(KJV) Isaiah 381

<< Isaiah 37 Isaiah 39 >>

⥃Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery [ 2 Kings 20:1–11 † 2 Chronicles 32:24–31 ]

[1] In those days was Hezekiah2 sick unto death. And Isaiah3 the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order4: for thou5 shalt die, and not live.6 [2] Then Hezekiah turned7 his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the Lord, [3] And said, Remember8 now, O Lord, I beseech thee, how I have9 walked before thee in truth and with a perfect10 heart, and have done [that which is] good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept11 sore12.

[4] [¶]Then came the word of the Lord to Isaiah, saying, [5] Go, and say13 to Hezekiah, Thus saith the Lord, the God14 of David thy father, I have heard15 thy prayer, I have seen16 thy tears: behold, I will17 add unto thy days fifteen years. [6] And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria: and I will defend this city.18 [7] And this [shall be] a sign unto thee from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that he hath spoken;19 [8] Behold, I will bring20 again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun dial21 of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down.

⥃Hezekiah’s Song of Thanksgiving

[9] The writing22 of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had23 been sick, and was recovered of his sickness: [10] 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.24 [11] I said, I shall not see the Lord, [even] the Lord, in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world.25 [12] Mine age is departed, and is removed26 from me as a27 shepherd’s tent: I have cut28 off like a weaver my life: he will cut29 me off with pining sickness30: from day [even] to night wilt thou make an end of me. [13] I reckoned till morning, [that], as a lion31, so will he break all my bones: from day [even] to night wilt thou make an end of me. [14] Like a crane32 [or] a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn33 as a dove: mine eyes34 fail [with looking] upward: O Lord, I am35 oppressed; undertake for me36. [15] What37 shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done [it]: I shall38 go softly all my years in the39 bitterness of my soul. [16] O Lord, by these [things men] live, and in all these [things is] the life of my spirit: so wilt thou recover me, and make me to live.40 [17] Behold, for peace I had great bitterness41: but thou hast in love to my soul [delivered it] from the pit42 of corruption: for thou hast cast43 all my sins behind thy back. [18] For the grave44 cannot praise thee, death can [not] celebrate thee: they that45 go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. [19] The living46, the living, he shall praise thee, as I [do] this day: the father47 to the children shall make known thy truth. [20] The Lord [was ready] to save me: therefore48 we will sing my songs to the stringed49 instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord. [21] For Isaiah50 had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay [it] for a plaister upon the boil, and he shall recover. [22] Hezekiah also had said, What51 [is] the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?

<< Isaiah 37 Isaiah 39 >>

  1. Isa 38:1, Hezekiah, having received a message of death, by prayer has his life lengthened; Isa 38:8, The sun goes ten degrees backward, for a sign of that promise; Isa 38:9, His song of thanksgiving. ↩

  2. 2Kgs 20:1-11; 2Chr 32:24; John 11:1-5; Acts 9:37; Phil 2:27-30 ↩

  3. Isa 37:21, Isa 39:3-4 ↩

  4. Heb. Give charge concerning thy house, 2Sam 17:23; Eccl 9:10 ↩

  5. Jer 18:7-10; Jonah 3:4, Jonah 3:10 ↩

  6. am 3291, bc 718 ↩

  7. Hezekiah's couch was probably placed in a corner, which is the place of honour in the East; in which, turning on either side, he must turn his face to the wall; by which he would withdraw himself from those attending him in his apartment. 1Kgs 8:30; Ps 50:15, Ps 91:15; Matt 6:6 ↩

  8. Neh 5:19, Neh 13:14, Neh 13:22, Neh 13:31; Ps 18:20-27, Ps 20:1-3; Heb 6:10 ↩

  9. Gen 5:22-23, Gen 6:9, Gen 17:1; 1Kgs 2:4; 2Chr 31:20-21; Job 23:11-12; Ps 16:8; Ps 32:2; John 1:47; 2Cor 1:12; 1John 3:21-22 ↩

  10. 1Kgs 15:14; 1Chr 29:9, 1Chr 29:19; 2Chr 16:9, 2Chr 25:2; Ps 101:2, Ps 119:80 ↩

  11. 2Sam 12:21-22; Ezra 10:1; Neh 1:4; Ps 6:8, Ps 102:9; Hos 12:4; Heb 5:7 ↩

  12. Heb. with great weeping ↩

  13. 2Sam 7:3-5; 1Chr 17:2-4 ↩

  14. Isa 7:13-14; 1Kgs 8:25, 1Kgs 9:4-5, 1Kgs 11:12-13, 1Kgs 15:4; 2Chr 34:3; Ps 89:3-4; Matt 22:32 ↩

  15. 2Kgs 19:20; Ps 34:5-6; Luke 1:13; 1John 5:14-15 ↩

  16. Ps 39:12, Ps 56:8, Ps 147:3; 2Cor 7:6; Rev 7:17 ↩

  17. Job 14:5; Ps 116:15; Acts 27:24 ↩

  18. Isa 12:6, Isa 31:4, Isa 37:35; 2Chr 32:22; 2Tim 4:17 ↩

  19. Isa 38:22, Isa 7:11-14, Isa 37:30; Gen 9:13; Judg 6:17-22, Judg 6:37-39; 2Kgs 20:8-21 ↩

  20. Josh 10:12-14; 2Kgs 20:11; 2Chr 32:24, 2Chr 32:31; Matt 16:1 ↩

  21. Heb. the degrees by, or, with the sun, Or, as the Hebrew might be rendered, "the steps of Ahaz." The researches of curious travellers in Hindostan, observes Bp. Stock, have lately discovered in that country, three observatories of similar form, the most remarkable of which is to be seen within four miles of Delhi, the ancient capital of the Mogul empire. A rectangled triangle, whose hypotenuse is a staircase (apparently parallel to the axis of the earth), bisects a zone, or coping of a wall, which wall connects the two terminating towers at right and left. The coping itself is of a circular form, and accurately graduated, to mark, by the gnomon above, the sun's progress before and after noon. ↩

  22. Isa 12:1-6; Exod 15:1-21; Judg 5:1-31; 1Sam 2:1-10; Ps 18:1 *title Ps 30:11-12, Ps 107:17-22, Ps 116:1-4, Ps 118:18-19; Jonah 2:1-9 ↩

  23. Deut 32:39; 1Sam 2:6; Job 5:18; Hos 6:1-2; We have here Hezekiah's thanksgiving song, which he penned by Divine direction, after his recovery. He might have used some of the Psalms of David his father, as he had appointed the Levites to praise the Lord with the words of David, 2Chr 29:30, but the occasion here was extraordinary. His heart being full of devout affections, he would not confine himself to the compositions he had, though of Divine inspiration, but offered up his praises in his own words. The Lord put a new song into his mouth. He put his thanksgiving into writing, that he might review it himself afterwards, for the reviving of the good impressions made upon him by the providential interference, and that it might be recommended to others also for their use upon the like occasion. 2Chr 29:30 ↩

  24. Isa 38:1; Job 6:11, Job 7:7, Job 17:11-16; 2Cor 1:9 ↩

  25. Job 35:14-15; Ps 6:4-5, Ps 27:13, Ps 31:22, Ps 116:8-9; Eccl 9:5-6 ↩

  26. Job 7:7; Ps 89:45-47, Ps 102:11, Ps 102:23-24 ↩

  27. Isa 1:8, Isa 13:20 ↩

  28. Job 7:6, Job 9:25-26, Job 14:2; Jas 4:14 ↩

  29. Job 7:3-5, Job 17:1; Ps 31:22, Ps 119:23 ↩

  30. or, from the thrum ↩

  31. 1Kgs 13:24-26, 1Kgs 20:36; Job 10:16-17, Job 16:12-14; Ps 39:10, Ps 50:22, Ps 51:8; Dan 6:24; Hos 5:14; 1Cor 11:30-32 ↩

  32. Job 30:29; Ps 102:4-7 ↩

  33. Isa 59:11; Ezek 7:16; Nah 2:7 ↩

  34. Ps 69:3, Ps 119:82, Ps 119:123, Ps 123:1-4; Lam 4:17 ↩

  35. Ps 119:122, Ps 143:7 ↩

  36. or, ease me ↩

  37. Josh 7:8; Ezra 9:10; Ps 39:9-10; John 12:27 ↩

  38. 1Kgs 21:27 ↩

  39. 1Sam 1:10; 2Kgs 4:27; Job 7:11, Job 10:1, Job 21:25 ↩

  40. Isa 64:5; Deut 8:3; Job 33:19-28; Ps 71:20; Matt 4:4; 1Cor 11:32; 2Cor 4:17; Heb 12:10-11 ↩

  41. or, on my peace came great bitterness, Job 3:25-26, Job 29:18; Ps 30:6-7 ↩

  42. Heb. loved my soul from the pit, Ps 30:3, Ps 40:2, Ps 86:13, Ps 88:4-6; Jonah 2:6 ↩

  43. Isa 43:25; Ps 10:2, Ps 85:2; Jer 31:34; Mic 7:18-19 ↩

  44. Ps 6:5, Ps 30:9, Ps 88:11, Ps 115:17-18; Eccl 9:10 ↩

  45. Num 16:33; Prov 14:32; Matt 8:12, Matt 25:46; Luke 16:26-31 ↩

  46. Ps 146:2; Eccl 9:10; John 9:4 ↩

  47. Gen 18:19; Exod 12:26-27, Exod 13:14-15; Deut 4:9, Deut 6:7; Josh 4:21-22; Ps 78:3-6, Ps 145:4; Joel 1:3 ↩

  48. Ps 9:13-14, Ps 27:5-6, Ps 30:11-12, Ps 51:15, Ps 66:13-15, Ps 145:2 ↩

  49. Ps 150:4; Hab 3:19 ↩

  50. 2Kgs 20:7; Mark 7:33; John 9:6 ↩

  51. 2Kgs 20:8; Ps 42:1-2, Ps 84:1-2, Ps 84:10-12, Ps 118:18-19, Ps 122:1; John 5:14 ↩