Bibelkommentare

Ch. 38 Hezekiah’s Sickness and Recovery

1. In those days] The incident must have preceded by some months the embassy of Merodach-Baladan, the probable date of which will be considered in the Introduction to ch. 39. The order of the chapters cannot be chronological, and the vague expression “in those days” need not perhaps mean more than “in the time of Hezekiah.” If, as Delitzsch and others have supposed, ch. 38 f. stood before 36 f. in the original document, the note of time would naturally refer to some other events in Isaiah’s biography which had been previously narrated. The best justification of this hypothesis is the solution it furnishes of the chronological difficulties presented by this group of chapters.

Set thine house in order] Lit. “Give commandment to thy house,” the last duty of a dying man (2 Samuel 17:23). An example of what is meant may be found in David’s elaborate death-bed charge to Solomon (1 Kings 2:1-9).

2. turned his face toward the wall] (cf. 1 Kings 21:4) an instinctive expression of the feeling that he was alone with God in this bitter moment.

3. with a perfect heart] Lit. “with a whole heart,” one absolutely devoted to Jehovah. Cf. 1 Kings 8:61; 1 Kings 11:4; 1 Kings 15:3; 1 Kings 15:14, where the expression occurs with the addition of the words “with Jehovah.” The motive of this prayer is clearly expressed in the Song of Thanksgiving which follows (see Isaiah 38:11; Isaiah 38:18-19).

4. In 2 Kings 20:4 we read that “afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court,” this message came to him. So quickly was the king’s prayer answered. A somewhat similar instance of the revocation of one prophetic communication by another is that of Nathan in the matter of the building of the Temple (2 Samuel 7:3-4 ff.).

5. The verse is greatly abbreviated from 2 Kings 20:5. After Hezekiah the words “the captain of my people” are omitted; and also the sentence “I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the Lord,” which follows the word behold. It cannot be doubted that the historical book here preserves the original text.

the God of David thy father] for whose sake this special mercy is vouchsafed to the king (cf. ch. Isaiah 37:35; 2 Kings 20:6).

fifteen years] That the number was arrived at by calculation on the part of the historian is not to be believed. If there be calculation in the case at all, it is in the date of ch. Isaiah 36:1, which may very possibly be an inference from this prediction combined with the statement of 2 Kings 18:2. (See on ch. Isaiah 36:1) In any case the assumption that the prophecy was exactly fulfilled is a legitimate one, and the fourteenth year of Hezekiah must be accepted as the true date of this sickness. The only question is whether the writer of ch. Isaiah 36:1 may not have fallen into error by supposing that the date of Hezekiah’s sickness fixed the time of Sennacherib’s invasion. On that point see the Chronological Note, pp. lxxvi f. Since the king began to reign in his twenty-fifth year, it is after all not a long life that is here promised to him. His reign was to be doubled.

6. This is the only verse which would lead us to suppose that the events synchronised with Sennacherib’s invasion; but its genuineness is doubtful. An unqualified assurance of deliverance is hardly consistent with the prophet’s attitude to the king’s policy at the time supposed. Hezekiah was deeply committed to projects of rebellion in the first years of Sennacherib’s reign, and a political message from Isaiah in those circumstances could hardly fail to be accompanied by a warning against the tendency which prevailed at the court. Since the verse breaks the connexion between Isaiah 38:5; Isaiah 38:7, and since the latter part is a reproduction (in 2 Kings an exact reproduction) of ch. Isaiah 37:35, there are some grounds for supposing that it has been inserted by the compiler of the books of Kings.

7, 8. After Isaiah 38:6, 2 Kings describes the prophet’s prescription for the malady (see on Isaiah 38:21). The account of the sign also is given in a much fuller form there. It was granted at the express request of the king (see Isaiah 38:22), who had not his father’s fear of “tempting the Lord” (ch. Isaiah 7:12). Allowed to choose between a “going forward” and a “going backward” of the shadow, he decided for the latter as not so “light” a thing (i.e. less conceivable); when, at Isaiah’s intercession, the desired thing happened.