The Pulpit Commentary on Isaiah 38:1

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

In 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 years earlier than that of Isaiah 36:1-22; Isaiah 37:1-38; which belongs to Hezekiah's closing years, b.

c. 701-698 (see the comment on Isaiah 26:1, Isaiah 26:2). Sick unto death; i.e. attacked by a malady which, if it had run its natural course, would have been fatal. Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.

This double designation of Isaiah, by his office and by his descent, marks the original independence of this narrative, which was not intended for a continuation of Isaiah 37:1-38. Thou shalt die, and not live.

Prophecies were often threats, and, when such, were conditional, announcing results which would follow unless averted by prayer or repentance (compare Jonah's prophecy, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown," Jonah 3:4).

More for Isaiah 38:1

Continue with other commentaries and DiscipleDeck content connected to this verse, chapter, or topic.

Other commentaries

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 38:1-22SECTION 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 passa…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