Isaiah 38
Hezekiah's Illness and Prayer for Life 1–8
Hezekiah's Song of Recovery 9–20
Narrative Conclusion and Postscript 21–22
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · 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).