Isaiah 38:12-22

12 "Like a shepherd's 1tent my dwelling is pulled up and removed from me; As a 2weaver I 3rolled up my life. He 4cuts me off from the loom; From 5day until night You make an end of me.
13 "I composed my soul until morning. 6Like a lion -so He 7breaks all my bones, From 8day until night You make an end of me.
14 "9Like a swallow, like a crane, so I twitter; I 10moan like a dove; My 11eyes look wistfully to the heights; O Lord, I am oppressed, be my 12security.
15 "13What shall I say? For He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done it; I will 14wander about all my years because of the 15bitterness of my soul.
16 "O Lord, 16by these things men live, And in all these is the life of my spirit; 17O restore me to health and 18let me live!
17 "Lo, for my own welfare I had great bitterness; It is You who has 19kept my soul from the pit of nothingness, For You have 20cast all my sins behind Your back.
18 "For 21Sheol cannot thank You, Death cannot praise You; Those who go down 22to the pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness.
19 "It is the 23living who give thanks to You, as I do today; A 24father tells his sons about Your faithfulness.
20 "The LORD will surely save me; So we will 25play my songs on stringed instruments 26All the days of our life 27at the house of the LORD."
21 Now 28Isaiah had said, "Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may recover."
22 Then Hezekiah had said, "What is the 29sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?"

Isaiah 38:12-22 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 38

This chapter gives an account of Hezekiah's sickness, recovery, and thanksgiving on that account. His sickness, and the nature of it, and his preparation for it, as directed to by the prophet, Isa 38:1, his prayer to God upon it, Isa 38:2,3 the answer returned unto it, by which he is assured of living fifteen years more, and of the deliverance and protection of the city of Jerusalem from the Assyrians, Isa 38:4-6, the token of his recovery, the sun going back ten degrees on the dial of Ahaz, Isa 38:7,8, a writing of Hezekiah's upon his recovery, in commemoration of it, Isa 38:9, in which he represents the deplorable condition he had been in, the terrible apprehensions he had of things, especially of the wrath and fury of the Almighty, and his sorrowful and mournful complaints, Isa 38:10-14, he observes his deliverance according to the word of God; expresses his faith in it; promises to retain a cheerful sense of it; owning that it was by the promises of God that he had lived as other saints did; and ascribes his preservation from the grave to the love of God to him, of which the forgiveness of his sins was an evidence, Isa 38:15-17, the end of which salvation was, that he might praise the Lord, which he determined to do, on stringed instruments, Isa 38:18-20, and the chapter is closed with observing the means of curing him of his boil; and that it was at his request that the sign of his recovery was given him, Isa 38:21,22.

Cross References 29

  • 1. 2 Corinthians 5:1, 4; 2 Peter 1:13, 14
  • 2. Job 7:6
  • 3. Hebrews 1:12
  • 4. Job 6:9
  • 5. Job 4:20; Psalms 73:14
  • 6. Job 10:16
  • 7. Psalms 51:8; Daniel 6:24
  • 8. Psalms 32:4
  • 9. Job 30:29; Psalms 102:6
  • 10. Isaiah 59:11; Ezekiel 7:16; Nahum 2:7
  • 11. Psalms 119:123
  • 12. Job 17:3; Psalms 119:122
  • 13. Psalms 39:9
  • 14. 1 Kings 21:27
  • 15. Job 7:11; Job 10:1; Isaiah 38:17
  • 16. Psalms 119:71, 75
  • 17. Psalms 39:13
  • 18. Psalms 119:25
  • 19. Psalms 30:3; Psalms 86:13; Jonah 2:6
  • 20. Isaiah 43:25; Jeremiah 31:34; Micah 7:19
  • 21. Psalms 6:5; Psalms 30:9; Psalms 88:11; Ecclesiastes 9:10
  • 22. Numbers 16:33; Psalms 28:1
  • 23. Psalms 118:17; Psalms 119:175
  • 24. Deuteronomy 6:7; Deuteronomy 11:19; Psalms 78:5-7
  • 25. Psalms 33:1-3; Psalms 68:24-26
  • 26. Psalms 104:33; Psalms 116:2; Psalms 146:2
  • 27. Psalms 116:17-19
  • 28. 2 Kings 20:7, 8
  • 29. Isaiah 38:7

Footnotes 4

  • [a]. Targum and DSS read "And what shall I say for He"
  • [b]. Lit "You will"
  • [c]. So some versions; Heb "loved"
  • [d]. Or "destruction"
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