Chapter XXXVIII
Ver. 1-22. Hkzekiah's Sickness; perhaps connected WITH TUK Pr.AOUE OR BLAST WHEEEBY THE ASSYRIAN Army had been Destroyed. 1. Set . . . house in order —Make arrangement as to the succession to the throne;
14t,h year of Hezekiah to be 689 B. c, the known year of a solar eclipse, to which he ascribes the recession of the shadow. At all events, there is no need for supposing any revolution of the relative positions of the sun and earth, but merely an effect produced on the sliadow (2 Kings 20.9-11); that effect was only local, and designed for the satisfaction of Hezekiah, for tlie Babylonian astronomers and king " sent to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land" (2 Chronicles 32. 31), implying that
for he liad then no son; and as to thy other concerns, thou tihalt die—speaking according to the ordinary course of the disease. His being spared fifteen years was not a change in God's mind, but an illustration of God's dealings being unchangeably regulated by the state of man in relation to Him. 3. The couches in the East run along the walls of houses. He turned away from the spectators to hide his emotion and collect his tlioughts
it had not extended to their country. No mention of any instrument for marking time occurs before this dial of Ahaz, 700 B. c. The first mention of the "hour" is made by Daniel at Babylon (Daniel 3. 6). 9-20. The prayer and thanksgiving song of Hezekiah is only given here, not in the parallel passages of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles; v. 9 Is the heading or inscription. 10. cutting off—Rosenmul-
for prayer. 3. He mentions his past religious consistency not as a iMiast, or a ground for justification, but according to tlie Old Testament dispensation, wherein temporal rewarfls I'as long life, &c.. Exodus 20. 12) followed legal obedience, he makes his religious conduct a plea for asking the prolongation of his life, walked—life is a journey
the pious "walk" with God" (Genesis 5.24; 1 Kings 9.4). perfect sincere; not absolutely perfect, but aiming towards It (.Mattliew 5. 45); single-minded In walking as in the presence of God (Genesis 17. 1). The letter oi the Old
T.'E.VL translates, "the meridian;" when the sun stands in the zenith : so " the perfect day" (Proverbs 4. 18'. Rather, "in the tranquillity of my days," i. e., that period of life
HezekwiKs Sony of Thanksgiving. ISAIAH XXXIX. His Error in the Display of his Richei.
I might now look forward to a tranquil reign. [Maurer.] The Hebrew is so translated (cli. 62. 6, 7). go <o— ratlier, "go uito," as in cli. 46. 2. [Maurer.] residue of my years—tliose wliich 1 had calculated on. God sends sickness to leach man not to calculate on the morrow, but to live more wholly to God, as if each day were the last. 11. I^ord . . . Lord—The repetition, as in v. 19, expresses the excited feeling of the king's mind. To see the Lord (" Jehovah") is flg. for, to enjoy His good gifts. So, In a similar connection (Psalm 27. 13), "I had fainted, unless I had believed toseethe goodness of the Lord in tlie Land of the living" (Psalm 34. 12); " AVhat man is he ttiat desireth life that lie may see good f" world—ratlier, translate, "among the inhabitants of tlie land of stillness," i. e., Hades [M.M'KER], in parallel antithesis to " tlie land of the living" in the first clause. Tlie Hebrew comes from a
tlve convalescence, which he expressed, "Thou m*i« recover me." [Maurer.] 17. for peac^instead of the prosperity wliicli I had previousl.v. great btttei-iiess lit., bitterness to me, bitterness ; expressing intense emot ion. In love lit., attac/iment, such as joins one to anothe'' tenderly
"Thou hast been lovingly attached to me from the pit;" a pregnant phrase for. Thy love has gone down to the pit, and drawn me out from it. Tlie "pit" is here simply death, in Hezekiah's sense; realized in its fulness only in reference to the soul's redemption from hell by Jesus Christ (ch. 61. 1), who went down to tlie pit for that purpose Himself (Psalm 88.4-6; Zechariali 9. 11, 12; Hebiews 13.
20). "Sin" and sickness are connected (Psalm 103.3; cf. ch. 53. 4, with Matthew 8. 17; 9. 5, 6), especially under the Old Testament dispensation of temporal sanctions; but even now, sickness, tliough not invariably arising from sin in individuals, is connected with it in the general moral view, cast . . . behind back—consigned my sins to oblivion. The same phrase occurs (1 Kings 14.9; Neheniiah 9. 26; Psjilm 50. 17). Contrast Psalm 00. 8, "Thoa hast set our iniquities befon-e thee, our .secret sins in the light of thy countenance." 18. death—i. e., tlie dead ; Hades and its inhabitants (Job 28. 22; see 7iote, v. 11). Plainly Hezekiah believed in a world of disembodied spirits; his language does not imply what skepticism h;is drawn from
root, to rest or cease (Job It. 6). 12. age—ratlier, as tlie par-
allel "sheplierd's tent" requires hahitatimi, so tlie Arabic. [Gesesius.] departed—is broken up, or shifted, as ,i tent to a diflPerent locality. The same image occurs (2 Corinthians 5. 1 ; 2 Peter 1. 12, 13). He plainly expects to exist, and not cease to be in anotlier state ; as the shepherd still
lives, after he lias struck his tent and removed elsewhere. I liave cut ofF—He attriliutes to himself tliat which is
Goci'.v will wit li respect to him; because he declares tliat
will. So Jeremiah is said to "root out" kingdoms, because lie declares God's purpose of doing so (Jeremiah 1.
it, but simply that he regarded the disembodied state as one incapable of declaring the praises of God before men, for it is, as regards this world, an unseen land of stillness
10). The weaver cuts off liis well from the loom wlien completed lob 7. 6 has a like image. Tlie Greeks represented the Fates as spinning and cutting ofT the threads of each man's life, he—God. wltU pining sickness raXher, from lite thrum, or thread, which tied the loom to the weaver s beam, from day . . . to nlgUt-?. e., in the space of a single day between morning and night (Job 4.
"the living" alone can praise God on eartli, in reference to which only he is speaking; eh. 57. 1, 2 shows that at this time the true view, of the blessedness of the righteous dead was lield, though not with the full ch-arness of the gospel, which " has brought life and inimorlality to light"
(2 Timothy 1. 10). hope for thy tnsth—(I'salm 104. 27.) Their probation is at an end. They can no longer e.xercise faith and hope in regard to thy faithfulness to thy prom-
2)). 13. 1 reckoned . . . that—rather, / composed (my mind, during the niglit, expecting relief in the "morning," so Job 7. 4): for (thai is not, as in the English Version, to be supplied) as a lion He was breaking all my bones. [VlTKlNGA.l (Job 10. 16
i.ses, which are limited to the present state. For "liope" ceases (even in the ease of the go<lly) when sight begins (Romans 8. 24, 25) ; the ungodly have " no hope" (1 Thessalonians 4. 13). Hope in God's truth is one of the grounds of praise to God (Psalm 71. 14; 119.49). Others transtale, " cannot celebrate." 9. living . . . living—emphatic repetition, as in i'. 11, 17; his heart is so lull of the main object of his prayer, that for want of adequate words he repeats the same word, father to the chlldi-en—one generation of the living to another. He probably, also,
;' Lamentations 3. 10, 11.) The He-
bre~.i, \n Psalm 131.2, is rendered / qvieted. Or else, "I made ni.vself like a lion (viz., in roaring, through painl. He was so breaking m.v bones!" Poets often compare great groaning to a lion's roaring, so, next verse, he compares his groans to the sounds of other animals (Psalm 22. I). [IMaurer.] 1-4. Rather, "Like a swallow, or a crane" (from a root, to disturb the ivairr, a bh'd frequenting the wateri [Mai'RER], (Jeremiah 8. 7). cHiatter twitter: broken sounds expressive of pain, dove—called by the Arabs the daxighter of mourning, from its plaintive DOte (ch. 59. II). looking upward— to God for relief, undertake for lit., be stirety for me; assure me that I ihall be restored (Psalm 119. 122). 15-20. The secon<i part of the song passes liom pra.ver to thanksgiving at the pra.yer being heard. What shall I say—The language of one at a loss for words to express his sense of the unexpected deliverance, hoth spoken . . . and . . . done It (Numbers 23. 19.) Both promised and performed (1 Tliesealonians .5.21; Hebrews 10.2;!). himself— no one else could have done it (P.salm 9S. 1). go softly. . . In the
Iiints at his own desire to live until he .should have a child, the successor to liis throne, to whom he might make known and so perpetuate the memory of God's truth. timtii—faillifulness to His promises; especiall.v In Hezekiah's case. His promise of hearing pmyer. 20. was ready—not in the Hcbretv ; "Jehovah was for my salvation," i. e., saved me (cf. ch. 12. 2). we— I and my people. In the house of the Lord—This song was designed, as many of the other Psalms, as a. form to be used i»:i public worship at stated times, perhaps on every anniversar.v of his recover.v ; hence "all the days of o»r life." lump of flgs—a round cake of figs pressed into a mass (1 Samuel 25. 18). God works by means; the meanest of which He can make effectual, boil—iiitlamed nicer, produced by the plague. H'i. house of tlie Lord—Hence he makes the praises to l)o sung there prominent in his song (V. 20; I'salm 116. l'2-ll, 17-19).
bitterir.ess — rather, "on account of the bitterness;" I will beli.ave myself himibly in remembrance of my past sorrow and sickness from which I have been delivered by God's mercy (see 1 Kings 21. 27, 29). In Psalm 42.4, the same Hebrew verb expresses the slow and solemn gait of one going up to the house of God ; it is found nowhere else; hence Uosenmuli.er explains It, "I will reverenfl.v attend the sacred festivals in the temple:" but this ellipsis would he harsh; rather metaphorically the word Is transferred to a calm, soleynn, and submissive walk of lift?. 10. by these—ui'z., by dad's