Isaiah 38

IN those days was Hezekiah sick unto death, and Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus says the LORD, Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die, and not live.

Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the LORD,

And said, Remember now O LORD, 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.

Then came the word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying.

Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayers, I have seen thy tears: Behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.

And I will deliver thee, and this city, out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city.

And this shall be a sign unto thee from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he has spoken:

Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees which is gone down in the sundial of Ahaz ten degrees backward: so the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down.

The writing of Hezekiah Who was a good Man, and full of the Holy Ghost, and inspired by him to Write this, both as a Testimony of his own Gratitude to God, and for the Instruction of after Ages. king of Iudah, when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sickness.

I said To and within my self I Concluded it. in the cutting off of my days When my days were cut off by the Sentence of God, related here, ver. 1., I shall go to the gates of the grave I perceive, That I must die without any hopes of prevention. The Grave is called a Man's long home, Eccles. 12. 5. and The house appointed for all living Men, Job. 30. 23. and Death opens the gates of this House. We read also of the gates of death, Psal. 9. 13. & 107. 18.; I am deprived of the residue of my years Which I might have lived according to the common course of Nature, and of God's dispensations; and which I expected, and hoped to live for the Service of God, and of my Generation..

I said, I shall not see the LORD I shall not enjoy him; for seeing is put for enjoying, as has been frequently noted., even the LORD in the land of the living In this World which is so called, Psal. 27. 13. & 116.... sa. 53. 8. in his Sanctuary. Which Limitation is prudently added to intimate, That he expected to see God in another place and manner, even in Heaven, Face to Face.; I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world I shall have no more Society with Men upon Earth..

Mine age is departed The time of my Life is expired., and is removed from me as a shepherds tent Which is easily and speedily removed.: I have cut off To wit, by my Sins, provoking God to do it. Or, I do declare, and have concluded, That my Life is or will be suddenly cut off: For Men are oft said in Scripture, to do those Things which they only declare and pronounce to be done, as Men are said to pollute, and to remit and retain sins, and the like; when they only declare Men and Things to be polluted, and Sins to be remitted or retained by God. like a weaver Who cutteth off the Web from the Loom, either when it is finished, or before, according to his pleasure. my life: he The Lord, who pronounced this Sentence against him. will cut me off with pining sickness With a consuming Disease, wasting my Spirits and Life. Some render this Word, from the thrum, from those Threds at the end of the Web, which are fastned to the Beam. So the similitude of a Weaver is continued., from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me The Sense is, Either 1. this Sickness will kill me in the space of one day. Or rather 2. thou dost pursue me night and day with continual Pains, and wilt not desist till thou hast made a full End of me; so that, I expect that every day will be my Last day..

I reckoned till morning When I was filled with Pain, and could not Rest all the Night long, even till Morning my Thoughts were working and presaging, That God would instantly break me to peices, and that every moment would be my last; and the like restless and dismal Thoughts followed me from Morning till Evening. But he mentions only the time before Morning, to aggravate his Misery, that he was so grievously Tormented, when others had sweet Rest and Repose. that as a lion so will he break all my bones, from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.

Like a crane or a swallow Or, a crane and... llow; the conjunction, and, being here, as it is Hab. 3. 11. and elsewhere, understood, as is manifest from Ier. 8. 7. where it is expressed with these very words., so did I chatter My complaint and cry was like to the noise of a Swallow, quick and frequent; and like that of a Crane, loud and frightful. And this very Comparison is used of Mourners, not only in Scripture, but in other Authors; concerning which, the Learned Reader may consult my Latine Synopsis.: I did mourn as a dove Whose mournful Tone is observed, Isa. 59. 11. Ezek 9. 16. and elsewhere.; mine eyes fail with looking upward Whilst I lift up mine Eyes and Heart to God for relief, but in vain.: O LORD, I am oppressed By my Disease, which like a Serjeant has seized upon me, and is haling me to the Prison of the Grave., undertake for me Stop the Execution, and rescue me out of his hands..

What shall I say I want words sufficient to express my deep Sense of God's dealings with me. He did foretel it by his Word and effect it by his Hand. This Clause and Verse is, Either 1. a Continuance of his Complaint hitherto described: God has passed this Sentence upon me, and has also put it in Execution, and to Him I must submit my self: Or 2.? he has both spoken unto me, and himself have done it Transition or entrance into the Thanksgiving, which is undoubtedly contained in the following Verses. So the Sense is, God has sent a gracious Message to me by his Prophet concerning the prolongation of my Life; and he, I doubt not, will make good his Word therein. And this Sense seems the more probable: 1. Because here is mention of his years to come, whereas in his sickness he expected not to live to the end of a day. 2. Because the Chaldee Paraphrast, and the Seventy, and Syriack, and Arabick Interpreters expound it so in their Versions. 3. Because this suits best with the context and coherence of this Verse, both with the former, and with the following Verse. For as he endeth the foregoing Verse with a Prayer to God for longer Life, so in this Verse he relates God's gracious Answer to his Prayer: And if this Verse be thus understood, the next Verse has a very convenient Connexion with this; whereas it seems to be very abrupt and incoherent, if the Thanksgiving begin there. I shall go softly I shall walk in the course of my Life; Either 1. humbly, with all humble thankfulness to God for conferring so great a Favour upon so unworthy a Person: Or 2. easily and peaceably with leasure, not like one affrighted, or running away from his Enemy: Or 3. by slow and gentle paces, as Men commonly spin out their Days by degrees unto a just length, which is not unfitly opposed to his former state and time of Sickness, wherein his days were swifter than a weavers shuttle, and than a post, as Iob complained upon the same occasion, Iob 7. 6. & 9. 25. and were cut off like a weavers Web, as he complained, ver. 12. all my years in the bitterness of my soul Arising from the remembrance of that desperate Condition, from which God had delivered me: For great dangers, though past, are oft-times very terrible to those that seriously reflect upon them. But the Words may be rendred, upon or after (as this particle is rendred, Isa. 18. 4.) the bitterness of my soul, after the deliverance from this bitter and dangerous Disease. Which may be compared with ver. 17. where he says, For or after peace, I had great bitterness as here he presageth and assureth himself of the contrary, That he should have Peace after his great bitterness. The Chaldee Paraphrast renders the Words, Because of my deliverance from bitterness of Soul; bitterness being put for deliverance from bitterness, as five is put for lack of five, as we render it, Gen. 18. 28. and fat for want of fat, Psal. 109. 24. and fruits for want of fruits, Lam. 4. 9. And other such like Defects there are in the Hebrew, which is a very concise Language..

O Lord, by these things By virtue of thy gracious Word or Promise, and powerful Work, by thy Promises, and thy performances of them, mentioned in the foregoing Verse. This place may be explained by comparing it with Deut. 8. 3. Man does not live by bread, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord. The Sense is, Not I only, but all Men do receive and recover, and hold their Lives by thy Favour, and the Word of thy Power: And therefore it is not strange, That one Word of God has brought me back from the very jaws of Death. men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit And as it is with other Men, so has it been with me in a special manner; for In these above all other things is the life of my Spirit or Soul, i. e. either the comfort (which is sometimes called Life) of my Spirit: or rather, That Life which is in my Body, from my Spirit or Soul united to it.: so wilt thou recover me, and make me to live Or, and or for thou hast recovered me, &c. to wit, by these Things..

Behold, for peace I had great bitterness My Health and Prosperity was quickly changed into bitter Sickness and Affliction. Or, as others render it, My great bitterness was unt... peace, was turned into Prosperity, or became the occasion of my safety and further advantages: For that drove me to my prayers, and my prayers prevailed with God for a gracious Answer, and the prolonging of my Life., but thou hast in love to my soul In kindness to me, the soul being oft put for the Man. This is an emphatical Circumstance: For sometimes God prolongs mens days in anger, and in order to their greater misery. delivered it from the pit of corruption, for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back Thou hast forgiven those sins which brought this evil upon me, and upon that account hast removed the punishment of them; which shows that thou didst this in love to me. The phrase is borrowed from the custome of men, who when they would accurately see and observe any thing, set it before their faces, and when they desire, and resolve not to look upon any thing, turn their backs upon it, or cast it behind them..

For In this and the following verse, he declares Gods design in delivering him, that he might praise him in his Church; which if he had died he could not have done. the grave cannot praise thee e, death cannot celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit connot hope for thy truth They cannot expect nor receive the accomplishment of thy promised goodness in the Land of the Living.. l The dead are not capable of glorifying thy Name among men upon Earth: which I desire and determine to do. See the like expressions, Psal. 6. 5. and 30. 9. and 88 10. &c. The Grave is put for the persons lodged in it by a Metonymy.

The Living, the living, he shall praise thee They are especially obliged to it, and they only have this priviledge., as I do this day, the father to the children shall make known thy truth They shall not only praise thee whilst they live, but take care to propagate and perpetuate thy Praise and Glory to all succeeding generations..

The LORD was ready to save me Was a present help to me, ready to hear, and succour me upon my prayer in my great extremity., therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments According to the custom of those times., all the days of our life, in the house of the LORD. q Both I and my People, who are concerned in me, and for me will sing forth those songs of praise which are due especially from me, for Gods great mercy to me.

For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaister upon the boil, and he shall recover This was rather a sign appointed by God, than a natural means of the cure: For if it had a natural faculty to ripen a sore, yet it could never cure such a dangerous and pestilential disease at least in so little tune..

Hezekiah also had said Or, For Hezekiah had said, had asked a sign, which is here added as the reason, why Isaiah said what is related in the foregoing verse: to wit, in answer to Hezekiahs question., what is the sign, that I shall go up Within three days, as is more fully related, 2 Kings 20. 5, 8. to the house of the LORD For thither he designed in the first place to go, partly that he might pay his vow and thanksgivings to God, and partly that he might ingage the people to praise God with him, and for him..