Isaiah 38:14-22

14 I make little chattering sounds like a swallow, I moan aloud like a dove, My eyes are weary with looking upward. Adonai, I am overwhelmed; guarantee my life!'
15 "What is there that I can say? He has spoken to me and acted! I will go humbly all my years, remembering how bitter I was.
16 Adonai, by these things people live; in all these is the life of my spirit. You're restoring my health and giving me life
17 though instead of peace, I felt very bitter. You desired my life and preserved it from the nothingness pit; for you threw all my sins behind your back.
18 "Sh'ol cannot thank you, death cannot praise you; those descending to the pit cannot hope for your truth.
19 The living, the living - they can thank you, as I do today; fathers will make their children know about your faithfulness.
20 ADONAI is ready to save me; hence we will make our stringed instruments sound all the days of our life in the house of ADONAI."
21 Then Yesha'yahu said, "Have them take a fig-plaster and apply it to the inflammation, and he will recover."
22 Hizkiyahu asked, "What sign will there be that I will be able to go up to the house of ADONAI?"

Isaiah 38:14-22 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.

Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.