Study

a Bible passage

Click a verse to see commentary
Select a resource above

38. Hezekiah's Illness

1 In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, “This is what the LORD says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.”

    2 Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, 3 “Remember, LORD, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

    4 Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah: 5 “Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life. 6 And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city.

    7 “‘This is the LORD’s sign to you that the LORD will do what he has promised: 8 I will make the shadow cast by the sun go back the ten steps it has gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.’” So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had gone down.

    9 A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery:

    10 I said, “In the prime of my life
   must I go through the gates of death
   and be robbed of the rest of my years?”
11 I said, “I will not again see the LORD himself
   in the land of the living;
no longer will I look on my fellow man,
   or be with those who now dwell in this world.
12 Like a shepherd’s tent my house
   has been pulled down and taken from me.
Like a weaver I have rolled up my life,
   and he has cut me off from the loom;
   day and night you made an end of me.
13 I waited patiently till dawn,
   but like a lion he broke all my bones;
   day and night you made an end of me.
14 I cried like a swift or thrush,
   I moaned like a mourning dove.
My eyes grew weak as I looked to the heavens.
   I am being threatened; Lord, come to my aid!”

    15 But what can I say?
   He has spoken to me, and he himself has done this.
I will walk humbly all my years
   because of this anguish of my soul.
16 Lord, by such things people live;
   and my spirit finds life in them too.
You restored me to health
   and let me live.
17 Surely it was for my benefit
   that I suffered such anguish.
In your love you kept me
   from the pit of destruction;
you have put all my sins
   behind your back.
18 For the grave cannot praise you,
   death cannot sing your praise;
those who go down to the pit
   cannot hope for your faithfulness.
19 The living, the living—they praise you,
   as I am doing today;
parents tell their children
   about your faithfulness.

    20 The LORD will save me,
   and we will sing with stringed instruments
all the days of our lives
   in the temple of the LORD.

    21 Isaiah had said, “Prepare a poultice of figs and apply it to the boil, and he will recover.”

    22 Hezekiah had asked, “What will be the sign that I will go up to the temple of the LORD?”

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

13. I reckoned till the dawn. Others translate it “I determined,” or “I laid down.” Here it means what we express by the ordinary phrase, (Je fasoye mon compte,)” I laid my account.” From this verse it may be inferred that Hezekiah labored two days at least under the disease; for in the preceding verse he pronounced its severity to be so great that he expected immediate death. And now, when one day was past, he still waited till the dawn, and again, from day even to night, so that he said that he would die every moment. The meaning therefore is, that though he reached “the dawn,” still through constant tossings he was hastening to death, because, having been struck by a terrible judgment of God, he cared nothing about his life; and as the Greeks, when they intended to say that nothing is more vain than man, said that he was (ἐφήμερον) “an ephemeral animal,” that is, “the creature of a day,” so Hezekiah means by “the life of a day” that which is fading and has no duration.

As a lion, so hath he broken my bones. The comparison of God to a lion ought not to be reckoned strange, though God is naturally “gracious, merciful, and kind.” (Exodus 34:6.) Nothing certainly can more truly belong to God than these attributes; but we cannot be aware of that gentleness, when we have provoked him by our crimes and urged him to severity by our wickedness. Besides, there is no cruelty and fierceness in wild beasts that is fitted to strike such terror as we feel from the bare mention of the name of God, and justly; for the Lord’s chastisements must have sufficient power to humble and cast us down to hell itself, so that we shall be almost destitute of consolation and regard everything as full of horror. In like manner also, we see that David has described these terrors, when he says that “his bones are numbered, his couch is moistened with tears, his soul is troubled, and hell is opened.” (Psalm 6:3-6; 22:17; 38:6.) Thus must the godly be sometimes terrified by the judgment of God, that they may be more powerfully excited to desire his favor.
VIEWNAME is study