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Isaiah 38

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Hezekiah's Illness and Prayer for Life 1–8

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In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith Jehovah, Set thy house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live. ​
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Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto Jehovah,
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and said, Remember now, O Jehovah, 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 wept sore. ​
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Then came the word of Jehovah to Isaiah, saying,
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Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years. ​
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And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city. ​
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And this shall be the sign unto thee from Jehovah, that Jehovah will do this thing that he hath spoken:
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behold, I will cause the shadow on the steps, which is gone down on the dial of Ahaz with the sun, to return backward ten steps. So the sun returned ten steps on the dial whereon it was gone down. ​

Hezekiah's Song of Recovery 9–20

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The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sickness. ​
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I said, In the noontide of my days I shall go into the gates of Sheol: I am deprived of the residue of my years.
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I said, I shall not see Jehovah, even Jehovah in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world. ​
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My dwelling is removed, and is carried away from me as a shepherd’s tent: I have rolled up, like a weaver, my life; he will cut me off from the loom: From day even to night wilt thou make an end of me. ​
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I quieted myself until morning; as a lion, so he breaketh all my bones: From day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.
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Like a swallowora crane, so did I chatter; I did moan as a dove; mine eyes fail with looking upward: O Lord, I am oppressed, be thou my surety.
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What shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it: I shall go softly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.
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O Lord, by these things men live; And wholly therein is the life of my spirit: Wherefore recover thou me, and make me to live.
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Behold, it wasformypeacethat I had great bitterness: But thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; For thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. ​
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For Sheol cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee: They that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. ​
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The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: The father to the children shall make known thy truth.
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Jehovah isreadyto save me: Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments All the days of our life in the house of Jehovah.

Narrative Conclusion and Postscript 21–22

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Now Isaiah had said, Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a plaster upon the boil, and he shall recover. ​
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Hezekiah also had said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of Jehovah? ​

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

Study Notes for Isaiah 38

Verse 1

Set thine house in order — Tsavah, to charge or command; the same verb is used when Ahithophel 'put his household in order' before his death (2 Sam 17:23). Fifteen added years (v.5) on a reign of twenty-nine (2 Kings 18:2) reckon this illness to the fourteenth year, the year Sennacherib came up against Judah (Isa 36:1); the text itself says only 'In those days'.

Verse 3

a perfect heart — Shalem, whole or undivided, the word of Solomon's charge, 'Let your heart therefore be perfect with the LORD our God' (1 Kings 8:61). Hezekiah's plea rests on a recorded fact: he 'wrought that which was good and right and truth before the LORD his God' (2 Chr 31:20). 'Wept sore' is literally 'wept a great weeping'.

Verse 5

the God of David thy father — The same ground is given for the city's safety: 'for my servant David's sake' (Isa 37:35). 'I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears' answers the praying and weeping of vv.2–3. Manasseh, 'twelve years old when he began to reign' (2 Kings 21:1), was, by the same reckoning, born within the fifteen years added.

Verse 6

I will defend this city — Ganan, to hedge about, the verb of 'defending also he will deliver it' (Isa 31:5) and of Isa 37:35. Healing and deliverance are promised together, the king's life and Jerusalem's both resting on the LORD's word, as 2 Kings 20:6 repeats.

Verse 8

the sun dial of Ahaz — 'Degrees' is ma'alah, a step (Ex 20:26; 1 Kings 10:19), the word in the 'Song of degrees' titles (Ps 120). Hezekiah chose the harder sign: 'It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees: nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees' (2 Kings 20:10).

Verse 9

The writing of Hezekiah — Miktab, a thing written down, the word of 'the writing of God' (Ex 32:16) and 'the writing of David' (2 Chr 35:4). The song that follows turns on one verb, chayah, to live: 'not live' (v.1), 'recovered' (v.9), 'make me to live' (v.16), 'recover' (v.21).

Verse 11

even the LORD — The two words are the short divine name Yah, set down twice; elsewhere in Isaiah it stands only in 12:2 and 26:4, where the KJV prints 'JEHOVAH'. 'The land of the living' is the phrase of Ps 116:9, 'I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living', and of Isa 53:8.

Verse 12

as a shepherd's tent — 'Age' is dor, a period or generation, the word of 'who shall declare his generation?' (Isa 53:8). 'Cut off like a weaver' renders qaphad, to roll up, and 'pining sickness' is dallah, properly a loose thread: a web rolled up and severed from the loom. Job has the same loom: 'swifter than a weaver's shuttle' (Job 7:6).

Verse 17

in love to my soul delivered it — Chashaq means to cling to or love, so the line says the LORD loved his soul out of 'the pit of corruption'. Forgiveness is stated in other images elsewhere: 'will not remember thy sins' (Isa 43:25) and 'cast all their sins into the depths of the sea' (Mic 7:19).

Verse 18

the grave cannot praise thee — 'Praise' is yadah, to give thanks, and 'celebrate' is halal, the root of 'hallelujah'; the grave (sheol) is where both stop. Ps 6:5 says the same, 'in the grave who shall give thee thanks?', and Ps 115:17, 'The dead praise not the LORD'. Verse 19 answers: 'The living, the living, he shall praise thee'.

Verse 21

a lump of figs — Debelah, a pressed cake of figs, laid on the 'boil' (shechin), the word for Job's 'sore boils' (Job 2:7) and the 'botch of Egypt' (Deut 28:27). The remedy is given in the same order in 2 Kings 20:7, where it is carried out and 'he recovered'.

Verse 22

the sign that I shall go up — The question belongs to 2 Kings 20:8, answering 'on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD' (2 Kings 20:5). 'Go up' is alah, the verb of ascending to the house; Hezekiah's closing vow places his songs 'in the house of the LORD' (v.20).