Isaiah 38:18

18 quia non infernus confitebitur tibi neque mors laudabit te non expectabunt qui descendunt in lacum veritatem tuam

Isaiah 38:18 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 38:18

For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate
thee
That is, they that are in the grave, and under the power of death, they cannot celebrate the praises of God with their bodily organs; their souls may praise him in heaven, but they in their bodies cannot till the resurrection morn, or as long as they are under the dominion of the grave; so the Targum,

``they that are in the grave cannot confess before thee, and the dead cannot praise thee;''
in like manner the Septuagint and Arabic versions: this shows the design of God in restoring him from his sickness, and the view he himself had in desiring life, which was to praise the Lord; and which end could not have been answered had he died, and been laid in the grave: they that go down to the pit cannot hope for thy truth:
for the performance of promises, in which the truth and faithfulness of God appear; or for the Messiah, the truth of all the types of the former dispensation; those that go down to the pit of the grave, or are carried and laid there, can have no exercise of faith and hope concerning these things.

Isaiah 38:18 In-Context

16 Domine sic vivitur et in talibus vita spiritus mei corripies me et vivificabis me
17 ecce in pace amaritudo mea amarissima tu autem eruisti animam meam ut non periret proiecisti post tergum tuum omnia peccata mea
18 quia non infernus confitebitur tibi neque mors laudabit te non expectabunt qui descendunt in lacum veritatem tuam
19 vivens vivens ipse confitebitur tibi sicut et ego hodie pater filiis notam faciet veritatem tuam
20 Domine salvum me fac et psalmos nostros cantabimus cunctis diebus vitae nostrae in domo Domini
The Latin Vulgate is in the public domain.