The Pulpit Commentary on Isaiah 38:1-22

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

SECTION II.—HEZEKIAH'S ILLNESS, AND THE EMBASSY OF MERODACH-BALADAN (Isaiah 38:1-22; Isaiah 39:1-8.).

EXPOSITION

The present chapter is parallel with 2 Kings 20:1-11, but contains some marked differences from that passage, both in what it omits and in what it inserts. The general narrative (2 Kings 20:1-8, and 2 Kings 20:21, 22) is greatly condensed, and in part disarranged, 2 Kings 20:21, 22 being added, as it would seem, by an after-thought. On the other hand, the psalm of Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:9-20) is additional, having nothing corresponding to it in the Book of Kings. There is every appearance of 2 Kings 20:1-11 having been composed previously to the present chapter, and of the present chapter having been, in its narrative portion, abridged from 2 Kings.

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commentaryMatthew Henry on Isaiah 38:1-8When we pray in our sickness, though God send not to us such an answer as he here sent to Hezekiah, yet, if by his Spirit he bids us be of good cheer, assures us that our sins are forgiven, and that, whether we live or…Matthew Henry commentaryHezekiah's Sickness. (b. c. 710.)HEZEKIAH'S SICKNESS. (B. C. 710.) We may hence observe, among others, these good lessons:—1. That neither men's greatness nor their goodness will exempt them from the arrests of sickness and death. Hezekiah, a mighty po…Matthew Henry commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Isaiah 38:1In those days. The illness of Hezekiah is fixed by Isaiah 38:5 (and 2 Kings 20:6) to the fourteenth year of his reign, or b.c. 714. The entire narrative of this chapter and the next is therefore thirteen or fourteen yea…Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Isaiah 38:1The duty of men, in view of death, to set their house in order. Nothing is more manifest than the duty of all men, in view of that departure which they know to impend over them as an absolute certainty, only doubtful in…Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Isaiah 38:1-8Sickness and recovery of Hezekiah. All pathos ultimately turns upon contrast, and the greatest of all contrasts is that between death and life. All who have passed through a dangerous illness, and have been brought nigh…Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Isaiah 38:1-3A vision of death. The scene is one of true pathos; it is one of those touches of nature which" make the whole world kin." We have— I. DEATH SUDDENLY PRESENTING ITSELF TO MAN IN HIS PRIME. (Isaiah 38:1.) Death is very c…Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Isaiah 38:1The strain of notice to die. Satan is represented in the Book of Job as poetically describing man's clinging to life thus: "Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life." Usually death creeps on us…Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Isaiah 38:2-6The power of prayer. The story of these chapters (36-38.) is remarkably illustrative of the power of "effectual fervent prayer." Four points may be noted. I. PRAYER IS POTENT TO DESTROY THE ADVERSARIES OF GOD AT THE GRE…Joseph S. Exell and contributors