INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 38 This chapter gives an account of Hezekiah's sickness, recovery, and thanksgiving on that account. His sickness, and the nature of it, and his preparation for it, as directed to by the prophet, Isaiah 38:1, his prayer to God upon it, Isaiah 38:2 the answer returned unto it,... [ Continue Reading ]
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 Jew... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN HEZEKIAH TURNED HIS FACE TO THE WALL,.... Not figuratively to the wall of his heart, as Jerom; but literally, either to the wall of his bedchamber where he lay sick, that his tears might not be seen, and his prayers interrupted, and that he might deliver them with more privacy, freedom, and fer... [ Continue Reading ]
AND SAID, REMEMBER NOW, O LORD, I BESEECH THEE,.... He puts the Lord in mind of his good walk and works, which are never forgotten by him, though they may seem to be: and this he the rather did, because it might be thought that he had been guilty of some very enormous crime, which he was not conscio... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN CAME THE WORD OF THE LORD TO ISAIAH,.... Before he had got out into the middle court, 2 Kings 20:4: SAYING, as follows:... [ Continue Reading ]
GO AND SAY TO HEZEKIAH,.... Turn again, and tell him, 2 Kings 20:5: THUS SAITH THE LORD THE GOD OF DAVID THY FATHER; this is said, to show that he remembered the covenant he made with David his father, concerning the kingdom, and the succession of his children in it; and that he had a regard to hi... [ Continue Reading ]
AND I WILL DELIVER THEE AND THIS CITY OUT OF THE HAND OF THE KING OF ASSYRIA,.... So that it seems that Hezekiah's sickness was while the king of Assyria was near the city of Jerusalem, and about to besiege it, and before the destruction of the Assyrian army; unless this is said to secure Hezekiah a... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THIS SHALL BE A SIGN UNTO THEE FROM THE LORD,.... And which it seems Hezekiah asked, and it was put to him which he would choose, whether the shadow on the sundial should go forward or backward ten degrees, and he chose the latter, 2 Kings 20:8, which was a token confirming and assuring THAT TH... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, I WILL BRING AGAIN THE SHADOW OF THE DEGREES,.... Or lines made on a dial plate, to show the progress of the sun, and what time of day it was. Some think only the shadow was brought back by the power of God, the sun keeping its course as usual; but in the next clause the sun is expressly sai... [ Continue Reading ]
THE WRITING OF HEZEKIAH KING OF JUDAH,.... The Septuagint and Arabic versions call it a "prayer": but the Targum, much better, "a writing of confession;'' in which the king owns his murmurings and complaints under his affliction, and acknowledges the goodness of God in delivering him out of it: th... [ Continue Reading ]
I SAID, IN THE CUTTING OFF OF MY DAYS,.... When he was told that he should die, and he believed he should; this he calls a "cutting off" in allusion to the weaver's web, Isaiah 38:12 and a cutting off "his days", he being now in the prime of his age, about thirty nine or forty years of age, and not... [ Continue Reading ]
I SAID, I SHALL NOT SEE THE LORD, EVEN THE LORD IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING,.... Not any more, in this world, though in the other, and that more clearly, even face to face: his meaning is, that he should no more see him in the glass of the word; no more praise him in his house; worship him in his temp... [ Continue Reading ]
MINE AGE IS DEPARTED, AND IS REMOVED FROM ME AS A SHEPHERD'S TENT,.... Or, my habitation k; meaning the earthly house of his tabernacle, his body; this was just going, in his apprehension, to be unpinned, and removed like a shepherd's tent, that is easily taken down, and removed from place to place.... [ Continue Reading ]
I RECKONED TILL MORNING,.... Or, "I set my time till the morning m"; he fixed and settled it in his mind that he could live no longer than to the morning, if he lived so long; he thought he should have died before the night came on, and, now it was come, the utmost he could propose to himself was to... [ Continue Reading ]
LIKE A CRANE, OR A SWALLOW, SO DID I CHATTER,.... Rather, "like a crane and a swallow", like both; sometimes loud and clamorous, like a crane o, when the pain was very acute and grievous; and sometimes very low, through weakness of body, like the twittering of a swallow; or the moan he made under hi... [ Continue Reading ]
WHAT SHALL I SAY?.... In a way of praise and thankfulness, for the mercies promised and received; I know not what to say; I want words to express the gratitude of my heart for the kindness bestowed. What shall I render to God for all his benefits? So the Targum, "what praise shall I utter, and I wi... [ Continue Reading ]
O LORD, BY THESE THINGS MEN LIVE,.... Not by bread only, but by the word of God: by the promise of God, and by his power performing it; and by his favour and goodness continually bestowed; it is in him, and by his power and providence, that they live and move, and have their being, and the continuan... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, FOR PEACE I HAD GREAT BITTERNESS,.... Meaning not that instead of peace and prosperity, which he expected would ensue upon the destruction of Sennacherib's army, came a bitter affliction upon him; for he is not now dwelling on that melancholy subject; but rather the sense is, that he now enj... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE GRAVE CANNOT PRAISE THEE, DEATH CAN NOT CELEBRATE THEE,.... That is, they that are in the grave, and under the power of death, they cannot celebrate the praises of God with their bodily organs; their souls may praise him in heaven, but they in their bodies cannot till the resurrection morn,... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LIVING, THE LIVING, HE SHALL PRAISE THEE, AS I DO THIS DAY,.... Every one of the living, or such who are both corporeally and spiritually alive; and therefore the word is repeated; none but such who are alive in a corporeal sense can praise the Lord in this world; and none but such who are spiri... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD WAS READY TO SAVE ME,.... Or, "the Lord to save me y"; he was at hand to save him; he was both able and willing to save him; he was a present help in time of need; he arose for his help, and that right early; he very quickly delivered him out of his distress; he, who one day expected death... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR ISAIAH HAD SAID,.... Before the above writing was made, which ends in the preceding verse; for this and the following are added by Isaiah, or some other person, taken out of 2 Kings 20:7. The Septuagint version adds, "to Hezekiah"; but the speech seems rather directed to some of his servants, or... [ Continue Reading ]
HEZEKIAH ALSO HAD SAID,.... Unto Isaiah, as in 2 Kings 20:8: WHAT IS THE SIGN THAT I SHALL GO UP TO THE HOUSE OF THE LORD? both of his health, and of his going up to the temple with thanksgiving for it; though the former is not here mentioned, as it is elsewhere; partly because it is supposed in th... [ Continue Reading ]