Verse 1

Isaiah 38:1-22. Hezekiah‘s sickness; perhaps connected with the plague or blast whereby the Assyrian army had been destroyed.

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.

Verse 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.

Verse 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, etc., Exodus 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” (Genesis 5:24; 1 Kings 9:4).

perfect — sincere; not absolutely perfect, but aiming towards it (Matthew 5:45); single-minded in walking as in the presence of God (Genesis 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 (Matthew 5:20-48; 2 Corinthians 3:6, 2 Corinthians 3:14, 2 Corinthians 3:17).

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 (2 Kings 23:26, 2 Kings 23:27).

Verse 4

In 2 Kings 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 Isaiah 65:24; Psalm 32:5; Daniel 9:21).

Verse 5

God of David thy father — God remembers the covenant with the father to the children (Exodus 20:5; Psalm 89:28, Psalm 89:29).

tears — (Psalm 56:8).

days  …  years — Man‘s years, however many, are but as so many days (Genesis 5:27).

Verse 6

In 2 Kings 20:8, after this verse comes the statement which is put at the end, in order not to interrupt God‘s message (Isaiah 38:21, Isaiah 38:22) by Isaiah (Isaiah 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.

Verse 7

sign — a token that God would fulfil His promise that Hezekiah should “go up into the house of the Lord the third day” (2 Kings 20:5, 2 Kings 20:8); the words in italics are not in Isaiah.

Verse 8

bring again — cause to return (Joshua 10:12-14). In 2 Kings 20:9, 2 Kings 20:11, 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 Joshua 10:12, Joshua 10:14).

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 (2 Kings 16:7, 2 Kings 16:10). “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 Isaiah 38:21, Isaiah 38:22 with 2 Kings 20:9, where translate, shall this shadow go forward, etc.; the dial was no doubt in sight, probably “in the middle court” (2 Kings 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 (2 Kings 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” (2 Chronicles 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 (Daniel 3:6).

Verses 9-20

The prayer and thanksgiving song of Hezekiah is only given here, not in the parallel passages of Second Kings and Second Chronicles. Isaiah 38:9 is the heading or inscription.

Verse 10

cutting off — Rosenmuller translates, “the meridian”; when the sun stands in the zenith: so “the perfect day” (Proverbs 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 (Isaiah 62:6, Isaiah 62:7).

go to — rather, “go into,” as in Isaiah 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.

Verse 11

Lord — The repetition, as in Isaiah 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 (Psalm 27:13). “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living”; (Psalm 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).

Verse 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 (2 Corinthians 5:1; 2 Peter 1:12, 2 Peter 1:13). 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 (Jeremiah 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).

Verse 13

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; Lamentations 3:10, Lamentations 3:11). The Hebrew, in Psalm 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, Isaiah 38:14, he compares his groans to the sounds of other animals (Psalm 22:1) [Maurer].

Verse 14

Rather, “Like a swallow, or a crane” (from a root; “to disturb the water,” a bird frequenting the water) [Maurer], (Jeremiah 8:7).

chatter — twitter: broken sounds expressive of pain.

dove — called by the Arabs the daughter of mourning, from its plaintive note (Isaiah 59:11).

looking upward — to God for relief.

undertake for — literally, “be surety for” me; assure me that I shall be restored (Psalm 119:122).

Verses 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 — (Numbers 23:19). Both promised and performed (1 Thessalonians 5:24; Hebrews 10:23).

himself — No one else could have done it (Psalm 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 1 Kings 21:27, 1 Kings 21:29). In Psalm 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.

Verse 16

by these — namely, by God‘s benefits, which are implied in the context (Isaiah 38:15, “He hath Himself done it” “unto me”). All “men live by these” benefits (Psalm 104:27-30), “and in all these is the life of my spirit,” that is, I also live by them (Deuteronomy 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].

Verse 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 fullness only in reference to the soul‘s redemption from hell by Jesus Christ (Isaiah 61:1), who went down to the pit for that purpose Himself (Psalm 88:4-6; Zechariah 9:11, Zechariah 9:12; Hebrews 13:20). “Sin” and sickness are connected (Psalm 103:3; compare Isaiah 53:4, with Matthew 8:17; Matthew 9:5, Matthew 9:6), 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 (1 Kings 14:9; Nehemiah 9:26; Psalm 50:17). Contrast Psalm 90:8, “Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.”

Verse 18

death — that is, the dead; Hades and its inhabitants (Job 28:22; see on Isaiah 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; Isaiah 57:1, Isaiah 57:2 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” (2 Timothy 1:10).

hope for thy truth — (Psalm 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 (Romans 8:24, Romans 8:25); the ungodly have “no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). Hope in God‘s truth is one of the grounds of praise to God (Psalm 71:14; Psalm 119:49). Others translate, “cannot celebrate.”

Verse 19

living — emphatic repetition, as in Isaiah 38:11, Isaiah 38:17; 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.

Verse 20

was ready — not in the Hebrew; “Jehovah was for my salvation,” that is, saved me (compare Isaiah 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 (1 Samuel 25:18). God works by means; the meanest of which He can make effectual.

boil — inflamed ulcer, produced by the plague.

Verse 22

house of the Lord — Hence he makes the praises to be sung there prominent in his song (Isaiah 38:20; Psalm 116:12-14, Psalm 116:17-19).