THE FACT OF OUR MORTALITY. Thou shalt die, and not live. How apt we are to think of other peoples death, but not of our own. We are ready to say, O! it was no wonder that little, weak infant died--it was no wonder that worn-out, aged man or woman died--it was no wonder that sickly person died. And when we hear of suddendeaths, by some strange disease or accident, we have a secret feeling that the same thing is not likely to happen to ourselves. There was something peculiar in their condition or circumstances, which made them more open than ourselves to that awful visitation. Yet why all this foolish hiding of the truth? Until we are able boldly and peacefully to face this truth, there is no real comfort for us in this world. When our Almighty Father in heaven sends to us such a message as this, Thou shalt die, and not live, it is not to vex and to distress us, but only to awaken in us those thoughts which are needful for us in our present state of being.
II. HOW WE ARE TO SET OUR HOUSE IN ORDER, so as to be able to meet with calmness both the actual coming of death and the thought of its coming. With the best of men, the near approach of that last dread hour is a time of deep solemnity.
1. The first point in this work is to see that our hope for eternity is placed upon a right foundation; and none other can be found but that which God Himself has laid for us to build on--namely, His own free mercies in His dear Son, Jesus Christ.
2. If we would set our house truly in order, we must remember that there is a work to be wrought in us, as well as for us. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord! (J. W. Colenso, D. D.)
Preparation for the end of time
I. THE INJUNCTION URGED. Set thine house in order. We refer--
1. To temporal affairs. This is evident from the more literal translation: Give charge concerning thine house.
2. To spiritual matters.
II. THE REASON. For thou shalt die, and not live.
1. Death is certain for all.
2. The time is uncertain; therefore, it is every ones duty to be prepared.
3. The time may be very near.
4. The best of men need special preparation.
Hezekiah was not a bad man, but he had a special message. So God often scuds a time of sickness as a special warning. How much better and happier will every man be if he has set his house in order! (Homilist.)
New Years thoughts
The first Sunday in the new year is surely, with every minister of Christ who watcheth with the eye and love of a true shepherd over his flock, a time for--
1. General rebuke.
2. Remonstrance.
3. Godly encouragement.
I. THE AUTHORITY OF THE COMMISSION. It came directly from God at the mouth of His prophet; and whatever comes from God must be characterised by Gods attributes, must bear the impress of His wisdom, must be pregnant with the purposes of His love.
II. THE SUDDENNESS OF THE COMMISSION. How it must have startled the king on his bed!
III. THE SUBSTANCE OF THE COMMISSION. Set thine house in order--this is the direction; for thou shalt die, and not live--this is the doom. Thou art the man upon whom the mark is set, this carries the reflections home. When shall I die? How shall I die? Shall I die a hard or a peaceful death? Shall I die as an impenitent and despairing sinner, or as a pardoned, a redeemed, a rejoicing saint? (T. J. Judkin.)
Preparation for death
Our being ready for death will make it come never the sooner, but much the easier; and those that are fit to die are most fit to live. (M. Henry.)
Contemplating the time of death
Perhaps the most awful moment of our lives is when we first feel in danger of death. All our past life then seems to be a cloud of words and shadows, altogether external to the realities of the soul. Not only childhood and youth, happiness and sorrow, eager hopes and disturbing fears, but even our communion with God, our faith in things unseen, our self-knowledge, and our repentance, seem alike to be but visions of the memory. All has become stern, hard, and appalling. It is as if it were the beginning of a new existence; as if we had passed under a colder sky, and into a world where every object has a sharpness of outline almost too severe for sight to bear. Let us see what we ought to do when God warns us.
I. WE MUST ASK OURSELVES THIS QUESTION, Is there any one sin, great or small, of the flesh or of the spirit, that we willingly and knowingly commit? This is, in fact, the crisis of our whole spiritual life. By consent in one sin, a man is guilty of the whole principle of rebellion. A holy man is not a man who never sins, but who never sins willingly. A sinner is not a man who never does anything good, but who willingly does what he knows to be evil. The whole difference lies within the sphere and compass of the will.
II. WE MUST NEXT SEARCH AND SEE WHETHER THERE IS AN ANYTHING IN WHICH OUR HEART IN ITS SECRET AFFECTIONS IS AT VARIANCE WITH THE MIND OF GOD; for if so, then so far our whole being is at variance with His.
III. A third test by which to test ourselves is THE POSITIVE CAPACITY OF OUR SPIRITUAL BEING FOR THE BLISS OF HEAVEN. When St. Paul bids us to follow after holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord, he surely meant something more than a negative quality. Doubtless he meant by holiness to express the active aspirations of a spiritual nature, thirsting for the presence of God.
IV. There are TWO SHORT COUNSELS which it may be well to add.
1. That we strive always to live so as to be akin to the state of just men made perfect.
2. That we often rehearse in life the last preparation we should make in death. (H. E. Manning, D. D.)
Hezekiah warned
1. He was warned.
2. He was religiously warned. Isaiah was charged with the intelligence.
3. He was considerately warned. He was not to die on the morrow, he was to have time to set his house in order. Sometimes we feel as if we would rather not have that time, and yet there is a merciful dispensation in the arrangement which gives a man an opportunity of calmly approaching the end. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Set thine house in order
What does this injunction signify?
I. THAT WE ARE TO GIVE ACCOUNT OF OUR STEWARDSHIP.
II. THAT WE ARE TO BE DILIGENT IN OUR DAILY WORK
III. WE MUST LEARN TO LEAVE OUR POSSESSIONS, AND HOLD OURSELVES READY TO DEPOT. (C. Schwartz.)
The habitual thought of death not painful
The time will of necessity come when to every man that lives these words will be spoken: God Himself will speak them in the manifest dealings of his providence, making this known to us in some way which our own hearts will instinctively interpret. Why should we be afraid to think of death!
1. Do you reply that there is in man a natural love of life? No doubt there is. But what, then, is that true life which lies beyond, and to which the act of departure, which we call death, is but the entrance?
2. Or, do you say that we are naturally repelled from mortality, and that we shrink from thinking of the lifeless and decaying flesh? I admit it, and there is a necessary and wholesome lesson in the bitterness of it, for how should we know what sin was without some little conception of what death was? But I plead that this is but for a time, till the body shall rise again in glory. The horror is to those who live and watch the dead.
3. Or, do you say that you fear death because it will stop for ever all the schemes and activities of life? Do you think that the state into which we shall enter will be a passive calm? Every hint and word in Scripture appears to me to point to something very different.
4. Or, do you say that you shrink from the idea of never seeing again the blue skies and the sweet flowers, and losing all the sights and sounds that make this world beautiful? Again, I think that you are wrong. Certainly all the imagery of the Bible suggests a different conclusion.
5. Or, do you say that you dread death because you cannot bear to think of parting from those you love, and losing that sweet intercourse, and that happy interchange of mutual affection, which spring from love? Well, all separation is painful; but in itself, and of necessity, this separation need only be for a time--a brief parting, with an eternal reunion beyond it, when, free from the little hindrances that mar a perfect love on earth, we shall renew a pure affection, consecrated for ever by the seen presence of God.
6. Do you say that you dread to think of death because you are not certain of your state before God? Ah! here we reach the deepest secret of all, the true source of the uneasiness with which men think of their mortality. The sting of death is sin, &c. The Eternal Father is ready to forgive; the Eternal Son sufficient to atone; the Eternal Spirit almighty to convert and sanctify; all ready; nay, all pleading, inviting, expostulating, entreating.
7. Do you say that you dread to think of death because the thought saddens and darkens life? Surely this is no longer true, if, accepted in Christ Jesus, we have peace with God. (E. Garbett, M. A.)
Preparing for the end
I. Preparation for death is an immediate duty, because YOU CANNOT TELL WHAT A DAY MAY BRING FORTH.
II. IT OUGHT TO BE A CALM, DELIBERATE, AND INTELLIGENT PREPARATION. Not with panic, or haste, or gloom.
III. THERE IS A GOD TO MEET, whose eyes will inspect the house.
IV. THERE ARE IMPORTANT MATTERS TO BE ADJUSTED ARISING FROM OUR HUMAN RELATIONS. (Homiletic Review.)
Thou shalt die
Death
I. DEATH.
1. In its causes. The primary cause of death was sin. But the immediate and acting cause of mortality is the frailty of our bodies.
2. In its nature. What is it to die! It is not to terminate our existence. We are well assured that nothing in being can cease to be, either of itself or by the influence of other finite beings, but only by an exercise of the almighty power of the Creator. To die is to undergo a solution of our present mode of existence, in which the immaterial soul is severed from the material body, and exists thenceforth for a time alone; whilst the body, bereft of life, loses the qualities necessary to preserve its substance, and becomes disorganised, and resolved into its primitive elements. How near is this world to the next! Gods wisdom and goodness have appointed a bed of sickness to be the general precursor of death. By this He repeats solemnly, and enforces, His thousand other warnings to us, and, in our seclusion from the engagements and pleasures of time, gives us a further opportunity of becoming familiar with the things of eternity, and making our peace with Him. But His wisdom discovers in what ways our deceitful hearts will teach us to abuse His mercy, and He provides against the evil. Had we always the warning and opportunity of sickness, we might neglect God till it was given to us; and God has, perhaps, therefore, appointed that death should sometimes come unwarned.
3. In its consequences. I will not view them as they affect the body: let us leave it, lifeless and cold, in the narrow coffin and the quiet grave, awaiting the trumpet of the archangel. The effects of death on the soul include, doubtless, the enlargement of its capacities, as well as its entrance on eternal joy or misery.
II. ITS PERSONALITY. Thou. The young. Those in the prime of life. Those of mature years, &c.
III. ITS CERTAINTY. Thou shalt die.
1. What has become of all our race--Adam, Noah, &c.?
2. Where are the multitudes that have peopled your town in past days? All who have lived before us have died, and all now living are dying. (J. Badcock, LL. B.)
Death sometimes sudden and unexpected
I have known the bride to expire on her bridal day, the shopkeeper when serving his customers, the player on the stage, the clergyman in his pulpit, the lowly Christian on his knees in prayer, the swearer uttering his curse, the thief with his plunder at his side. (J. Badcock, LL. B.)
The human body, beautiful yet frail
The beautiful frame of man it is impossible to consider unaffected by its frailty. A distinguished philosopher, on rising from the study of the human frame, was so impressed with this and With the complicated nature of its machinery, and the numberless parts that must all duly discharge their functions to continue existence, from moment to moment, that he trembled and feared to move, lest, by disordering some one of them, he should fall on the floor a corpse. (J. Badcock, LL. B.)
The biography of death
The biography of death was the title of a sermon preached by a famous London minister. For death has had a parentage, birth, history, a career of conquest and victory, a coronation and kingdom, a ghastly dining-hall and retinue of hired servants, and, finally, a record of disaster, defeat, and death! The last enemy to be destroyed is Death. (Homiletic Review.)
Hezekiah warned
Is there any peculiar significance in the announcement? There ought not to be. All life is a warning that we are going to die. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Facing death
When the physician told General Grant that his disease was fatal, and might quickly do its dire work, for a little while he seemed to lose, not courage, but hope. It was like a man gazing into his open grave. He was in no way dismayed, but the sight was still appalling. The conqueror looking at his inevitable conqueror: the stern soldier to whom armies had surrendered, watching the approach of that enemy to whom even he must yield. (H. O. Mackey.)
Looking over the brink
A godly minister who was fond of visiting his sick and dying people on Saturday afternoons, was asked by a brother minister, who met him on this errand one day, why he did this, instead of staying at home and preparing his sermons. He replied, I like to take a look over the brink. Sometimes it is a blessing to a man to be brought suddenly to the brink in his own life, to look over it seriously and prayerfully, and then to take back into life the lessons he has learned there. (Sunday School Chronicle.)
Death, the ringing of the curfew bell
William the Conqueror established the ringing of curfew bells. The meaning of that curfew bell, sounded at eventime, was, that all the fires should be put out or covered with ashes, all the lights should be extinguished, and the people should go to bed. Soon for us the curfew will sound. The fires of our life will be banked up in ashes, and we shall go into the sleep, the cool sleep, I hope the blessed sleep. But there is no gloom in that if we are ready. The safest thing that a Christian can do is to die. (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)
A true life the best preparation for death
An old slave, when told by his doctor that he was near death, said: Bless you, doctor, dont let that bother you; thats what Ive been living for. (Sunday School Chronicle.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 10, 14, 15 Isa_38:1. Set thine house in order; for thou shalt…
PREPARATION FOR DEATH
Isa_38:1. Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.
Read full note →
This announcement was made to Hezekiah when suffering under dangerous illness. In answer to his prayer the sentence was mitigated. Fifteen years were added to his life. It is not wrong to pray for the prolongation of life when important interests are concerned, and when we pray with due submission to Him whose prerogative it is to fix its duration.
The text furnishes a theme for useful meditation. It contains—
I. A SOLEMN ANNOUNCEMENT.
“Thou shalt die.” It may be viewed either as the declaration of a familiar truth or as the prediction of an immediate event.
1. As the declaration of a familiar truth. Nothing is more familiar. The universal reign of death over all the generations that have preceded us necessitates the conclusion that, unless we are alive when the Lord comes, we shall follow them. We are reminded of the truth by obituary notices in newspapers, by the spectacle of funerals passing quietly along the streets, by the silent departure of friends. “The sentence of death has passed upon all men.” However long life may be protracted in individual instances, it never suggests the question whether they will be exceptions to the general rule. It only suggests the wonder that in any instance life is so far protracted. The only uncertain thing is how much longer or shorter than the average our own life will be. Death may come to us when in fullest health by the unexpected accident, or by the illness which has been caught we know not how, or by the subtle disease which silently undermines the system, eating away the cord that has bound us to life (H. E. I. 1536–1546; P. D. 751, 752).
Nor is this event a mere departure from the present life. To our friends it is chiefly that. It is their deprivation of all that makes us interesting and valuable to them. To ourselves it is very much more. It is the precursor of our appearance before the judgment-seat of the Lord Jesus Christ (2Co_5:10; Rom_14:12; Mat_25:34; Mat_25:41; Rev_20:12). It is to us a much more serious matter than passing into nothingness.
Is it, therefore, a subject to be studiously avoided? Is it not one that should be often before us? Look it in the face; dwell on it. Such thought will not produce indifference to the present It will invest it with a deeper seriousness. Its interests and duties will be contemplated in their connection with the great future. The smallest thing has such a connection. The attitude we assume towards God, Christ, the Divine commands, His kingdom. Our conduct in business, the family, among men. The influence of our words, acts, spirit, character. All these come into this great account. Death closes the account. Does not this attach dignity, solemnity, earnestness to the whole of life? (H. E. I. 1557–1566).
2. As the prediction of an immediate event. Supposing, instead of the familiar truth, it were announced to us on good authority that immediately, or within a given time, we should die, what would be the effect? There are aged Christians, whose life-work is done, to whom it would be welcome news. There are young Christians who have recently found peace in Christ but have not yet realised the privilege of working for Him, to whom it would be welcome. There are others to whom it would be terrible, because they have not found Christ nor surrendered to God. It would be to them like the knell of doom (P. D. 684). And yet it may be the duty of some one to make that announcement [1261]
[1261] It is a distressing duty. It requires the skilful and delicate hand. But it must be performed. There is the tender and delicate girl who took a cold some time ago. She was better and worse. It was nothing. Somehow she became weaker. At length she had only strength to lie in bed She is sure that with more genial weather she will recover. All has been done. One day the physician, with grace and sympathetic manner, tells her mother the case is hopeless. Break it to her. How can she? There is a fear that the revelation may accelerate the catastrophe. It may not. The sick are not usually so much alarmed at the thought of death as is supposed. At any rate, it seems only fair to them that they should know the seriousness of their position. If they are already saved, it will probably lead them to plant their feet more firmly on the Rock of Ages. If they are not yet saved, it may not be too late.—Rawlinson.
II. A SUITABLE DIRECTION.
“Set thine house in order.” This direction is twofold.
1. With regard to your worldly affairs. The king was directed to give command concerning his house. His wishes respecting the succession to the throne. Every business-man should keep his affairs in such order that if he were suddenly called away there would be no difficulty. Every one possessed of property should, in view of the uncertainty of life, make his will. Many leave this duty to the last. If it has been so left and sickness comes, it should be one of the first things done. It will not hasten death. It will save expense. It will secure the rights of all. It will prevent disputes. It will relieve the mind. It will leave it free to attend to the soul.
2. With regard to your eternal interests. Think of the soul’s future. Are you prepared for the great journey? Are you ready with your accounts? Recall your obligations to the Almighty. Consider how they have been discharged. Overcome your reluctance to a thorough conviction of sin. Let there be humility, contrition, repentance. Seek mercy. There is a Saviour. Believe in Him. Yield your heart. If already a Christian, survey the position. If near death, all this is obviously necessary. If not near death, or death not apparently near, it is necessary on the ground of your liability to death. It will come some time. The only safety is to close with Jesus now.—J. Rawlinson.
DUTIES OF THE SICK AND DYING
Isa_38:1. Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die.
This message sent from God to Hezekiah in his sickness contains a warning applicable to us all. It becomes us all to maintain such order in our worldly and spiritual affairs as that death, whenever He knocks at our door, may find us prepared to obey his summons (H. E. I. 1562–1566). But this is especially the duty of those who are visited, even now, by the forerunners and harbingers of death (H. E. I. 1561).
Most men, when laid aside by sickness, are disposed to turn in their pain and apparent peril to God who hath smitten, and who alone can heal; and to prepare for the great change in which the sickness may terminate. But few when thus called upon know how to set about the work, which they are then ready to allow to be most necessary and urgent. Even those who have lived outwardly blameless lives, are apt to be so distressed and confused by fear of death, that they do not know how to do what will turn the king of terrors into a messenger of peace, rest, and immortality (H. E. I. 1567, 1568, 1570; P. D. 684, 741, 761). Therefore, let those who are now in health receive some hints for their behaviour under sickness.
I. DUTIES TO BE PERFORMED BY THE SICK AND DYING.
1. The first act of the mind on receiving any warning of our mortal and most frail condition should be an act of recollection, a solemn meditation on the power, wisdom, and goodness of the Most High, in whose hands alone we are, who can kill and make alive [1264] Let us think especially of the love which He has shown us in the gift of His Son and the help of His Holy Spirit.
[1264] This will lead us to submit with more temper and mildness to whatever means are prescribed for our recovery, and also to wait their event with less querulous eagerness than if we corroded our thoughts by the pangs we endure or by the earthly succours whereby we hope to escape or lessen them. There is something soothing as well as sublime in the contemplation of greatness and power. We feel it when we gaze on the great works of Nature. He whose heart expatiates in the prospect of the ocean or of the starry heaven is for a time insensible to his own resentments or misfortunes, and is identified, as it were, with the glorious and tranquil scene before him. One of the principal joys of heaven, we are told, is the delight of gazing upon God; and even in this state of mortal darkness and misery, if we can for a time so forsake the thoughts of earthly things as to call up to our mind whatever images of greatness, and power, and perfection the Scriptures have revealed to us concerning Him, our heart will be filled as by necessity with love and admiration for an object so glorious, and our resignation to His decree will become a matter, not only of necessity, but in some respects of choice.… Most unreasonable is their conduct who, in the beginning of sickness, drive away all serious thoughts from the soul, through a fear of injuring the body. Even if this were necessarily the case, the risk is so far less in dying soon than in dying unprepared, that the former danger should be cheerfully encountered rather than incur the possibility of the latter. But the cases of sickness are very few in which, at the beginning of a disorder, such religious considerations can do our bodily health any harm. On the contrary, that awe and tranquillity of soul which are induced by them may in many cases be of real advantage.—Heber.
2. When our minds are thus sobered and composed, we must consider what means are yet within our reach to interest God’s power and mercy in our favour. This may be best accomplished by repentance. To this an examination of our past life is absolutely necessary.
In this examination let us attend to the following cautions:—
(1.) Let it be honest, however much this may humble us.
(2.) Let us not attempt to plead our own good deeds in extenuation of our sins.
(3.) Let us not be too particular or dwell too long in our recapitulation of such sins as are gone by and are irremediable; for these regrets, however natural, are useless, and beyond a certain degree injurious. With such recollections a guilty pleasure may be revived in our souls; our fancy may return with more regret than horror to the scenes of our former enjoyment.
(4.) Let us be more anxious to recollect those sins, if there be any, for which it is in our power to make reparation. In this let us be most searching and honest. Thorough restitution is essential to prove that our repentance is genuine, and so also is sincere forgiveness of our enemies.
3. Thus truly penitent, let us by faith grasp firmly God’s promises of forgiveness through our Lord Jesus Christ (1Jn_1:9).
4. If we have been so unwise as to have left our worldly affairs unsettled, let us not be influenced by any foolish fear of alarming our family, or of appearing alarmed ourselves, from immediately making such a disposition of our property as we shall not fear to give account of in the hour of judgment.
5. Let us make up our mind to renounce the world entirely, and all restless hope of recovery; resigning all our prospects entirely into the hand of God, who is best acquainted with our wants and with the wants of those whom we are about to leave behind; and who is infinitely able to protect and provide for us and them (H. E. I. 157, 158, 4055).
6. That our meditations may become holy and comfortable, our repentance sincere and effectual, our restitution humble and public, our charity pure and edifying, our justice without taint, our resignation without reserve, let us give ourselves diligently to prayer (H. E. I. 177, 178, 3739–3746).
7. In order that we may be assisted in these spiritual duties, let us send promptly for the minister of the Church to which we belong.
II. SINS AGAINST WHICH WE MUST BE ON OUR GUARD.
The sins to which the sick and dying are most exposed are evil and trifling thoughts, unthankfulness, impatience, peevishness, and hypocrisy. To the first two of these men are liable on any remission of pain, or appearance of approaching amendment. There is no other cure for these than an immediate return to prayer and meditation. These remedies will also keep us from murmuring and ill-temper. Hypocrisy may seem a strange vice to impute to a sick or dying person, but it is not uncommon. It is shown in seeking compassion and kindness by counterfeiting the appearance of greater suffering than really belongs to our cases, or in the affectation of more faith, or resignation, or humility, or peace of conscience than either our own hearts or God will sanction. The desire of worldly praise will sometimes linger so late, and cling so closely about the affections of man, that some persons continue to act a part until their voice and senses fail them.
Let the difficulty of the duties which a sick man has to perform, and the number and greatness of the temptations to which he is liable, be an argument with us to leave as little as possible to be done in that state of weakness and alarm (H. E. I. 4251–4258).—Reginald Heber: Sermons, vol. i. pp. 92–111.
HEZEKIAH’S PRAYER
Isa_38:1-19
In this narrative there are three points of difficulty and many points of instruction.
I. THREE POINTS OF DIFFICULTY.
1. Why was Hezekiah afraid to die? Answer:
(1.) Even to a Christian man, death is an event of unutterable solemnity, for which he feels it necessary to make the most serious preparation, and which he would not like to have occur to him suddenly.
(2.) Hezekiah had not that clear view of the future which has been granted to us (Isa_38:18; 2Ti_1:10).
(3.) His kingdom was threatened by a powerful enemy, and the important reforms which he had been prosecuting were incomplete; and even good men are apt to forget that God can raise up others to do His work more efficiently than they have done it.
(4.) At that time he had no child, and that he should die childless appeared inconsistent with God’s promise to David (1Ki_2:4). Probably it was a recollection of this promise that prompted his reference to his integrity (Isa_38:3). In those words there is no boastfulness; they are an appeal to the Divine faithfulness. On all these accounts a prolongation of his life seemed to Hezekiah desirable, and he sought it from God in prayer.
2. When we compare Isa_38:1; Isa_38:5, do we not find an astonishing reversal of a Divine decree altogether inconsistent with the doctrine of God’s unchangeableness? No. “The same decree that says, ‘Nineveh shall be destroyed,’ means, ‘If Nineveh repent, it shall not be destroyed.’ He that finds good reason to say, ‘Hezekiah shall die,’ yet still means, ‘If the quickened devotion of Hezekiah importune Me for life, it shall be protracted.’ And the same God that had decreed this addition of fifteen years had decreed to stir up the spirit of Hezekiah to that vehement and weeping importunity which should obtain it” (Bishop Hall).
3. What was the nature of the sign given to confirm Hezekiah’s faith? For a discussion of this point, see note [1258]
[1258] “And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord: and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz.”—2Ki_20:11.
How was this wonderful result secured? Did God arrest the earth as it revolved on its axis, and wheel it round in the opposite direction? No one who considers what would be the natural result of such a proceeding, and what a stupendous series of miracles would have been needed to have prevented the destruction of all life upon the earth, will think so for a moment, especially when a course much simpler, and equally efficacious, is suggested by the very words of the different narratives. Isaiah indeed says, “So the SUN returned ten degrees” (Isa_38:8). But his record of what seemed to occur must be interpreted by what God had promised to do: “Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sundial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward.” And in the narrative in the Book of Kings it is the shadow and not the sun that is spoken of throughout. To reverse the shadow in the dial it needed nothing more than a miraculous refraction of the light; and we believe that this is what occurred, not because it was an easier thing for God to do, but because it is in harmony with all that He does to believe that when two courses were open to Him, one exceedingly simple and one exceedingly complex, He would choose the simple course. God never wastes power. The extraordinary results produced by the refraction of light are familiar to all who have given any attention to natural philosophy. The atmosphere refracts the sun’s rays so as to bring him in sight, on every clear day, before he rises on the horizon, and to keep him in view for some minutes after he is really below it. Contradictory as it may sound, on almost any summer evening you may see the sun at least five minutes after he is set. It is entirely owing to refraction that we have any morning or evening twilight. That the rays of the sun can be so refracted as to cause him to be seen where he actually is not is thus a matter of daily experience. And there are some extraordinary cases on record. Kepler, the great astronomer, mentions that some “Hollanders, who wintered in Nova Zembla in the year 1596, were surprised to find that, after a continual night of three months, the sun began to rise about seventeen days sooner than he should have done.” This can only be accounted for by a miracle, or by an extraordinary refraction of the sun’s rays passing through the cold dense air in that climate. In 1703 again, the prior of the monastery at Metz, in Lothringen, and many others, observed that the shadow of a sundial went back an hour and a half. It is thus abundantly plain that the result related could have been secured by a refraction of the light, a common occurrence in Nature, The miracle consisted in its happening at that particular moment; just as in the case of the fish that Peter caught which contained money. Many fish containing money have been caught; but here was the miracle—that this fish was caught at the very time which Christ had indicated. In like manner the miraculous element in the regression of the shadow on the sun-dial of Ahaz was its occurring just at the very time at which it was needed to verify the prophet’s word and strengthen the monarch’s faith.
II. MANY POINTS OF INSTRUCTION.
1. Sickness and death are the common lot of mankind. Kings are liable to them as well as beggars (H. E. I. 1536, 1537).
2. In the extremity of suffering, when all human help is vain, the righteous can turn to God. Pitiable would have been Hezekiah’s case, monarch though he was, if he could only have “turned his face to the wall.”
3. In every extremity, the most powerful of all remedies is prayer (H. E. I. 3720–3724).
4. How promptly God sometimes answers prayer (2Ki_20:4).
5. God answers prayer instrumentally. In this case He did it by suggesting a simple remedy (Isa_38:21), which perhaps the court physicians had thought it beneath their dignity to employ.
6. Those who have been restored from dangerous illness should make public acknowledgment; of God’s goodness.
7. How great are our privileges in possessing the Gospel, through which “life and immortality are brought to light,” and death stripped of its terror! In the market-place of Mayence stands a statue of Gutenberg, the inventor of printing, on the base of which there is this honourable inscription:—“The knowledge which was once the exclusive possession of princes and philosophers he has put within the reach of the common people.” A similar statue might be erected to the honour of our Saviour, who has made those views of the future life which cheered only a few of the noblest saints (such as David in Psa_23:6) the common heritage of the whole Church. No true believer can now be so much afraid of death as Hezekiah was (1Co_15:55-57).
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 I. Many have sought to realise the moment after…
Isa 38:1
I. Many have sought to realise the moment after death, and have strained imagination and faith to their utmost in the effort to pierce the veil beyond, and understand how we shall feel. The effort is not altogether in vain; for the attention of the mind will, at all events, give increased reality to the fact of the great change, and of the transit from one world into another, if it do no more. Before the intensity of that gaze one earthly thing after another will disappear, till the fact of the change stands out in all its single solemnity, and we look at it face to face, without a lingering earthly disturbance to cloud its distinctness as earthborn mists cloud the sun, and to clothe the fact with terrors not its own.
Read full note →
II. Why should we shrink from the thought of death, or why should it be painful to us? If there be pain, it is simply and solely because the thought is not habitual. The terror is in us, not in death. Let the thoughts habitually extend over both states, and it will be gone; the strangeness will all disappear. The mind will be in harmony with the facts; and if in some small degree the brightness of life be subdued, it will be only as the slanting shades of summer evening soften the glare, and make the landscape more beautiful than before.
E. Garbett, Experiences of the Inner Life, p. 267.
Perhaps the most awful moment of our lives is when we first feel in danger of death. All our past life then seems to be a cloud of words and shadows; one less real than another, moving and floating round about us, altogether external to the realities of the soul. Not only childhood and youth, happiness and sorrow, eager hopes and disturbing fears, but even our communion with God, our faith in things unseen, our self-knowledge, and our repentance, seem alike to be but visions of the memory. All has become stern, hard, and appalling. It is as if it were the beginning of a new existence; as if we had passed under a colder sky, and into a world where every object has a sharpness of outline almost too severe for sight to bear. Let us see what we ought to do when God warns us.
I. First, we must ask ourselves this question, Is there any one sin, great or small, of the flesh or of the spirit, that we willingly and knowingly commit? This is, in fact, the crisis of our whole spiritual life. By consent in one sin, a man is guilty of the whole principle of rebellion, of the whole idea of anarchy in God’s kingdom and in His own soul. A holy man is not a man who never sins, but who never sins willingly. A sinner is not a man who never does anything good, but who willingly does what he knows to be evil. The whole difference lies within the sphere and compass of the will.
II. We must next search and see whether there is anything in which our heart in its secret affections is at variance with the mind of God; for if so, then so far our whole being is at variance with His. We may love what God hates, as the pride of life; or hate what God loves, as crosses and humiliations.
Surely we ought to fear so long as we are conscious that our will is surrounded by a circle of desires, over which self and the world so cast their shadows as to darken the tracings of God’s image upon them.
III. A third test by which to test ourselves is the positive capacity of our spiritual being for the bliss of heaven. When St. Paul bids us to follow after "holiness, without which no man shall sec the Lord," he surely meant something more than a negative quality. Doubtless he meant by "holiness" to express the active aspirations of a spiritual nature, thirsting for the presence of God, desiring "to depart and to be with Christ." We must learn to live here on earth by the measures and qualities of heaven, in fellowship with saints and angels, and with the ever-blessed Trinity, before we can think to find our bliss in the kingdom of God.
IV. There are two short counsels which it may be well to add. (1) The first is, that we strive always to live so as to be akin to the state of just men made perfect. (2) The other is, that we often rehearse in life the last preparation we should make in death. Joseph made his sepulchre in his garden, in the midst of his most familiar scenes. And he had his reward, for that tomb became a pledge of his election.
H. E. Manning, Sermons, vol. iii., p. 311.
References: Isa 38:1.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 363. Isa 38:1-5.—E. M. Goulburn, Occasional Sermons, p. 403. Isa 38:9-20.—S. Cox, Expositions, 2nd series, p. 59. Isa 38:12.—R. W. Evans, Parochial Sermons, vol. iii., p. 95; W. V. Robinson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxx., p. 29.
Isa 38:14
These are some of the words which King Hezekiah wrote when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sickness. This is surely a good prayer for a sick man, and it is a good prayer for a healthy man too; for if we understand what sickness is, we shall find it is sent that we may learn what is good for us when we are well. A man is broken down then that he may learn his true condition at all times. He feels the burden of death then that he may know he is carrying it about with him continually. The Church today gives us a prayer which is a little longer and fuller than this sentence of Hezekiah’s, but which has the same sense in it, and will perhaps help you to see more clearly what it means. The prayer is: "Almighty God, who seest that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves; Keep us both outwardly in our bodies, and inwardly in our souls; that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord."
I. The thought concerning God which is set before us in this collect is contained in the words, "Almighty God, who seest." The recollection that God knoweth the very want which we are going to tell Him of is at the bottom of all prayer. It is in God’s light that we see light. It is when we believe He is looking into our hearts that we begin to know something of what is passing there. We begin to know ourselves because God knows us; and then this feeling, that He knew us before we knew ourselves, and that our knowledge comes from His knowledge, helps us to pray.
II. The collect supposes a man who has suffered trials without and temptations within, who has found that he has a poor suffering body of death with him continually; and what is worse than a body of death—a weak heart, an inconstant will, unequal to all the ten thousand dark and evil thoughts which are assailing it. It supposes him, after long striving with himself, to know how he may overcome this evil and weakness, suddenly struck with the thought, "But God knows that I have no power of myself to help myself." He does not intend us to help ourselves; He did not send us into the world that we might learn to help ourselves, but to depend on Him. Is not this experience of our weakness and evil mercifully given us that we may throw away the vain confidence which has caused it, that we may see our own weakness even as God sees it, and that we may learn wholly to give up the keeping of ourselves to Him?
III. Our wants are (1) to be kept outwardly in our bodies; (2) to be kept inwardly in our souls. The life of the body perishes unless God preserves it; but the life of the soul perishes unless it is trusting Him to preserve it, unless it is understanding His care and love and resting in Him.
F. D. Maurice, Christmas Day and Other Sermons, p. 114.
There is such a vast disproportion between a man and some of his own feelings—between the inner and the outer life of a man—that the wonder is, not that we should sometimes feel the burden of existence, but that there should be any man who should not be always saying, "I am oppressed."
I. There are few minds who do not look out for sympathy. It is an instinct of our nature, that we must lean somewhere. Almost all error, all superstition, all worldliness, resolves at last into the feeling that a man must lean; but he is leaning on a wrong base. It is upon this great principle in the man’s breast that the Gospel lays hold and points it to Christ. It sets Him forth as the one great Undertaker for all His people’s wants; it bids all of us come to Him with the feeling, "Undertake for me, Lord."
II. What are Christ’s undertakings for us? (1) He has undertaken to pay all our debts: they are very great. (2) He has undertaken that we shall never be alone: "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." (3) He has undertaken that you shall never be really overcome: "My strength is made perfect in weakness." (4) He has undertaken to place you on the sunny side of everything all life through: for "He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." (5) He has undertaken that you shall always have a place of refuge: "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." (6) He has undertaken that death shall be to you only a name, not a reality: "He that believeth on Me shall never die."
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 4th series, p. 274.
References: Isa 38:14.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xiii., p. 346; A. Watson, Sermons for Sundays, Festivals, and Fasts, 2nd series, vol. i., p. 125.
Isa 38:15
The restoration of belief.
In the especial case of "Hezekiah, belief was restored by a great shock, which brought him into contact with reality. God appeared to him—not as to Adam, in the cool of the day, but as He came to Job, in the whirlwind and the eclipse—and Hezekiah knew that he had been living in a vain show. The answer of his soul was quick and sad: "By these things men live, O Lord." These are the blows which teach men what life really is.
I. The blow which sobered Hezekiah was a common one. It did nothing more than bring him face to face with death. The process whereby his dependence on God was restored was uncomplicated. But there are far worse shocks than this, and recovery from them into a godlike life is long and dreadful. There are things which at first seem to annihilate belief, and change an indifferent or a happy nature into earnest, even savage, bitterness. One of these is the advent of irrecoverable disease, protracted weakness, or protracted pain. God forgives our human anger then, but we speak roughly to Him at first. It is a dark anger, and may grow in intensity till faith and love are lost for this life; but it will not reach that point if we have some greatness of soul, if we are open to the touch of human love. One day the Gospel story in all its sweet simplicity attracts and softens the sufferer’s heart. He reads that Christ’s suffering in self-sacrifice brought redemption unto man. Surely, he seems to dream, this is no isolated fact. I too, in my apparent uselessness, am at one with the Great Labourer: I bear with Christ my cross for men. This is not only the restoration of belief, it is the victory of life.
II. But there are more dreadful things than long disease. There is that shipwreck which comes of dishonoured love. Many things are terrible, but none is worse than this. In some there is no remedy but death, and far beyond, the immanent tenderness of God. But there are many who recover, whom God leads out of the desert into the still garden of an evening life of peace and usefulness and even joy. Lapse of time does part of the work. In the quietude of middle life we look back upon our early misery, and only remember the love we felt. Faith is restored, hope is renewed, when like Christ you can turn and say, Father, forgive him, forgive her, for they knew not what they did.
III. There have been and are many of us who are conscious that, as we have passed into the later period of life and mingled with the world, our early faith has also passed away. We have lost belief because our past religion was borrowed too much from others. If we wish for perfection, and are not content to die and love no more, the restoration of belief may be attained by the personal labour of the soul. It is worth trying what one personal effort to bring ourselves into the relation of a child to a Father, in all the naturalness and simplicity of that relation, will do towards restoring faith and renewing life with tenderness.
S. A. Brooke, Christ in Modern Life, p. 380.
Isa 38:16
Affliction as related to life.
I. Take first the conception of life as a whole, and see how that is modified or altered by experiences like those through which Hezekiah passed. They who have had no such critical experiences in any form have never fully awakened to the difference which there is between mere existence and life. In how many instances has a serious illness, or a terrible business humiliation, or a trying domestic bereavement when the world seemed going from beneath him, and he was left alone, in the blank and solitude of things, to face eternity and God, brought a man to revise his theory of life! He has rectified the per spective of his existence, and has been led to value the now for its bearing on the hereafter; the present for its motherhood of the future.
II. But passing now to the quality of the life, we may see how that also is affected by such experiences of affliction. Such experiences develop (1) the element of strength, whether in its passive exercise as patient endurance, or in its active manifestation as persevering energy. Afflictions are to the soul what the tempering is to the iron, giving it the toughness of steel, and the endurance too, and if that be so we may surely say regarding them, "By these things men live." (2) Unselfishness. When a man has been in the very grip of the last enemy, and has recovered, or has been within a little of losing all he had, and has escaped, you can understand how such an experience sends him out of himself. It intensifies for him the idea of life as a stewardship for God, and he sees the folly of making all the streams of his effort run into himself. Affliction of some sort seems to be requisite for the production in us of thoughtfulness for others. (3) Sympathy is born out of such experiences as those of Hezekiah. He who has passed through trial can feel most tenderly for those who are similarly afflicted. (4) Experiences like Hezekiah’s have much to do with the usefulness of a man’s life. Usefulness is not a thing which one can command at will. It is, in most cases, the result of a discipline, and is possessed by those who in a large degree are unconscious that they are exercising it. It depends fully more on what a man is than on what he does; or if it is due to what he does or says, that again is owing very much to what he is; and what he is now has been determined by the history through which he has been brought.
W. M. Taylor, Contrary Winds, p. 136.
References: Isa 38:17.—Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi, p. 231; Ibid., Sermons, vol. vi., No. 316, vol. xix., No. 1110, vol. xxiii., No. 1337.
Isa 38:18-19
Hezekiah presents to us here, in the strongest contrast, the two states of life and death.
I. Death was to him—for he lived before the day of Christ—a far darker, far drearier state than it is to us. If he had any hope of a life beyond the grave, it does not appear in his words. He probably looked upon death as the close of all,—the gate, not to an immortal life, but the entrance into a land dark and silent, where all things are forgotten. But it is this very view of death, this looking at it as the end-all of man’s short existence, which enhances to Hezekiah the value of life. Because life afforded his single field for serving God, he grudged to have it shortened. Every hour saved from that dark silence was precious to him.
II. Even in this darker view there is a lesson for our learning. Though death be not now the end of all life, it is the end of this life—the end of our day of grace—the end of that period which God gives us to see if we will serve Him or no.
III. Every life is wasted and misspent which is not led to the glory and praise of God. To lead such a life we must begin early. None are too young to work in God’s vineyard. God will not be put off with the leavings of our days. We owe Him, and He expects of us, the best that we can offer—the prime of our years, the vigour of our faculties, our life whilst it is fresh and young. "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, in which thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them."
R. D. B. Rawnsley, Sermons for the Christian Year, p. 38.
Hezekiah was, in the full sense of the word, a good king. His piety is shown (1) in his conduct with reference to idolatry; (2) in his conduct in the matter of the siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib. But there are two passages in his life which show the weak side of his character. One is his parading his treasures before the ambassadors of the king of Babylon; the other is his conduct in the matter of his severe illness, which is recorded in the chapter from which the text is taken.
I. The essence of the history is this, that in the prospect of death Hezekiah’s strength of mind quite broke down. He looks upon death as a thing to be dreaded and shunned; he speaks of it in a way in which no Christian who has learned the Lord’s prayer could ever venture or even wish to speak of it. Hezekiah looked to his grave with such melancholy feelings, because he could not clearly see a life beyond it. He knew that he must serve God while life lasted; he had manifestly no express revelation beyond, and therefore he looked upon the grave with dismay.
II. If it were not for the light which Christ our Lord has thrown into the grave, we should mourn like Hezekiah, and our eyes would fail as did his. We have greater spiritual help than Hezekiah, and brighter light, and clearer grounds of hope, and it is incumbent on us to act, not like those who groped their way in the twilight of the old dispensation, but like those upon whom the brightness of the knowledge of the glory of God has shined in the face of Jesus Christ.
Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons, 3rd series, p. 78.
References: Isa 38:19.—J. N. Norton, Golden Truths, p. 98. Isa 38:20.—R. W. Evans, Parochial Sermons, vol. iii., p. 104.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Sickness and Recovery of Hezekiah
Sickness and Recovery of Hezekiah
Continuation of the historical appendix to Isaiah's prophecies. The chapter is parallel to 2Ki_20:1-11 (where see notes), but contains a considerable addition in the shape of Hezekiah's song of thanks-giving upon his recovery. Chronologically this chapter precedes 36 and 37: see on Isa_36:1.
Read full note →
1-8. To Hezekiah in his sickness Isaiah promises 15 more years of life, and confirms the promise by a sign.
9-20. Hezekiah's song of thanksgiving.
21, 22. The remedy for the king's disease was suggested by Isaiah, and the sign was given at the king's request.
1. Thus saith, etc.] The passage affords a striking illustration of the conditional nature of prophetic utterance, for at Hezekiah's intercession the sentence was revoked.
5. Fifteen years] Hezekiah's sickness therefore befell him in his 14th year (714): see on Isa_36:1. Though some long time before Sennacherib's great invasion, danger was already apprehended from Assyria (Isa_38:6).
8. The. account in 2Ki_20:8-11 is fuller. Degrees.. sun dial] RV 'steps.. steps.' Some kind of clock is evidently indicated, probably a pillar standing upon steps and casting a shadow in such a way that a particular portion of time was represented by a step.
10. Cutting off] RV 'noontide.'
11. See the Lord] Hezekiah is probably thinking of the Temple worship. The v. illustrates the gloomy conception of the Hebrews as to the state of man after death: cp. Isa_38:18.
12. Cut off] RV 'rolled up.' With pining sickness] RV 'from the loom.' From day.. night] i.e. in one day. The words refer to the swiftness with which the end comes, not to prolongation of suffering.
13. I reckoned.. lion] RV 'I quieted myself until morning; as a lion,' etc.
14. Mourn] i.e. moan, referring to the sound made by the dove. Undertake for me] RV 'be thou my surety': Gen_43:9; Gen_44:32.
15. Softly] RM 'as in solemn procession' (Psa_42:4). In] RV 'because of.'
16. By these things] i.e. the word of God and the action of His providence. The reference is to the first part of Isa_38:15 : cp. Deu_8:3; Mat_4:4. So wilt thou] RV 'wherefore.'
17. Behold.. bitterness] RV 'Behold it was for my peace that I had,' etc. He sees on looking back that the chastisement had been for his good. My sins] God's favour in restoration to health is viewed as a sign of forgiveness.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv10, 18 Heb. "Sheol," (See Scofield "Hab 2:5")
grave
Heb. "Sheol," (See Scofield "Hab 2:5")
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 Hezekiah’s Sickness and Healing
CHAPTER 38
Hezekiah’s Sickness and Healing
Read full note →
1. Isaiah’s startling message (Isa 38:1) 2. Hezekiah’s prayer (Isa 38:2-3) 3. The prayer heard and the sign (Isa 38:4-8) 4. The king’s sorrow and joy, a psalm of praise (Isa 38:9-20) 5. The remedy for the recovery (Isa 38:21-22)The message of approaching death startled the king because at that time he had no son. If he had died what then would have become of the Messianic hope through the house of David? Beautiful it is to hear the Lord say through Isaiah, “Thus saith the Lord, the God of David, thy father.” Before that Isaiah gave him the message “For I will defend this city to save it for Mine own sake and for My servant David’s sake.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 9 Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery
Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery
v. 1. In those days, at the time of the Assyrian invasion or shortly after, was Hezekiah sick unto death, with an illness which was ordinarily mortal. And Isaiah, the prophet, the son of Amoz, came unto him, evidently by a direct command of the Lord, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order, literally, "Give charge concerning thy house"; he was to make arrangements especially concerning his successor to the throne and regarding the disposition of his goods; for thou shalt die and not live, this announcement being in agreement with the ordinary course of the disease. It is advisable for a believer always to have everything in readiness, so that, no matter when the Lord may call him hence, his earthly effects may be in order and those dependent upon him provided for.
Read full note →
v. 2. Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, in a movement which showed that he wished to be undisturbed with his thoughts, that he wished to be undistracted for communion with God, and prayed unto the Lord,
v. 3. and said, in the fervent appeal of a child of God. Remember now, O Lord, I beseech Thee, how I have walked before Thee in truth, without uncertainty and hypocrisy, and with a perfect heart, which aimed to serve Him in sincerity, and have done that which is good in Thy sight, according to the standard of Psalms 15 and also Mat 5:21-22. And Hezekiah wept sore, for it seemed hard for him to die in the fullness of his manhood, without an heir, and with his country in a dangerous position.
v. 4. Then came the word of the Lord to Isaiah, saying,
v. 5. Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the Lord, the God of David, thy father, for whose sake he gave so many evidences of His goodness and mercy to many of the kings of Judah, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears; behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years, by a gracious dispensation.
v. 6. And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, so that he would undertake no further campaigns against it; and I will defend this city.
v. 7. And this shall be a sign unto thee from the Lord that the Lord will do this thing that He hath spoken, a token which will prove the truth of this prophecy:
v. 8. Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees which is gone down in the sun-dial of Ahaz ten degrees backward. This dial seems to have been built up in semicircular form, in a series of steps, the size of which was such as to make them visible from the king’s rooms. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down. The sun not only stood still, hut it actually moved backward for a short distance, by the command of the Lord. The sickness of Hezekiah was not the plague, but a fever with an eruption of ulcers or boils. The present account is much abbreviated, as a comparison with 2 Kings 20 shows, but all the essential points are included. One commentator here makes the remark: "How often our wishes, when gratified, prove curses! Hezekiah lived to have a son; that son was the idolater Manasseh, the chief cause of God’s wrath against Judah and of the overthrow of the kingdom. "
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4, 7, 9, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 21 Set your house in order
Set your house in order
This means to prepare your family and those in charge of your affairs so that they know what to do after you die. This can be written clearly. AT: "You should tell the people in your palace what you want them to do after you die" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
Read full note →
call to mind
This idiom means to remember. AT: "remember" (See: Idiom)
faithfully walked before you
This is an idiom. Here "walk" means to "live." The phrase means to live in a way the pleases Yahweh. AT: "faithfully lived before you" or "faithfully served you" (See: Idiom)
with my whole heart
Here the "heart" refers to the inner-being which represents a person's complete devotion. AT: "with all my inner being" or "with my complete devotion" (See: Metonymy)
what was good in your sight
The sight of Yahweh represents Yahweh's judgment or evaluation. AT: "what pleases you" or "what you consider to be good" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
Hezekiah
Isaiah
Amoz
prophet
Yahweh
house
face
pray
mind
faithful
walk
heart
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 21, 22 38:1-9 The story of Hezekiah’s healing connects Hezekiah’s extension…
38:1-9 The story of Hezekiah’s healing connects Hezekiah’s extension of life with Jerusalem’s relief from the Assyrians. The events of this story took place before Jerusalem’s rescue from the Assyrians but were placed in a thematic rather than chronological order. One theme is the importance of prayer (see 37:14-20; 38:2-3). The Lord does listen! Hezekiah had learned the lesson of trust that his father, Ahaz, refused. As a result, Judah and Jerusalem were spared total destruction by the Assyrians. Yet Hezekiah was not the Messiah, the Son of David promised in 7:14; 9:1-7; 11:1-16; 16:5; 32:1, and 33:17-22. Thus, these accounts of his failure and mortality (chs 38–39) prepare the reader for the revelation of the true Messiah that follows (chs 40–66).
38:1 About that time (literally in those days): This is a very general time statement. Hezekiah’s illness and subsequent healing probably preceded Jerusalem’s rescue (chs 36–37), even though Isaiah places it afterward. Merodach-baladan’s reign in Babylon (39:1) ended before Sennacherib’s invasion in 701 BC. The order in the text indicates a connection between these two events (see 38:6).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.