Isaiah 38:5

5 "Go and say to Hezekiah, 'Thus says Yahweh, the God of David your ancestor: "I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. {Look, I am going to} add fifteen years to your days.

Isaiah 38:5 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 38:5

Go and say to Hezekiah
Turn again, and tell him, ( 2 Kings 20:5 ) : thus saith the Lord the God of David thy father;
this is said, to show that he remembered the covenant he made with David his father, concerning the kingdom, and the succession of his children in it; and that he had a regard to him, as walking in his steps: I have heard thy prayer;
and therefore was not surely a foolish one, as Luther somewhere calls it, since it was heard and answered so quickly: I have seen thy tears;
which he shed in prayer, and so studiously concealed from others, when he turned his face to the wall: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years;
that is, to the days he had lived already, and beyond which it was not probable, according to the nature of his disease, he could live; and besides, he had the sentence of death pronounced on him, and had it within himself, nor did he pray for his life; so that these fifteen years were over and above what he could or did expect to live; and because it was unusual in such a case, and after such a declaration made, that a man should live, and especially so long a time after, it is ushered in with a "behold", as a note of admiration; it being a thing unheard of, and unprecedented, and entirely the Lord's doing, and which, no doubt, was marvellous in the eyes of the king.

Isaiah 38:5 In-Context

3 and he said, "O Yahweh, please remember how I have walked before your {presence} in faithfulness with a whole heart, and I have done the good in your eyes!" And Hezekiah wept [with] great weeping.

4 Then the word of Yahweh came to Isaiah, saying,

5 "Go and say to Hezekiah, 'Thus says Yahweh, the God of David your ancestor: "I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. {Look, I am going to} add fifteen years to your days.

6 And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city." '

7 And this [is] the sign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do this thing that he has spoken:

Footnotes

• [a] Or "father"
• [b] Literally, "Behold me; he will add," but in this context it makes better sense to change the "he" to "I"; most translations follow this emendation