Isaiah 38:17-22

17 Lo! my bitterness is most bitter in peace (Lo! peace was my bitterness, and it was most bitter); forsooth thou hast delivered my soul, that it perished not; thou hast cast away behind thy back all my sins.
18 For not hell shall acknowledge to thee, neither death shall praise thee; they that go down into the pit, shall not abide thy truth. (For Sheol, or the grave, shall not acknowledge thee, nor shall death praise thee; and they who go down into the pit, shall not wait for thy truth.)
19 A living man, a living man, he shall acknowledge to thee, as and I today; the father shall make known thy truth to [the] sons. (But a living man, yea, a living man, he shall acknowledge thee, like I do today; and the father shall make thy truth known to his children.)
20 Lord, make thou me safe, and we shall sing our psalms in all the days of our life in the house of the Lord. (Lord, thou hast saved me, and so we shall sing our songs all the days of our lives in the House of the Lord.)
21 And Isaiah commanded, that they should take a gobbet of figs, and make a plaster on the wound; and it should be healed. (For Isaiah had commanded, that they should take a piece of figs, and put a plaster on the wound; and then he would be healed.)
22 And Hezekiah said, What sign shall be, that I shall ascend into the house of the Lord? (And then Hezekiah had said, What shall be the sign, that I shall go up into the House of the Lord again?)

Isaiah 38:17-22 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.

Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.