Isaiah 38 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Isaiah 38

Hezekiah’s Sickness and Recovery

38:1 In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, “Thus says the LORD: Set your house in order, for you shall die, you shall not recover.”¹ 2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, 3 and said, “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

4 Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah: 5 “Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.² 6 I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and will defend this city.

7 “This shall be the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he has promised: 8 Behold, I will make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the dial of Ahaz turn back ten steps.” So the sun turned back on the dial the ten steps by which it had declined.³

9 A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, after he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:

10   I said, In the middle⁴ of my days
    I must depart;
  I am consigned to the gates of Sheol
    for the rest of my years.
11   I said, I shall not see the LORD,
    the LORD in the land of the living;
  I shall look on man no more
    among the inhabitants of the world.
12   My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me
    like a shepherd’s tent;
  like a weaver I have rolled up my life;
    he cuts me off from the loom;
  from day to night you bring me to an end;
13     I calmed myself⁵ until morning;
  like a lion he breaks all my bones;
    from day to night you bring me to an end.
14   Like a swallow or a crane I chirp;
    I moan like a dove.
  My eyes are weary with looking upward.
    O Lord, I am oppressed; be my pledge of safety!
15   What shall I say? For he has spoken to me,
    and he himself has done it.
  I walk slowly all my years
    because of the bitterness of my soul.
16   O Lord, by these things men live,
    and in all these is the life of my spirit.
    Oh restore me to health and make me live!
17   Behold, it was for my welfare
    that I had great bitterness;
  but in love you have delivered my life
    from the pit of destruction,
  for you have cast all my sins
    behind your back.
18   For Sheol does not thank you;
    death does not praise you;
  those who go down to the pit do not hope
    for your faithfulness.
19   The living, the living, he thanks you,
    as I do this day;
  the father makes known to the children
    your faithfulness.
20   The LORD will save me,
    and we will play my music on stringed instruments
  all the days of our lives,
    at the house of the LORD.

21 Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may recover.” 22 Hezekiah also had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?”

Footnotes

[1] 38:1 Or live; also verses 9, 21
[2] 38:5 Hebrew to your days
[3] 38:8 The meaning of the Hebrew verse is uncertain
[4] 38:10 Or In the quiet
[5] 38:13 Or (with Targum) I cried for help

Commentary

v1: A different circumstance this time, something more personal and private for Hezekiah; yet a battle that can be as hard as facing any belligerent aggressor.

v2-3: Hezekiah prayed again. He continued his own good practice. His theme is his own faithfulness, rather than God's faithfulness.

v4-8: Again, God honoured him and answered his prayer, giving His answer through Isaiah.

God gave him an extra 15 years, yet this may not have been His best;

during this time, Manasseh, the worst of the kings of Judah, was born;
during this time, the Babylonian envoys arrived, see ch 39.

The sign of God's answer, the ten degrees, or steps, on Ahaz' sundial. The word used here is used in Ps 120-134. See note at v20.

v9: Hezekiah took time to record his experiences and feelings; here too is testimony of God's goodness to him.

v10-14: Hezekiah's depression, brought on by his illness; his language is reminiscent of Job's. He spoke of "the prime of my life," although that was his opinion.

Like the writer of Ecclesiastes (Eccl 12.6-7), he describes the experience of death.

Hezekiah's words end with a prayer, following his usual example; "Come to my aid," or 'be my security,' as with a loan; his debt was met by the Lord.

v15: Changed attitude, of gratitude to God, acknowledging His intervention. There is also a new determination, to walk carefully.

v16: A new hope, as he was restored to life.

v17: A new understanding, as he recognised God's hand upon him; He is never absent, and always faithful; Hezekiah realised the truth of "no condemnation."

v18-19: Praise falls from the lips of the redeemed; Hezekiah followed David's example of singing praise to God. As in v10-11, Hezekiah sees this life as all that he has in which to praise God. He therefore requested extra years in which to do this. With the comments at v2-3, there are certainly mixed motives here.

v20: Hezekiah's songs, a reference to psalms in the series Ps 120-134, of which Hezekiah probably wrote the ten anonymous psalms (i.e: except 122, 124, 127, 131, 133).

v21-22: Filling in details, possibly by Isaiah's hand, explaining things that the king had missed; Isaiah had prophesied that a poultice of figs be applied to Hezekiah's boil, by which he was healed. The sign (v7) was the shadow of the sun returning ten steps.