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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0;"/><title>Isaiah 38 Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</title><link rel="canonical" href="https://biblehub.com/commentaries/expositors/isaiah/38.htm" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/5001com.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 4800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 4800px)" href="/4801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1550px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1550px)" href="/1551.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1250px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1250px)" href="/1251.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1050px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1050px)" href="/1051.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 900px), only screen and (max-device-width: 900px)" href="/901.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 800px)" href="/801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 575px), only screen and (max-device-width: 575px)" href="/501.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-height: 450px), only screen and (max-device-height: 450px)" href="/h451.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /><script type="application/javascript" src="https://scripts.webcontentassessor.com/scripts/8a2459b64f9cac8122fc7f2eac4409c8555fac9383016db59c4c26e3d5b8b157"></script><script src='https://qd.admetricspro.com/js/biblehub/biblehub-layout-loader-revcatch.js'></script><script id='HyDgbd_1s' src='https://prebidads.revcatch.com/ads.js' type='text/javascript' async></script><script>(function(w,d,b,s,i){var cts=d.createElement(s);cts.async=true;cts.id='catchscript'; cts.dataset.appid=i;cts.src='https://app.protectsubrev.com/catch_rp.js?cb='+Math.random(); document.head.appendChild(cts); }) (window,document,'head','script','rc-anksrH');</script></head> <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-LR4HSKRP2H"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-LR4HSKRP2H'); </script><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/isaiah/38.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="//biblehu.com/bmcom/isaiah/38-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="/commentaries/">Commentary</a> > <a href="../">Ellicott</a> > <a href="../isaiah/">Isaiah</a></div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../isaiah/37.htm" title="Isaiah 37">◄</a> Isaiah 38 <a href="../isaiah/39.htm" title="Isaiah 39">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</div><div class="chap"> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/38-1.htm">Isaiah 38:1</a></div><div class="verse">In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live.</div>XXXVIII.</span><p>(1) <span class= "bld">In those days.</span>—On any supposition, the narrative of Hezekiah’s illness throws us back to a time fifteen years before his death, and therefore to an earlier date than the destruction of the Assyrian army, which it here follows. So in <a href="/isaiah/38-6.htm" title="And I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria: and I will defend this city.">Isaiah 38:6</a>, the deliverance of the city is spoken of as still future. Assuming the rectified chronology given above, we are carried to a time ten or eleven years before the invasion, which was probably in part caused by the ambitious schemes indicated in Isaiah 39. It follows from either view that we have no ground for assuming, as some commentators have done, (1) that the illness was an attack of the plague that destroyed the Assyrian army, or (2) that the treasures which Hezekiah showed to the Babylonian ambassadors were in part the spoil of that army.<p><span class= "bld">Set thine house in order.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">Give orders to thy house, </span>euphemistic for “make thy will.” The words are a striking illustration, like Jonah’s announcement that Nineveh should be destroyed in three days (<a href="/jonah/3-4.htm" title="And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.">Jonah 3:4</a>), of the conditional character of prophecy. It would seem as if Isaiah had been consulted half as prophet and half as physician as to the nature of the disease. It seemed to him fatal; it was necessary to prepare for death. The words may possibly imply a certain sense of disappointment at the result of Hezekiah’s reign. In the midst of the king’s magnificence and prosperity there was that in the inner house of the soul, as well as in that of the outer life, which required ordering.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/38-2.htm">Isaiah 38:2</a></div><div class="verse">Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the LORD,</div>(2) <span class= "bld">Turned his face toward the wall . . .</span>—The royal couch was in the corner, as the Eastern place of honour, the face turned to it, as seeking privacy and avoiding the gaze of men. (Comp. Ahab in <a href="/1_kings/21-4.htm" title="And Ahab came into his house heavy and displeased because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him: for he had said, I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers. And he laid him down on his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no bread.">1Kings 21:4</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/38-3.htm">Isaiah 38:3</a></div><div class="verse">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 <i>that which is</i> good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.</div>(3) <span class= "bld">Remember now, O Lord.</span>—Devout as the prayer is, there is a tone of self-satisfaction in it which contrasts with David’s prayer (<a href="/context/psalms/51-1.htm" title="Have mercy on me, O God, according to your loving kindness: according to the multitude of your tender mercies blot out my transgressions.">Psalm 51:1-3</a>). He rests on what he has done in the way of religious reformation, and practically asks what he has done that he should be cut off by an untimely death. The tears may probably have been less egotistic than the words, and, therefore, were more prevailing.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/38-5.htm">Isaiah 38:5</a></div><div class="verse">Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, 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.</div>(5) <span class= "bld">Fifteen years.</span>—The words fix the date of the illness, taking the received chronology, as B.C. 713. The next verse shows that there was danger at the time to be apprehended from Assyria, but does not necessarily refer to Sennacherib’s invasion. Sargon’s attack (<a href="/isaiah/20-1.htm" title="In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, (when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him,) and fought against Ashdod, and took it;">Isaiah 20:1</a>) may have caused a general alarm.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/38-7.htm">Isaiah 38:7</a></div><div class="verse">And this <i>shall be</i> a sign unto thee from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he hath spoken;</div>(7) <span class= "bld">This shall be a sign unto thee . . .</span>—The offer reminds us of that made to Ahaz; but it was received in a far different spirit. In <a href="/context/2_kings/20-8.htm" title="And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, What shall be the sign that the LORD will heal me, and that I shall go up into the house of the LORD the third day?">2Kings 20:8-11</a> the story is more fully told. Hezekiah asks for a sign, and is offered his choice. Shall the shadow go forward or backward? With something of a child-like simplicity he chooses the latter, as the more difficult of the two. The sun-dial of Ahaz, probably, like his altar (<a href="/2_kings/16-10.htm" title="And king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and saw an altar that was at Damascus: and king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof.">2Kings 16:10</a>), copied from Syrian or Assyrian art [the mention of a sun-clock is ascribed by Herodotus (ii. 109) to the Chaldæans], would seem to have been of the form of an obelisk standing on <span class= "ital">steps </span>(the literal meaning of the Hebrew word for dial), and casting its shadow so as to indicate the time, each step representing an hour or half-hour. The nature of the phenomenon seems as curiously limited as that of the darkness of the crucifixion. There was no prolongation of the day in the rest of Palestine or Jerusalem, for the backward movement was limited to the step-dial. At Babylon no such phenomenon had been observed, and one ostensible purpose of Merôdach-baladan’s embassy was to investigate its nature (<a href="/2_chronicles/32-31.htm" title="However, in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent to him to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart.">2Chronicles 32:31</a>). An inquiry into the causation of a miracle is almost a contradiction in terms, but the most probable explanation of the fact recorded is that it was the effect of a supernatural, but exceedingly circumscribed, refraction. A prolonged after glow following on the sunset; and reviving for a time the brightness of the day, might produce an effect such as is described to one who gazed upon the step-dial.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/38-9.htm">Isaiah 38:9</a></div><div class="verse">The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sickness:</div>(9) <span class= "bld">The writing of Hezekiah . . .</span>—<a href="/context/isaiah/38-21.htm" title="For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaster on the boil, and he shall recover.">Isaiah 38:21-22</a> would seem to have their right place before the elegiac psalm that follows. The culture which the psalm implies is what might have been expected from one whom Isaiah had trained, who had restored and organised the worship of the Temple (<a href="/context/2_chronicles/29-25.htm" title="And he set the Levites in the house of the LORD with cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps, according to the commandment of David, and of Gad the king's seer, and Nathan the prophet: for so was the commandment of the LORD by his prophets.">2Chronicles 29:25-30</a>), who spoke to Levites and soldiers as a preacher (<a href="/2_chronicles/30-22.htm" title="And Hezekiah spoke comfortably to all the Levites that taught the good knowledge of the LORD: and they did eat throughout the feast seven days, offering peace offerings, and making confession to the LORD God of their fathers.">2Chronicles 30:22</a>; <a href="/2_chronicles/32-6.htm" title="And he set captains of war over the people, and gathered them together to him in the street of the gate of the city, and spoke comfortably to them, saying,">2Chronicles 32:6</a>), “speaking comfortably” (literally, <span class= "ital">to their heart</span>)<span class= "ital">, </span>and who had directed the compilation of a fresh set of the proverbs ascribed to Solomon (<a href="/proverbs/25-1.htm" title="These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out.">Proverbs 25:1</a>). It will be seen, as we go through the hymn, that it presents echoes of the Book of Job as well as of the earlier Psalms.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/38-10.htm">Isaiah 38:10</a></div><div class="verse">I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years.</div>(10) <span class= "bld">I said in the cutting off of my days . . .</span>—The words have been very differently interpreted—(1) “in the <span class= "ital">quietness,</span>” and so in the even tenor of a healthy life. As a fact, however, the complaint did not, and could not, come in the “quiet” of his life, but after it had passed away; (2) “in <span class= "ital">the dividing point,” scil., </span>the “half-way house of life.” Hezekiah was thirty-nine, but the word might rightly be used of the years between thirty-five and forty, which were the moieties of the seventy and eighty years of the psalmist (<a href="/psalms/90-10.htm" title="The days of our years are three score years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.">Psalm 90:10</a>). We are reminded of Dante’s “<span class= "ital">Nel mezza del cammin di nostra vita”</span> (<span class= "ital">Inf. </span>i. 1).<p><span class= "bld">The gates of the grave.</span>—The image is what we should call Dantesque. Sheol, the Hades of the Hebrews, is, as in the Assyrian representations of the unseen world, and as in the <span class= "ital">Inferno </span>of Dante (iii. 11, vii. 2, x. 22), a great city, and, therefore, it has its gates, which again become, as with other cities, the symbol of its power. So we have “gates of death” in <a href="/job/38-17.htm" title="Have the gates of death been opened to you? or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death?">Job 38:17</a>; <a href="/psalms/9-18.htm" title="For the needy shall not always be forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever.">Psalm 9:18</a>; <a href="/psalms/107-18.htm" title="Their soul abhors all manner of meat; and they draw near to the gates of death.">Psalm 107:18</a>.<p><span class= "bld">The residue . . .</span>—The words assume a normal duration, say of seventy years, on which the sufferer, who had, as he thought, done nothing to deserve punishment, might have legitimately counted.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/38-11.htm">Isaiah 38:11</a></div><div class="verse">I said, I shall not see the LORD, <i>even</i> the LORD, in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world.</div>(11) <span class= "bld">I shall not see the Lord . . .</span>—The words are eminently characteristic of the cheerless dimness of the Hebrew’s thoughts of death. To St. Paul and those who share his faith death is to “depart, and to be with Christ” (<a href="/philippians/1-23.htm" title="For I am in a strait between two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:">Philippians 1:23</a>), to be “ever with the Lord” (<a href="/1_thessalonians/4-17.htm" title="Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.">1Thessalonians 4:17</a>). To Hezekiah, it would seem, the outward worship of the Temple, or possibly, the consciousness of God’s presence in the full activity of brain and heart, was a joy which he could not bear to lose. The spiritual perceptions of the life after death would be spectral and shadowy, like the dead themselves. (Comp. the Greek idea of Hades in Homer (<span class= "ital">Od. xi.</span> 12-19). It may be noted that the Hebrew for “the Lord” is the shorter, possibly the poetical, form “Jah” (as in <a href="/psalms/68-4.htm" title="Sing to God, sing praises to his name: extol him that rides on the heavens by his name JAH, and rejoice before him.">Psalm 68:4</a>). The LXX paraphrases “I shall not see the salvation of God.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/38-12.htm">Isaiah 38:12</a></div><div class="verse">Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd's tent: I have cut off like a weaver my life: he will cut me off with pining sickness: from day <i>even</i> to night wilt thou make an end of me.</div>(12) <span class= "bld">Mine age is departed . . .</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">my home, </span>or <span class= "ital">habitation </span><span class= "bld">. . .</span> as in <a href="/psalms/49-19.htm" title="He shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light.">Psalm 49:19</a>, and thus fitting in better with the similitude that follows. The “home” is, of course, the body, as the dwelling-place of the spirit. (Comp. <a href="/psalms/52-5.htm" title="God shall likewise destroy you for ever, he shall take you away, and pluck you out of your dwelling place, and root you out of the land of the living. Selah.">Psalm 52:5</a>, “hurl thee away tentless,” Heb., and <a href="/job/21-28.htm" title="For you say, Where is the house of the prince? and where are the dwelling places of the wicked?">Job 21:28</a>, “Is not their tent-cord torn away?” Heb.) The “shepherd’s tent” is the type of a transitory home (<a href="/context/2_corinthians/5-1.htm" title="For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.">2Corinthians 5:1-4</a>).<p><span class= "bld">I have cut off like a weaver my life . . .</span>—The words express the feeling of one who had been weaving the web of his life with varied plans and counsels (comp. <a href="/isaiah/30-1.htm" title="Woe to the rebellious children, said the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin:">Isaiah 30:1</a>), and now had to roll it up, as finished before its time, because Jehovah had taken up the “abhorred shears” to cut it <span class= "ital">from the thrum, </span>which takes the place of “with pining sickness.” There is, perhaps, a tone of reverence in the impersonal form of the statement. The sufferer will not name Jehovah as the author of his trouble.<p><span class= "bld">From day even to night.</span>—The words speak of the rapidity rather than of the prolongation of suffering. The sick man expects that death will come before the morrow’s dawn.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/38-13.htm">Isaiah 38:13</a></div><div class="verse">I reckoned till morning, <i>that</i>, as a lion, so will he break all my bones: from day <i>even</i> to night wilt thou make an end of me.</div>(13) <span class= "bld">I reckoned till morning . . .</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">I quieted myself, </span>as in <a href="/psalms/131-2.htm" title="Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child.">Psalm 131:2</a>. He threw himself into the calm submission of the weaned child; yet when the morning came there was a fresh access of suffering. Life had been prolonged, contrary to his expectations; but it was only for renewed agony. Surely that would end his sufferings.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/38-14.htm">Isaiah 38:14</a></div><div class="verse">Like a crane <i>or</i> a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove: mine eyes fail <i>with looking</i> upward: O LORD, I am oppressed; undertake for me.</div>(14) <span class= "bld">Like a crane . . .</span>—The three birds—strictly, the “swift,” the “crane,” the “dove”—each with its special note of lamentation, represent, as it were, the cries of pain and the low suppressed wail of the sufferer. The three appear again together in <a href="/jeremiah/8-7.htm" title="Yes, the stork in the heaven knows her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.">Jeremiah 8:7</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Undertake for me</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e.,</span> as in <a href="/genesis/43-9.htm" title="I will be surety for him; of my hand shall you require him: if I bring him not to you, and set him before you, then let me bear the blame for ever:">Genesis 43:9</a>; <a href="/genesis/44-32.htm" title="For your servant became surety for the lad to my father, saying, If I bring him not to you, then I shall bear the blame to my father for ever.">Genesis 44:32</a>; <a href="/job/17-3.htm" title="Lay down now, put me in a surety with you; who is he that will strike hands with me?">Job 17:3</a>, <span class= "ital">Be surety for me. </span>The idea is that of Death, who, yet in another sense, is but the minister of Jehovah, as being the creditor pressing for immediate payment. The words involve (as Cheyne points out) something like an appeal to the judge, who is also the accuser, to be bail for the accused.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/38-15.htm">Isaiah 38:15</a></div><div class="verse">What shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done <i>it</i>: I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul.</div>(15) <span class= "bld">What shall I say?</span>—With the same force as in <a href="/2_samuel/7-20.htm" title="And what can David say more to you? for you, Lord GOD, know your servant.">2Samuel 7:20</a>; <a href="/hebrews/11-32.htm" title="And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets:">Hebrews 11:32</a>. Words fail to express the wonder and the gratitude of the sufferer who has thus been rescued for the fulfilment which followed so immediately on the promise.<p><span class= "bld">I shall go softly . . .</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">That I should walk at ease upon </span>(<span class= "ital">i.e., because of, </span>or, as others take it, <span class= "ital">in spite of</span>)<span class= "ital"> the trouble of my soul. </span>The verb is used in <a href="/psalms/42-4.htm" title="When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holy day.">Psalm 42:4</a> of a festal procession to the Temple, but here refers simply to the journey of life, and implies that it is to be carried on to the end as with calm and considerate steps. The Authorised Version suggests wrongly the thought of a life-long bitterness.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/38-16.htm">Isaiah 38:16</a></div><div class="verse">O Lord, by these <i>things men</i> live, and in all these <i>things is</i> the life of my spirit: so wilt thou recover me, and make me to live.</div>(16) <span class= "bld">By these things . . .</span><span class= "ital">—i.e., </span>by the word of God and the performance which fulfils it. For “in all these things,” read <span class= "ital">wholly through them. </span>The words remind us of <a href="/deuteronomy/8-3.htm" title="And he humbled you, and suffered you to hunger, and fed you with manna, which you knew not, neither did your fathers know; that he might make you know that man does not live by bread only, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD does man live.">Deuteronomy 8:3</a>, “Man doth not live by bread alone <span class= "bld">. . .</span>”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/38-17.htm">Isaiah 38:17</a></div><div class="verse">Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul <i>delivered it</i> from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.</div>(17) <span class= "bld">For peace I had great bitterness . . .</span>—The words in the Authorised Version read like a retrospect of the change from health to suffering. Really, they express the very opposite. <span class= "ital">It was for my peace </span>(<span class= "ital">i.e., for my salvation, </span>in the fullest sense of the word) <span class= "ital">that it was bitter, was bitter unto me </span>(emphasis of iteration). All things were now seen as “working together for good.”<p><span class= "bld">Thou hast in love to my soul . . .</span>—The italics show that the verbs “delivered it “are not in the present Hebrew text. A slight change, such as might be made to correct an error of transcription, would give that meaning, but as it stands, we have the singularly suggestive phrase, <span class= "ital">Thou hast loved me out of the pit of corruption. </span>The very love of Jehovah is thought of as <span class= "ital">ipso facto </span>a deliverance.<p><span class= "bld">Thou hast cast all my sins . . .</span>—As in our Lord’s miracles, the bodily healing was the pledge and earnest of the spiritual. “Arise and walk” guaranteed, “Thy sins be forgiven thee” (<a href="/context/matthew/9-2.htm" title="And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said to the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; your sins be forgiven you.">Matthew 9:2-5</a>). (For the symbols of that forgiveness, comp. <a href="/micah/7-19.htm" title="He will turn again, he will have compassion on us; he will subdue our iniquities; and you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.">Micah 7:19</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/38-18.htm">Isaiah 38:18</a></div><div class="verse">For the grave cannot praise thee, death can <i>not</i> celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.</div>(18) <span class= "bld">For the grave . . .</span><span class= "ital">—i.e., Sheol, </span>or <span class= "ital">Hades. </span>We return to the king’s thoughts of the dim shadow-world, <span class= "ital">Death and Sheol </span>(joined together, as in <a href="/isaiah/28-15.htm" title="Because you have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing whip shall pass through, it shall not come to us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:">Isaiah 28:15</a>; <a href="/psalms/6-5.htm" title="For in death there is no remembrance of you: in the grave who shall give you thanks?">Psalm 6:5</a>). In that region of dimness there are no psalms of thanksgiving, no loud hallelujahs. The thought of spiritual energies developed and intensified after death is essentially one which belongs to the “illuminated” immortality (<a href="/2_timothy/1-10.htm" title="But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death, and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel:">2Timothy 1:10</a>), of Christian thought. (Comp. <a href="/psalms/6-5.htm" title="For in death there is no remembrance of you: in the grave who shall give you thanks?">Psalm 6:5</a>; <a href="/psalms/30-9.htm" title="What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise you? shall it declare your truth?">Psalm 30:9</a>; <a href="/context/psalms/88-11.htm" title="Shall your loving kindness be declared in the grave? or your faithfulness in destruction?">Psalm 88:11-12</a>; <a href="/psalms/115-17.htm" title="The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence.">Psalm 115:17</a>; <a href="/context/ecclesiastes/9-4.htm" title="For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.">Ecclesiastes 9:4-5</a>; <a href="/ecclesiastes/9-10.htm" title="Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, where you go.">Ecclesiastes 9:10</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/38-19.htm">Isaiah 38:19</a></div><div class="verse">The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I <i>do</i> this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth.</div>(19) <span class= "bld">The father to the children . . .</span>—The words are perfectly general, but they receive a special significance from the fact that Hezekiah’s son and successor, Manasseh, who was only twelve years old at his father’s death (<a href="/2_kings/21-1.htm" title="Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hephzibah.">2Kings 21:1</a>), was not born till two or three years afterwards. At the time of his illness the king may still have been childless, and the thought that there was no son to take his place may have added bitterness to his grief. “Thy truth,” has here the sense of “faithfulness” rather than of the truth about God which is the object of belief.<span class= "bld"><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/38-20.htm">Isaiah 38:20</a></div><div class="verse">The LORD <i>was ready</i> to save me: therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the LORD.</div>(20) <span class= "bld">Was ready.</span>—Better, as fitting in with the praise and hope of the close of the prayer, <span class= "ital">is ready.</span><p><span class= "bld">We will sing.</span>—The king identifies himself with the great congregation, perhaps even yet more closely with the Levite minstrels of the Temple whom he had done so much to train and re-organise.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/38-21.htm">Isaiah 38:21</a></div><div class="verse">For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay <i>it</i> for a plaister upon the boil, and he shall recover.</div>(21) <span class= "bld">For Isaiah had said . . .</span>—The direction implies some medical training on the part of Isaiah (see Note on <a href="/isaiah/1-6.htm" title="From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.">Isaiah 1:6</a>, and <span class= "ital">Introduction</span>)<span class= "ital">, </span>such as entered naturally into the education of the prophet-priests. They were to Israel, especially in the case of leprosy and other kindred diseases, what the priests of Asclepios were to Greece. The Divine promise guaranteed success to the use of natural remedies, but did not dispense with them, and they, like the spittle laid on the eyes of the blind in the Gospel miracles (<a href="/mark/7-33.htm" title="And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue;">Mark 7:33</a>, <a href="/john/9-6.htm" title="When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay,">John 9:6</a>), were also a help to the faith on which the miracle depended. Both this and the following verse seem, as has been said, to have been notes to <a href="/isaiah/38-8.htm" title="Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down.">Isaiah 38:8</a>, supplied from the narrative of 2 Kings 20, and placed at the end of the chapter instead of at the foot of the page, as in modern MSS. or print. The word for “boil” appears in connection with leprosy in <a href="/exodus/9-9.htm" title="And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains on man, and on beast, throughout all the land of Egypt.">Exodus 9:9</a>, <a href="/leviticus/13-18.htm" title="The flesh also, in which, even in the skin thereof, was a boil, and is healed,">Leviticus 13:18</a>, but is used generically for any kind of abscess, carbuncle, and the like. (Comp. <a href="/job/2-7.htm" title="So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot to his crown.">Job 2:7</a>.)<p><span class= "bld"> <div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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