Isaiah 38

Isa 38:1-22.

HEZEKIAH'S

SICKNESS;

PERHAPS

CONNECTED WITH THE

PLAGUE OR

BLAST

WHEREBY THE

ASSYRIAN

ARMY

HAD

BEEN

DESTROYED.

1. Set . . . house in order--Make arrangement as to the succession

to the throne; for he had then no son; and as to thy other concerns.

thou shall die--speaking according to the ordinary course of the

disease. His being spared fifteen years was not a change in God's mind,

but an illustration of God's dealings being unchangeably regulated by

the state of man in relation to Him.

2. 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.

3. He mentions his past religious consistency, not as a boast or a

ground for justification; but according to the Old Testament

dispensation, wherein temporal rewards (as long life, &c.,

Ex 20:12)

followed legal obedience, he makes his religious conduct a plea for

asking the prolongation of his life.

walked--Life is a journey; the pious "walk with God"

(Ge 5:24;

1Ki 9:4).

perfect--sincere; not absolutely perfect, but aiming towards it

(Mt 5:45);

single-minded in walking as in the presence of God

(Ge 17:1).

The letter of the Old Testament legal righteousness

was, however, a standard very much below the spirit of the law as

unfolded by Christ

(Mt 5:20-48;

2Co 3:6, 14, 17).

wept sore--JOSEPHUS

says, the reason why he wept so sorely was that

being childless, he was leaving the kingdom without a successor. 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

(2Ki 23:26, 27).

4. In

2Ki 20:4,

the quickness of God's answer to the prayer is marked, "afore Isaiah

had gone out into the middle court, the word of the

LORD came to him"; that is, before he had left

Hezekiah, or at least when he had just left him, and Hezekiah was in

the act of praying after having heard God's message by Isaiah (compare

Isa 65:24;

Ps 32:5;

Da 9:21).

5. God of David thy father--God remembers the covenant with the father

to the children

(Ex 20:5;

Ps 89:28, 29).

tears--

(Ps 56:8).

days . . . years--Man's years, however many, are but as so many

days

(Ge 5:27).

6. In

2Ki 20:8,

after this verse comes the statement which is put at the end, in order

not to interrupt God's message

(Isa 38:21, 22)

(Isa 38:5-8).

will deliver--The city was already delivered, but here

assurance is given, that Hezekiah shall have no more to fear

from the Assyrians.

7. sign--a token that God would fulfil His promise that Hezekiah

should "go up into the house of the Lord the third day"

(2Ki 20:5, 8);

the words in italics are not in Isaiah.

8. bring again--cause to return

(Jos 10:12-14).

In

2Ki 20:9, 11,

the choice is stated to have been given to Hezekiah, whether the shadow

should go forward, or go back, ten degrees. Hezekiah replied, "It is a

light thing (a less decisive miracle) for the shadow to go down (its

usual direction) ten degrees: nay, but let it return backward ten

degrees"; so Isaiah cried to Jehovah that it should be so, and it was

so (compare

Jos 10:12, 14).

sundial of Ahaz--HERODOTUS (2.109)

states that the sundial and the

division of the day into twelve hours, were invented by the Babylonians;

from them Ahaz borrowed the invention. He was one, from his connection

with Tiglath-pileser, likely to have done so

(2Ki 16:7, 10).

"Shadow of the degrees" means the shadow made on the degrees. JOSEPHUS thinks these degrees were steps ascending

to the palace of Ahaz; the time of day was indicated by the number of

steps reached by the shadow. But probably a sundial, strictly so

called, is meant; it was of such a size, and so placed, that Hezekiah,

when convalescent, could witness the miracle from his chamber. Compare

Isa 38:21, 22

with 2Ki 20:9,

where translate, shall this shadow go forward, &c.; the dial was

no doubt in sight, probably "in the middle court"

(2Ki 20:4),

the point where Isaiah turned back to announce God's gracious answers

to Hezekiah. Hence this particular sign was given. The retrogression of

the shadow may have been effected by refraction; a cloud denser than

the air interposing between the gnomon and dial would cause the

phenomenon, which does not take from the miracle, for God gave him the

choice whether the shadow should go forward or back, and regulated the

time and place. BOSANQUET makes the fourteenth

year of Hezekiah to be 689 B.C., the known year of

a solar eclipse, to which he ascribes the recession of the shadow. At

all events, there is no need for supposing any revolution of the

relative positions of the sun and earth, but merely an effect produced

on the shadow

(2Ki 20:9-11);

that effect was only local, and designed for the satisfaction of

Hezekiah, for the Babylonian astronomers and king "sent to enquire of

the wonder that was done in the land"

(2Ch 32:31),

implying that it had not extended to their country. No mention of any

instrument for marking time occurs before this dial of Ahaz, 700 B.C. The first mention of the "hour" is made by Daniel

at Babylon

(Da 3:6).

9-20. The prayer and thanksgiving song of Hezekiah is only given here,

not in the parallel passages of

Second Kings and Second Chronicles.

Isa 38:9

is the heading or inscription.

10. cutting off--ROSENMULLER

translates, "the meridian"; when the sun

stands in the zenith: so "the perfect day"

(Pr 4:18).

Rather, "in the tranquillity of my days," that is, that period

of life when I might now look forward to a tranquil reign [MAURER]. The Hebrew is so translated

(Isa 62:6, 7).

go to--rather, "go into," as in

Isa 46:2

[MAURER].

residue of my years--those which I had calculated on. God sends

sickness to teach man not to calculate on the morrow, but to live more

wholly to God, as if each day were the last.

11. Lord . . . Lord--The repetition, as in

Isa 38:19,

expresses the excited feeling of the king's mind.

See the Lord (Jehovah)--figuratively for "to enjoy His good gifts." So,

in a similar connection

(Ps 27:13).

"I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the

Lord in the land of the living";

(Ps 34:12),

"What man is he that desireth life that he may see good?"

world--rather, translate: "among the inhabitants of the land of

stillness," that is, Hades

[MAURER], in parallel antithesis to "the

land of the living" in the first clause. The Hebrew comes from a root,

to "rest" or "cease"

(Job 14:6).

12. age--rather, as the parallel "shepherd's tent" requires

habitation, so the Arabic [GESENIUS].

departed--is broken up, or shifted, as a tent to a different locality.

The same image occurs

(2Co 5:1;

2Pe 1:12, 13).

He plainly expects to exist, and not cease to be in another state; as

the shepherd still lives, after he has struck his tent and removed

elsewhere.

I have cut off--He attributes to himself that which is God's will with respect to him; because he declares that will. So Jeremiah

is said to "root out" kingdoms, because he declares God's purpose of

doing so

(Jer 1:10).

The weaver cuts off his web from the loom when completed.

Job 7:6

has a like image. The Greeks represented the Fates as spinning and

cutting off the threads of each man's life.

he--God.

with pining sickness--rather, "from the thrum," or thread, which tied

the loom to the weaver's beam.

from day . . . to night--that is, in the space of a single day between

morning and night

(Job 4:20).

13. I reckoned . . . that--rather, I composed

(my mind, during the night, expecting relief in the "morning," so

Job 7:4):

for ("that" is not, as in the English Version, to

be supplied) as a lion He was breaking all my bones [VITRINGA]

(Job 10:16;

La 3:10, 11).

The Hebrew, in

Ps 131:2,

is rendered, "I quieted." Or else, "I made myself like a lion (namely,

in roaring, through pain), He was so breaking my bones!" Poets often

compare great groaning to a lion's roaring, so,

Isa 38:14,

he compares his groans to the sounds of other animals

(Ps 22:1)

[MAURER].

14. Rather, "Like a swallow, or a crane" (from a root; "to disturb

the water," a bird frequenting the water)

[MAURER],

(Jer 8:7).

chatter--twitter: broken sounds expressive of pain.

dove--called by the Arabs the daughter of mourning,

from its plaintive note

(Isa 59:11).

looking upward--to God for relief.

undertake for--literally, "be surety for" me; assure me that I shall

be restored

(Ps 119:122).

15-20. The second part of the song passes from prayer to thanksgiving

at the prayer being heard.

What shall I say?--the language of one at a loss for words to express

his sense of the unexpected deliverance.

both spoken . . . and . . . done it--

(Nu 23:19).

Both promised and performed

(1Th 5:24;

Heb 10:23).

himself--No one else could have done it

(Ps 98:1).

go softly . . . in the bitterness--rather, "on account of the

bitterness"; I will behave myself humbly in remembrance of my past

sorrow and sickness from which I have been delivered by God's mercy (see

1Ki 21:27, 29).

In

Ps 42:4,

the same Hebrew verb expresses the slow and solemn gait of one

going up to the house of God; it is found nowhere else, hence ROSENMULLER explains it, "I will reverently attend the

sacred festivals in the temple"; but this ellipsis would be harsh;

rather metaphorically the word is transferred to a calm, solemn,

and submissive walk of life.

16. by these--namely, by God's benefits, which are implied in

the context

(Isa 38:15,

"He hath Himself done it" "unto me"). All "men live by these"

benefits

(Ps 104:27-30),

"and in all these is the life of my spirit," that is, I also live by

them

(De 8:3).

and (wilt) make me to live--The Hebrew is imperative, "make

me to live." In this view he adds a prayer to the confident hope

founded on his comparative convalescence, which he expressed, "Thou

wilt recover me" [MAURER].

17. for peace--instead of the prosperity which I had previously.

great bitterness--literally, "bitterness to me, bitterness"; expressing

intense emotion.

in love--literally, "attachment," such as joins one to another

tenderly; "Thou hast been lovingly attached to me from the pit";

pregnant phrase for, Thy love has gone down to the pit, and drawn me out

from it. The "pit" is here simply death, in Hezekiah's sense;

realized in its fulness only in reference to the soul's redemption

from hell by Jesus Christ

(Isa 61:1),

who went down to the pit for that purpose Himself

(Ps 88:4-6;

Zec 9:11, 12;

Heb 13:20).

"Sin" and sickness are connected

(Ps 103:3;

compare

Isa 53:4,

with Mt 8:17; 9:5, 6),

especially under the Old Testament dispensation of temporal sanctions;

but even now, sickness, though not invariably arising from sin in

individuals, is connected with it in the general moral view.

cast . . . behind back--consigned my sins to oblivion.

The same phrase occurs

(1Ki 14:9;

Ne 9:26;

Ps 50:17).

Contrast

Ps 90:8,

"Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in

the light of thy countenance."

18. death--that is, the dead; Hades and its inhabitants

(Job 28:22;

see on

Isa 38:11).

Plainly Hezekiah believed in a world of disembodied spirits; his

language does not imply what skepticism has drawn from it, but simply

that he regarded the disembodied state as one incapable of declaring

the praises of God before men, for it is, as regards this

world, an unseen land of stillness; "the living" alone can praise

God on earth, in reference to which only he is speaking;

Isa 57:1, 2

shows that at this time the true view of the blessedness of the

righteous dead was held, though not with the full clearness of the

Gospel, which "has brought life and immortality to light"

(2Ti 1:10).

hope for thy truth--

(Ps 104:27).

Their probation is at an end. They can no longer exercise faith and

hope in regard to Thy faithfulness to Thy promises, which are limited

to the present state. For "hope" ceases (even in the case of the godly)

when sight begins

(Ro 8:24, 25);

the ungodly have "no hope"

(1Th 4:13).

Hope in God's truth is one of the grounds of praise to God

(Ps 71:14; 119:49).

Others translate, "cannot celebrate."

19. living . . . living--emphatic repetition, as in

Isa 38:11, 17;

his heart is so full of the main object of his prayer that, for want of

adequate words, he repeats the same word.

father to the children--one generation of the living to another.

He probably, also, hints at his own desire to live until he should have

a child, the successor to his throne, to whom he might make known and so

perpetuate the memory of God's truth.

truth--faithfulness to His promises; especially in Hezekiah's

case, His promise of hearing prayer.

20. was ready--not in the Hebrew; "Jehovah was for my salvation,"

that is, saved me (compare

Isa 12:2).

we--I and my people.

in the house of the Lord--This song was designed, as many of the other

Psalms, as a form to be used in public worship at stated times,

perhaps on every anniversary of his recovery; hence "all the days of

our life."

lump of figs--a round cake of figs pressed into a mass

(1Sa 25:18).

God works by means; the meanest of which He can make effectual.

boil--inflamed ulcer, produced by the plague.

22. house of the Lord--Hence he makes the praises to be sung there

prominent in his song

(Isa 38:20;

Ps 116:12-14, 17-19).