In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. Isaiah 38:1 Hezekiah's sickness: the historical framework F. Delitzsch, D. D. It cannot surprise us now to be carried back to the time when Jerusalem was still under the despotic sceptre of Assyria, since the purpose of the concluding piece ( Isaiah 37:36-38 ) was merely in anticipation to complete the picture of the last Assyrian troubles, by relating their termination as foretold by Isaiah ( Isaiah 31:8 ). ( F. Delitzsch, D. D. ) The parallel passage J. A. Alexander. ( 2 Kings 20:1-11 ) varies more from that before us than in the preceding chapter. So far as they are parallel, the narrative in Kings is more minute and circumstantial, and at the same time more exactly chronological in its arrangement. On the other hand, the Psalm is wholly wanting in that passage. All these circumstances favour the conclusion that the text before us is the first draft, and the other a repetition by the hand of the same writer. ( J. A. Alexander. ) Hezekiah's sickness and recovery Sir E. Strachey, Bart. This sickness and recovery of Hezekiah from the gates of death, was an event of such national importance as made it properly find a place here, as well as in the historical books. For the throne of David, as far as we know, was without an heir at this moment; and Hezekiah's death might have been followed by some such interregnum, anarchy, and seizure of the crown by a soldier, as hastened the downfall of the kingdom of Ephraim. Such a failure in the succession, in times of national depression and disorganisation, would be pregnant with evil even in England now; and we must remember that in Judea then, as in all Eastern and patriarchal governments still, the personal character of the hereditary sovereign was of an importance to the people which it has to a great degree, though not utterly, lost in every country of Europe except Russia, Let us contrast the character and acts of Hezekiah with those of his immediate predecessor and successor, and we shall see of what moment it was that the interval by which his reign separated theirs should be prolonged fifteen years; and especially when the country needed a hand disciplined by experience and guided by faith to recover it from the moral and material disorganisation into which (as we know from Isaiah's discourses) it had fallen during the Assyrian supremacy. And thus this crisis in the personal life of Hezekiah — the fact cannot be denied, though here, as in so many like cases, our philosophy cannot trace out the connection of cause and effect — became the type and symbol of the like crisis in the life of the nation: it, too, was sick unto death, and was granted a new period of life by God after it was past the help of man. ( Sir E. Strachey, Bart. ) Hezekiah's disease Sir Risdon Bennett, M. D. , LL. D. When the prophet first came to him he addressed him in words clearly indicating the gravity of the disease. "Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order," &c. We cannot, therefore, think that it was an ordinary simple boil with which the king was affected. Nor have we any ground for supposing, as some have suggested, that the disease was bubo-plague, which does not occur as an isolated case, and we have no evidence to lead us to think that any epidemic of such a disease prevailed. But it might have been, and probably was, a carbuncle, which is often a most severe and painful thing, endangering and often terminating the life of the sufferer. For this a poultice of figs would be an appropriate local remedy, as in the present day are cataplasms of various kinds. But doubtless the recovery of the king was through Divine interposition, by which the danger to life was averted, and of which Isaiah's prescription was but a symbol. The answer to his prayer, accompanied by the promise that on the third day he should go up to the house of the Lord, is sufficient evidence that the cure of a disease by which he had been brought to death's door, was not brought about by natural means. ( Sir Risdon Bennett, M. D. , LL. D. ) What was Hezekiah's disease? Sir Risdon Bennett, M. D. , LL. D. My friend, Dr. Lauder Brunton, tells me that he has been led to view the disease as "tonsillitis," from the similarity of the symptoms described by Isaiah with those of some cases of quinsy (tonsillitis). "In many cases," says Dr. Brunton, "that I have seen, the pains in the bones have been so severe as to attract the attention of the patient, to the exclusion of all mention of sore throat. If Hezekiah suffered from tonsillitis, his comparison of a lion breaking his bones is a very apt one, and the swelling, of the tonsils would also explain the alteration in his speech, which made him 'chatter like a crane or a swallow.' The dried figs would be almost the only poultice that could be applied to the boil in his fauces, and the rapid maturation of the inflamed boil in the throat affected by the poultice would explain the rapid recovery." ( Sir Risdon Bennett, M. D. , LL. D. ) Every disease is a little death T. Adams. I have heard it said that every disease is a little death; therefore God sends us many little deaths to instruct our preparation for the great death. The oftener a man dies, the better he may know how to die well. ( T. Adams. ) A sick man's glass R. Hachet, D. D. I. THE MESSAGE sent to Hezekiah while he was sick. 1. The time. 2. The person to whom it was sent. 3. The person by whom it was sent. 4. The. message itself. "Set thine house in order." 5. The reason why the king is advised so to do. Thou shalt die, and not live. II. THE BEHAVIOUR OF HEZEKIAH when he had heard the message. 1. He turned his face to the wall. 2. He prayed. 3. He wept sore. ( R. Hachet, D. D. ) Hezekiah's sickness T. Seeker, LL. D. 1. These words present to our view a person (1) of the highest rank (2) in the prime of life (3) and the full tide of prosperity, seized with a mortal disease: a case which ought strongly to remind the securest of us all, how uncertain our condition is here on earth. 2. By the goodness of God, a prophet was sent to him, to admonish him of the preparation that his state required: and the same goodness hath provided that you shall all be frequently admonished of the same thing, by the ministers of His Word. 3. The admonition given him was the means of prolonging his days in peace and comfort: and those given you, if received in a right manner, may, both naturally and providentially, contribute to procure you longer and happier lives in this world; and will certainly lead you to a life of eternal happiness in the next. ( T. Seeker, LL. D. ) The duties of the sick T. Seeker, LL. D. The text mentions the obligations of sick persons — I. RESPECTING THEIR FELLOW-CREATURES. "Set thine house in order." This direction may well be enlarged to comprehend — 1. Due regulation of all affairs in which the sick are interested.(1) The principal point at which men should aim in settling their temporal affairs is justice; and one of the most evident branches of justice is paying debts.(2) Besides those who are commonly called creditors, there is another sort — I mean those to whom we have done injuries, and owe restitution.(3) But as we have all, more or less, need to ask pardon, another of our duties evidently is to grant it in our turn: when others have used us ill, not to "recompense" or wish them "evil for evil." The expedient to which, it is said, some have had recourse, of forgiving if they die, and being revenged if they live, is as foolish a contrivance to deceive themselves, and to mock God, as the human heart can frame.(4) The next thing, after providing for the payment of our debts, and which, like that, should be done in health, but much rather in sickness than not at all, is disposing of the remainder of our substance. The principal rule is, that we ought not to be governed in it by fanciful fondnesses, much less by blamable resentments. 2. Proper advice to all persons with whom the sick are connected. II. RESPECTING MORE IMMEDIATELY GOD AND THEIR OWN SOULS. "Then Hezekiah prayed unto the Lord." His prayer, indeed, if the whole of it be recorded in Scripture, was only that he might recover; a request which for the public good he had urgent reasons to make in the first place. And that being instantly granted, he had no need to apply further to God, in relation to his sickness, otherwise than by thanksgiving, which he did. But they who have more extensive wants at that time are both authorised and bound to enlarge in proportion the subject of their addresses to the throne of grace; and therefore I shall endeavour to comprehend under this head all the religious duties of the sick. 1. The first principle of all regard to God is faith. There are indeed very good persons who, m illnesses, are tempted to partial, or even total unbelief. And if any seeming reasons for it be suggested to their minds, they ought to inquire after, and oppose to them reasonable answers. 2. Self-examination. 3. Such repentance as our case requires. 4. The sick ought to be very constant in every other exercise of private piety. For as they are cut off from active life, they have more leisure for religious contemplation. And as they want all the improvement and comfort which they can have, so they will receive the most of both by frequent lifting up of their hearts to "the God of patience and consolation." ( T. Seeker, LL. D. ) Hezekiah's sickness and recovery W. Reading, M. A. I. THIS SICKNESS WAS VERY GRIEVOUS, upon several accounts. 1. For the nature of the disease, which is supposed to have been pestilential. 2. The pain of his distemper was aggravated with the sentence which the prophet passed upon him in the name of God. The hope of recovery, which contributes very much to the cure of any distemper, was taken away from him. 3. Hezekiah's sickness and sentence of death were embittered with this consideration, that he was going to be cut off in the strength of his age. This shortening of life was always esteemed as one of the calamities of our mortal condition; especially in so high and happy a station as that of a king. David prayed against it, saying, "O my God, take me not away in the midst of my age." 4. That which made Hezekiah more lath to leave the world at this time was, that he had no child to succeed him in his throne. II. HIS REQUEST he enforces with the following arguments. 1. He begs God to remember how he had walked before Him in truth and with a perfect heart. 2. Whereas other kings had been too apt to consult their ease and carnal interests in the practice of religion, Hezekiah had a true and thorough zeal for the glory of God in all that he did. III. He urged it with importunate cries and tears, WHICH PREVAILED WITH GOD TO HEAR HIM AND GRANT HIS REQUEST. ( W. Reading, M. A. ) Supreme attention to spiritual concerns W. Graham. (with Luke 10:42 ): — Let us reflect — I. ON "THE ONE THING NEEDFUL," i.e. , living religion. II. ON THE CONSEQUENT DUTY OF "SETTING OUR HOUSE IN ORDER, knowing that we shall die, and not live." ( W. Graham. ) Hezekiah's sincerity J. A. Alexander. This verse (ver. 3) is not an angry expostulation, nor an ostentatious self-praise, but an appeal to the only satisfactory evidence of his sincerity. ( J. A. Alexander. ) Set thine house in order. Human mortality J. W. Colenso, D. D. I. We have here set before us THE FACT OF OUR MORTALITY. "Thou shalt die, and not live." How apt we are to think of other people's death, but not of our own. We are ready to say, "O! it was no wonder that little, weak infant died — it was no wonder that worn-out, aged man or woman died — it was no wonder that sickly person died." And when we hear of sudden deaths, by some strange disease or accident, we have a secret feeling that the same thing is not likely to happen to ourselves. There was something peculiar in their condition or circumstances, which made them more open than ourselves to that awful visitation. Yet why all this foolish hiding of the truth? Until we are able boldly and peacefully to face this truth, there is no real comfort for us in this world. When our Almighty Father in heaven sends to us such a message as this, "Thou shalt die, and not live," it is not to vex and to distress us, but only to awaken in us those thoughts which are needful for us in our present state of being. II. HOW WE ARE TO "SET OUR HOUSE IN ORDER," so as to be able to meet with calmness both the actual coming of death and the thought of its coming. With the best of men, the near approach of that last dread hour is a time of deep solemnity. 1. The first point in this work is to see that our hope for eternity is placed upon a right foundation; and none other can be found but that which God Himself has laid for us to build on — namely, His own free mercies in His dear Son, Jesus Christ. 2. If we would "set our house" truly "in order," we must remember that there is a work to be wrought in us, as well as for us. "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord!" ( J. W. Colenso, D. D. ) Preparation for the end of time Homilist. I. THE INJUNCTION URGED. "Set thine house in order." We refer — 1. To temporal affairs. This is evident from the more literal translation: "Give charge concerning thine house." 2. To spiritual matters. II. THE REASON. "For thou shalt die, and not live." 1. Death is certain for all. 2. The time is uncertain; therefore, it is every one's duty to be prepared. 3. The time may be very near. 4. The best of men need special preparation.Hezekiah was not a bad man, but he had a special message. So God often scuds a time of sickness as a special warning. How much better and happier will every man be if he has set his house in order! ( Homilist. ) New Year's thoughts T. J. Judkin. The first Sunday in the new year is surely, with every minister of Christ who watcheth with the eye and love of a true shepherd over his flock, a time for — 1. General rebuke. 2. Remonstrance. 3. Godly encouragement. I. THE AUTHORITY OF THE COMMISSION. It came directly from God at the mouth of His prophet; and whatever comes from God must be characterised by God's attributes, must bear the impress of His wisdom, must be pregnant with the purposes of His love. II. THE SUDDENNESS OF THE COMMISSION. How it must have startled the king on his bed! III. THE SUBSTANCE OF THE COMMISSION. "Set thine house in order" — this is the direction; "for thou shalt die, and not live" — this is the doom. Thou art the man upon whom the mark is set, this carries the reflections home. When shall I die? How shall I die? Shall I die a hard or a peaceful death? Shall I die as an impenitent and despairing sinner, or as a pardoned, a redeemed, a rejoicing saint? ( T. J. Judkin. ) Preparation for death Our being ready for death will make it come never the sooner, but much the easier; and those that are fit to die are most fit to live. ( M. Henry . ) Contemplating the time of death H. E. Manning, D. D. Perhaps the most awful moment of our lives is when we first feel in danger of death. All our past life then seems to be a cloud of words and shadows, altogether external to the realities of the soul. Not only childhood and youth, happiness and sorrow, eager hopes and disturbing fears, but even our communion with God, our faith in things unseen, our self-knowledge, and our repentance, seem alike to be but visions of the memory. All has become stern, hard, and appalling. It is as if it were the beginning of a new existence; as if we had passed under a colder sky, and into a world where every object has a sharpness of outline almost too severe for sight to bear. Let us see what we ought to do when God warns us. I. WE MUST ASK OURSELVES THIS QUESTION, Is there any one sin, great or small, of the flesh or of the spirit, that we. willingly and knowingly commit? This is, in fact, the crisis of our whole spiritual life. By consent in one sin, a man is guilty of the whole principle of rebellion. A holy man is not a man who never sins, but who never sins willingly. A sinner is not a man who never does anything good, but who willingly does what he knows to be evil. The whole difference lies within the sphere and compass of the will. II. WE MUST NEXT SEARCH AND SEE WHETHER THERE IS AN ANYTHING IN WHICH OUR HEART IN ITS SECRET AFFECTIONS IS AT VARIANCE WITH THE MIND OF GOD; for if so, then so far our whole being is at variance with His. III. A third test by which to test ourselves is THE POSITIVE CAPACITY OF OUR SPIRITUAL BEING FOR THE BLISS OF HEAVEN. When St. Paul bids us to follow after "holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord," he surely meant something more than a negative quality. Doubtless he meant by "holiness" to express the active aspirations of a spiritual nature, thirsting for the presence of God. IV. There are TWO SHORT COUNSELS which it may be well to add. 1. That we strive always to live so as to be akin to the state of just men made perfect. 2. That we often rehearse in life the last preparation we should make in death. ( H. E. Manning, D. D. ) Hezekiah warned J. Parker, D. D. 1. He was warned. 2. He was religiously warned. Isaiah was charged with the intelligence. 3. He was considerately warned. He was not to die on the morrow, he was to have time to set his house in order. Sometimes we feel as if we would rather not have that time, and yet there is a merciful dispensation in the arrangement which gives a man an opportunity of calmly approaching the end. ( J. Parker, D. D. ) "Set thine house in order C. Schwartz. What does this injunction signify? I. THAT WE ARE TO GIVE ACCOUNT OF OUR STEWARDSHIP. II. THAT WE ARE TO BE DILIGENT IN OUR DAILY WORK III. WE MUST LEARN TO LEAVE .OUR POSSESSIONS, AND HOLD OURSELVES READY TO DEPOT. ( C. Schwartz. ) The habitual thought of death not painful E. Garbett, M. A. The time will of necessity come when to every man that lives these words will be spoken: God Himself will speak them in the manifest dealings of his providence, making this known to us in some way which our own hearts will instinctively interpret. Why should we be afraid to think of death! 1. Do you reply that there is in man a natural love of life? No doubt there is. But what, then, is that true life which lies beyond, and to which the act of departure, which we call death, is but the entrance? 2. Or, do you say that we are naturally repelled from mortality, and that we shrink from thinking of the lifeless and decaying flesh? I admit it, and there is a necessary and wholesome lesson in the bitterness of it, for how should we know what sin was without some little conception of what death was? But I plead that this is but for a time, till the body shall rise again in glory. The horror is to those who live and watch the dead. 3. Or, do you say that you fear death because it will stop for ever all the schemes and activities of life? Do you think that the state into which we shall enter will be a passive calm? Every hint and word in Scripture appears to me to point to something very different. 4. Or, do you say that you shrink from the idea of never seeing again the blue skies and the sweet flowers, and losing all the sights and sounds that make this world beautiful? Again, I think that you are wrong. Certainly all the imagery of the Bible suggests a different conclusion. 5. Or, do you say that you dread death because you cannot bear to think of parting from those you love, and losing that sweet intercourse, and that happy interchange of mutual affection, which spring from love? Well, all separation is painful; but in itself, and of necessity, this separation need only be for a time — a brief parting, with an eternal reunion beyond it, when, free from the little hindrances that mar a perfect love on earth, we shall renew a pure affection, consecrated for ever by the seen presence of God. 6. Do you say that you dread to think of death because you are not certain of your state before God? Ah! here we reach the deepest secret of all, the true source of the uneasiness with which men think of their mortality. "The sting of death is sin," &c. The Eternal Father is ready to forgive; the Eternal Son sufficient to atone; the Eternal Spirit almighty to convert and sanctify; all ready; nay, all pleading, inviting, expostulating, entreating. 7. Do you say that you dread to think of death because the thought saddens and darkens life? Surely this is no longer true, if, accepted in Christ Jesus, we have peace with God. ( E. Garbett, M. A. ) Preparing for the end Homiletic Review. I. Preparation for death is an immediate duty, because YOU CANNOT TELL WHAT A DAY MAY BRING FORTH. II. IT OUGHT TO BE A CALM, DELIBERATE, AND INTELLIGENT PREPARATION. Not with panic, or haste, or gloom. III. THERE IS A GOD TO MEET, whose eyes will inspect the house. IV. THERE ARE IMPORTANT MATTERS TO BE ADJUSTED ARISING FROM OUR HUMAN RELATIONS. ( Homiletic Review. ) Thou shalt die. Death J. Badcock, LL. B. I. DEATH. 1. In its causes. The primary cause of death was sin. But the immediate and acting cause of mortality is the frailty of our bodies. 2. In its nature. What is it to die! It is not to terminate our existence. We are well assured that nothing in being can cease to be, either of itself or by the influence of other finite beings, but only by an exercise of the almighty power of the Creator. To die is to undergo a solution of our present mode of existence, in which the immaterial soul is severed from the material body, and exists thenceforth for a time alone; whilst the body, bereft of life, loses the qualities necessary to preserve its substance, and becomes disorganised, and resolved into its primitive elements. How near is this world to the next! God's wisdom and goodness have appointed a bed of sickness to be the general precursor of death. By this He repeats solemnly, and enforces, His thousand other warnings to us, and, in our seclusion from the engagements and pleasures of time, gives us a further opportunity of becoming familiar with the things of eternity, and making our peace with Him. But His wisdom discovers in what ways our deceitful hearts will teach us to abuse His mercy, and He provides against the evil. Had we always the warning and opportunity of sickness, we might neglect God till it was given to us; and God has, perhaps, therefore, appointed that death should sometimes come unwarned. 3. In its consequences. I will not view them as they affect the body: let us leave it, lifeless and cold, in the narrow coffin and the quiet grave, awaiting the trumpet of the archangel. The effects of death on the soul include, doubtless, the enlargement of its capacities, as well as its entrance on eternal joy or misery. II. ITS PERSONALITY. "Thou." The young. Those in the prime of life. Those of mature years, &c. III. ITS CERTAINTY. "Thou shalt die." 1. What has become of all our race — Adam, Noah, &c.? 2. Where are the multitudes that have peopled your town in past days? All who have lived before us have died, and all now living are dying. ( J. Badcock, LL. B. ) Death sometimes sudden and unexpected J. Badcock, LL. B. I have known the bride to expire on her bridal day, the shopkeeper when serving his customers, the player on the stage, the clergyman in his pulpit, the lowly Christian on his knees in prayer, the swearer uttering his curse, the thief with his plunder at his side. ( J. Badcock, LL. B. ) The human body, beautiful yet frail J. Badcock, LL. B. The beautiful frame of man it is impossible to consider unaffected by its frailty. A distinguished philosopher, on rising from the study of the human frame, was so impressed with this. and With the complicated nature of its machinery, and the numberless parts that must all duly discharge their functions to continue existence, from moment to moment, that he trembled and feared to move, lest, by disordering some one of them, he should fall on the floor a corpse. ( J. Badcock, LL. B. ) "The biography of death Homiletic Review. was the title of a sermon preached by a famous London minister. For death has had a parentage, birth, history, a career of conquest and victory, a coronation and kingdom, a ghastly dining-hall and retinue of hired servants, and, finally, a record of disaster, defeat, and death! The last enemy to be destroyed is Death. ( Homiletic Review. ) Hezekiah warned J. Parker, D. D. Is there any peculiar significance in the announcement? There ought not to be. All life is a warning that we are going to die. ( J. Parker, D. D. ) Facing death H. O. Mackey. When the physician told General Grant that his disease was fatal, and might quickly do its dire work, for a little while he seemed to lose, not courage, but hope. It was like a man gazing into his open grave. He was in no way dismayed, but the sight was still appalling. The conqueror looking at his inevitable conqueror: the stern soldier to whom armies had surrendered, watching the approach of that enemy to whom even he must yield. ( H. O. Mackey. ) Looking over the brink Sunday School Chronicle. A godly minister who was fond of visiting his sick and dying people on Saturday afternoons, was asked by a brother minister, who met him on this errand one day, why he did this, instead of staying at home and preparing his sermons. He replied, "I like to take a look over the brink." Sometimes it is a blessing to a man to be brought suddenly to the brink in his own life, to look over it seriously and prayerfully, and then to take back into life the lessons he has learned there. ( Sunday School Chronicle. ) Death, the ringing of the curfew bell T. De Witt Talmage, D. D. William the Conqueror established the ringing of curfew bells. The meaning of that curfew bell, sounded at eventime, was, that all the fires should be put out or covered with ashes, all the lights should be extinguished, and the people should go to bed. Soon for us the curfew will sound. The fires of our life will be banked up in ashes, and we shall go into the sleep, the cool sleep, I hope the blessed sleep. But there is no gloom in that if we are ready. The safest thing that a Christian can do is to die. ( T. De Witt Talmage, D. D. ) A true life the best preparation for death Sunday School Chronicle. An old slave, when told by his doctor that he was near death, said: "Bless you, doctor, don't let that bother you; that's what I've been living for." ( Sunday School Chronicle. ) Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall. Isaiah 38:2, 3 Hezekiah's face turned to the wall J. A. Alexander. The obvious meaning is the wall of the room, towards which he turned, not merely to collect his thoughts, or to conceal his tears, but as a natural expression of strong feeling. ( J. A. Alexander. ) Self-retirement F. Delitzsch, D. D. The sick man turns his face to the wall in order to retire into himself and God. ( F. Delitzsch, D. D. ) A natural shrinking from death J. Parker, D. D. The voice sounded naturally as it pleaded with the Lord. The old man wants to die; he says, I am living amongst strangers: who is he! and who is she? what are those people? what is their occupation! I do not know where I am: I will live in the sacred past. But the young man in middle life does not want to die. The child does not want to go to rest at nine o'clock in the morning. We feel as if we had a call to work. ( J. Parker, D. D. ) Hezekiah's face turned to the wall E. W. Shalders, B. A. The place of honour in an Eastern room is an angle of the apartment, so that whichever side Hezekiah turned upon, his face would be to a wall, and screened from observation. ( E. W. Shalders, B. A. ) A good man's plea W. Day, M. A. 1. Holy men did sometimes make mention of their good deeds before the Lord, in their prayer to Him ( Nehemiah 13:14 ; Jeremiah 15:15-17 ). 2. When they did make mention of their good deeds before the Lord, they did it, for the most part, when they were in trouble. 3. They did not mention them as meritorious causes of whet they prayed for ( Nehemiah 13:22 ). 4. The reason why they mention their good deeds at such time is —(1) That they might the more incline the Lord to mercy; for the Lord is more ready to show mercy to those who endeavour to live according to His laws than to those who neglect them.(2) That they might sustain themselves against the faint-heartedness which might assail them, being prone by nature thereto; for the testimony of a good conscience produceth boldness towards God ( 2 Corinthians 1:12 ; 1 Peter 3:21 ). Besides, Hezekiah might have a special reason to move him to mention his good deeds, and it is this, because the Lord had made a promise to David ( 1 Kings 2:4 ). At this time Hezekiah had not a child to succeed him in the throne. ( W. Day, M. A. ) And Hezekiah wept sore. Hezekiah's tears Homilist In these tears we can discover — I. A DREAD OF DEATH COMMON TO HUMAN NATURE. 1. This dread of death has a moral cause. What is the cause? A consciousness of sin, and an apprehension of its consequences. On the assumption that man would have died, had he not sinned, his death, we presume, in that case, would have been free from all that is terrible. 2. This dread of death has a moral antidote. "O death, where is thy sting?" &c. Those who apply this remedy hail rather than dread mortality; they "desire to depart," &c. II. THE INABILITY OF THE WORLD TO RELIEVE HUMAN NATURE. Hezekiah was a monarch. His home was a palace, and the great men of the nation were his willing attendants. Whatever wealth could procure, he could get at his bidding; and yet with so much of the world, what could it do for him? Could it raise him from his suffering couch? Nay! Could it hush one sigh, or wipe one tear away? No! In truth, the probability is that his earthly possessions and splendour added to the awfulness of the idea of death. The world has no power to help the soul in its deepest griefs and wants. The soul weeps in palaces. III. THE POWER OF PRAYER TO HELP HUMAN NATURE. These tears were the tears of prayer as well as of fear, and his fear stimulated his prayer. And what was the result of this prayer? "I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years." This is a remarkable instance of the power of prayer, and is recorded here to encourage our suffering nature to direct its cries to heaven. ( Homilist ,) Hezekiah's distress and prayer E. W. Shalders, B. A. Hezekiah had tried to serve God faithfully, and had been taught to expect length of days as his reward. The very consciousness of his integrity, and of his desire to honour the Lord in the presence of his people, must have added to his distress. What had been the fatal flaw in his service that had brought upon him this unexpected doom? Life and immortality had not been brought to fight. Death, for him, seemed banishment from the presence of the Lord. In the grave he could not praise Him; dead, he could not celebrate His glory (vers. 11, 18). Twice he says, "Thou wilt make an end of me." We seldom realise how much we owe to that resurrection which lifted the veil that was spread over all nations. But Hezekiah teaches us how much strength, consolation, and joy may be found in communion with God in this life. His earthly experience, which he thought was to come to an end, was, after all, part of the life eternal. The Hebrew's vivid sense of God's presence with him in this life, were it more generally ours, would make our fear more reverent, our obedience and submission more complete, and would put an end to much of that practical atheism which prevails in the world of to-day. Let us not miss the consolation of the message Isaiah brought to his king, "I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears." Our prayers may be ignorant and shortsighted, we may not know what to pray for as we ought, but our tears are not overlooked. When our sadness is speechless, the scalding tears that tell our heart's woe, move the Divine pity, and plead for us more eloquently than any words we can put into frame. "In all our afflictions, He is afflicted" — to believe this is to be consoled. ( E. W. Shalders, B. A. ) Hezekiah's prayer in affliction Homiletic Magazine. I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES THAT LED TO THE UTTERANCE OF THIS PRAYER. 1. Hezekiah was sorely afflicted. The exact nature of his disease may be difficult to determine. There is no ground for the vague supposition that he was afflicted with the plague which destroyed the Assyrians. The malady was probably "a fever boil" (Ewald), or "a single carbuncle formed under the back of the head" (Thenius), or "fever terminating in abscess" (Meade). The word shechin, translated boil, means strictly inflammation. The crude state of medical science then would make many diseases fatal which are now easily removed. The body is subject to multifarious maladies.

Benson Commentary Isaiah 38:1 In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live. Isaiah 38:1-8 . In those days was Hezekiah sick — See notes on 2 Kings 20:1-11 . Isaiah 38:2 Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, Isaiah 38:3 And said, Remember now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. Isaiah 38:4 Then came the word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying, Isaiah 38:5 Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years. Isaiah 38:6 And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria: and I will defend this city. Isaiah 38:7 And this shall be a sign unto thee from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he hath spoken; Isaiah 38:8 Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down. Isaiah 38:9 The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sickness: Isaiah 38:9 . Grotius is of opinion that this song was dictated by Isaiah. But it is more probable, as Hezekiah was a truly pious man, and inspired by the Holy Spirit, that he was moved thereby to write this form of thanksgiving, both as a testimony of his own gratitude to God, and for the instruction of future ages. Isaiah 38:10 I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years. Isaiah 38:10-11 . I said — Within myself; I concluded, in the cutting off of my days — When my days were cut off by the sentence of God, related Isaiah 38:1 ; I shall go to the gates of the grave — I perceive that I must die without any hopes of prevention. The grave is called man’s long home, Ecclesiastes 12:5 ; and the house appointed for all living, Job 30:23 ; and death opens the gates of this house. I am deprived of the residue of my years — Which I might have lived according to the common course of nature, and of God’s dispensations; and which I hoped to live for the service of God and of my generation. I shall not see the Lord — I shall not behold his beauty and glory as he manifests them in his temple, in his oracles and ordinances; I shall not enjoy him: for seeing is frequently put for enjoying; even the Lord in the land of the living — In this world, which is often so called; which limitation is prudently added, to intimate that he expected to see God in another place and manner, on the other side death; but he despairs of seeing him any more on this side death, as he had seen him in the sanctuary, Psalm 63:2 . I shall behold man no more. &c. — I shall have no more society with men upon earth. Many good men, under the law, had but imperfect notions of a future state, and thought it a great unhappiness to be deprived, by death, of the communion of saints here upon earth. But by not seeing the Lord in the land of the living, Hezekiah might probably mean that he should not see the effects of God’s grace and goodness in the deliverance of his people. Isaiah 38:11 I said, I shall not see the LORD, even the LORD, in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world. Isaiah 38:12 Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd's tent: I have cut off like a weaver my life: he will cut me off with pining sickness: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me. Isaiah 38:12 . Mine age is departed — The time of my life is expired; and is removed as a shepherd’s tent — Which is easily and speedily removed: I have cut off — Namely, by my sins, provoking God to do it; or, I have concluded, and declare that my life is, or will be, soon cut off: for men are often said, in the Scriptures, to do those things that they only declare and pronounce to be done; like a weaver my life — Who cutteth off the web from the loom, either when it is finished, or before, according to his pleasure. He — God; will cut me off with pining sickness — With a consuming disease, wasting my spirits and life; from day, even till night, wilt thou make an end of me — That is, either, 1st, This sickness will kill me in the space of one day; or, 2d, Thou dost pursue me night and day with continual pains, and wilt not cease till thou hast made a full end of me; so that I expect every day will be my last day. Bishop Lowth translates this verse: “My habitation is taken away, and is removed from me, like a shepherd’s tent: my life is cut off, as by the weaver; he will sever me from the loom; in the course of the day thou wilt finish my web.” Vitringa and Dr. Waterland read the verse nearly in the same manner, considering the similitude of the weaver as being continued to the end of it. Isaiah 38:13 I reckoned till morning, that , as a lion, so will he break all my bones: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me. Isaiah 38:13-14 . I reckoned till morning, &c. — When night came I reckoned I should die before the next morning, my pains being as great as if my bones had been broken, and the whole frame of my body crushed by a lion. Bishop Lowth reads: I roared until the morning like the lion; so did he break to pieces all my bones. Like a crane or a swallow, &c. — “My pains were sometimes so violent that they forced me to cry aloud; at other times my strength was so exhausted that I could only groan inwardly, and bemoan my unhappy condition in sighs.” I did mourn as a dove — Whose mournful tone is observed Isaiah 59:11 , and elsewhere; mine eyes fail with looking upward — While I lift up my eyes and heart to God for relief in vain; O Lord, I am oppressed — Namely, by my disease, which, like a sergeant, hath seized upon me, and is haling me to the prison of the grave; undertake for me — Stop the execution, and rescue me out of his hands. Isaiah 38:14 Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove: mine eyes fail with looking upward: O LORD, I am oppressed; undertake for me. Isaiah 38:15 What shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it : I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul. Isaiah 38:15 . What shall I say? — I want words sufficiently to express my deep sense of God’s dealings with me; he hath spoken, &c. — He foretold it by his word, and effected it by his hand. In this verse he seems to make a transition into the thanksgiving, which is undoubtedly contained in the following verses, and so the sense is, He hath sent a gracious message to me, by his prophet, concerning the prolongation of my life, and himself hath made good his word. Thus the words are understood by the Chaldee paraphrast, the LXX., and by the Syriac and Arabic interpreters. To this purpose also Bishop Lowth reads the clause. He hath given me a promise, and he hath performed it. I shall go softly all my years — I will conduct myself with humble thankfulness to God for conferring so great a favour upon so unworthy a person, as long as I live. I shall never forget my unworthiness and his loving kindness; in the bitterness of my soul — That is, or rather, upon, or after it: or, as the Chaldee paraphrast reads it, because of my deliverance from bitterness of soul. Isaiah 38:16 O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit: so wilt thou recover me, and make me to live. Isaiah 38:16 . By these things men live — By virtue of thy gracious word, or promise, and powerful work; or, by thy promises, and thy performance of them: and therefore it is not strange that one word of God hath brought me back from the jaws of death. And in all these things is the life of my spirit — As all men’s lives are thy gift, so I shall always acknowledge the preservation of mine to be owing to thy goodness in promising, and thy faithfulness in fulfilling thy promise. So wilt thou recover me, &c. — Or, for thou hast recovered me. Thou hast restored my health and prolonged my life. — Bishop Lowth. Isaiah 38:17 Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. Isaiah 38:17 . Behold, for peace I had great bitterness — “When I perceived and feared no evil, and seemed to enjoy my usual health, then this terrible evil came upon me.” The Hebrew, however, ?????? ?? ?? ?? , may be properly rendered, Behold my grievous anguish is turned into ease; or, My great bitterness was unto peace, that is, became the occasion of my safety and comfort, for it drove me to prayer, and prayer prevailed with God for a gracious answer, and the prolonging of my life. Thou hast in love to my soul, &c. — That is, in kindness to me, (the soul being put for the man,) delivered it from the pit of corruption — This is an emphatical circumstance, for sometimes God prolongs men’s days in anger, foreknowing that they will only fill up still more the measure of their iniquities. For thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back — Thou hast forgiven those sins that brought this affliction upon me, and, upon that account, hast removed the punishment of them. Isaiah 38:18 For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. Isaiah 38:18-20 . For the grave cannot praise thee — The dead cannot be instruments of promoting thy glory among men upon earth, or of making thy goodness known to others, which I desire and determine to do. They cannot hope for thy truth — Cannot expect nor receive the accomplishment of thy promised goodness in this world. The living, &c., shall praise thee — They are especially obliged to do it, and they only have the privilege of doing it among men on earth. The father to the children, &c. — They shall not only praise thee while they live, but shall take care to propagate and perpetuate thy praise to all succeeding generations. Or, he means, “Thy wonderful mercy toward me shall be recorded for the benefit of after ages; and fathers shall mention it to their children, as an instance of thy faithfulness.” The Lord was ready to save me — Was a present help to me, ready to hear and succour me upon my praying to him in my great extremity. Therefore will we sing my songs — Both I and my people will sing those songs of praise which are due, especially from me, for God’s great mercy to me; to the stringed instruments — Or, to the harp, (as Bishop Lowth renders it,) which was according to the custom of those times. Some infer from this verse that Hezekiah composed several other sacred songs, some of which may be still extant among the Psalms. All the days of our life in the house of the Lord — Here we are taught, that the proper fruit of deliverance from evil is thanksgiving, diffusing itself through all the actions of our life. This passage exhibits to us especially a picture of our duty and state as Christians, who, redeemed as we are by the precious blood of the Son of God from everlasting destruction, ought, with all the powers of our souls and bodies, to celebrate his name and glory, so that our whole life may appear one continued thanksgiving. — Vitringa. Isaiah 38:19 The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth. Isaiah 38:20 The LORD was ready to save me: therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the LORD. Isaiah 38:21 For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaister upon the boil, and he shall recover. Isaiah 38:21-22 . For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs — See note on 2 Kings 20:7 . Hezekiah also had said — Or, for Hezekiah had said; What is the sign that I shall go up — Namely, within three days, as is more fully related 2 Kings 20:5 ; 2 Kings 20:8 ; to the house of the Lord? — For thither he designed to go first, partly that he might pay his vows and thanksgivings to God, and partly that he might engage the people to praise God with him and for him. Isaiah 38:22 Hezekiah also had said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD? Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary Isaiah 38:1 In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live. -25 BOOK 4 JERUSALEM AND SENNACHERIB 701 B.C. INTO this fourth book we put all the rest of the prophecies of the Book of Isaiah, that have to do with the prophet’s own time: chapters 1, 22 and 33, with the narrative in 36, 37. All these refer to the only Assyrian invasion of Judah and siege of Jerusalem: that undertaken by Sennacherib in 701. It is, however, right to remember once more, that many authorities maintain that there were two Assyrian invasions of Judah-one by Sargon in 711, the other by Sennacherib in 701-and that chapters 1 and 22 (as well as Isaiah 10:5-34 ) belong to the former of these. The theory is ingenious and tempting; but, in the silence of the Assyrian annals about any invasion of Judah by Sargon, it is impossible to adopt it. And although Chapters 1 and 22 differ very greatly in tone from chapter 33, yet to account for the difference it is not necessary to suppose two different invasions, with a considerable period between them. Virtually, as will appear in the course of our exposition, Sennacherib’s invasion of Judah was a double one. 1. The first time Sennacherib’s army invaded Judah they took all the fenced cities, and probably invested Jerusalem, but withdrew on payment of tribute and the surrender of the casus belli , the Assyrian Vassal Padi, whom the Ekronites had deposed and given over to the keeping of Hezekiah. To this invasion refer Isaiah 1:1-31 ; Isaiah 22:1-25 . and the first verse of 36.: "Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah that Sennacherib, King of Assyria, came up against all the fenced cities of Judah and took them." This verse is the same as 2 Kings 18:13 , to which, however, there is added in 2 Kings 18:14-16 an account of the tribute sent by Hezekiah to Sennacherib at Lachish, that is not included in the narrative in Isaiah. Compare 2 Chronicles 32:1 . 2. But scarcely had the tribute been paid when Sennacherib, himself advancing to meet Egypt, sent back upon Jerusalem a second army of investment, with which was the Rabshakeh; and this was the army that so mysteriously disappeared from the eyes of the besieged. To the treacherous return of the Assyrians and the sudden deliverance of Jerusalem from their grasp refer Isaiah 33:1-24 , Isaiah 36:2-22 , with the fuller and evidently original narrative in 2 Kings 18:17-19 . Compare 2 Chronicles 32:9-23 . To the history of this double attempt upon Jerusalem in 701-chapters 36 and 37 - there has been appended in 38 and 3 an account of Hezekiah’s illness and of an embassy to him from Babylon. These events probably happened some years before Sennacherib’s invasion. But it will be most convenient for us to take them in the order in which they stand in the canon. They wilt naturally lead us up to a question that it is necessary we should discuss before taking leave of Isaiah-whether this great prophet of the endurance of the kingdom of God upon earth had any gospel for the individual who dropped away from it into death. CHAPTER XI DRIFTING TO EGYPT 720-705 13. B.C. Isaiah 20:1-6 ; Isaiah 21:1-10 ; Isaiah 38:1-22 ; Isaiah 39:1-8 FROM 720, when chapter 11 may have been published, to 705-or, by rough reckoning, from the fortieth to the fifty-fifth year of Isaiah’s life-we cannot be sure that we have more than one prophecy from him; but two narratives have found a place in his book which relate events that must have taken place between 712 and 705. These narratives are chapter 20: How Isaiah Walked Stripped and Barefoot for a Sign against Egypt, and chapters 38 and 39: The Sickness of Hezekiah, with the Hymn he wrote, and his behaviour before the envoys from Babylon. The single prophecy belonging to this period is Isaiah 21:1-10 , "Oracle of the Wilderness of the Sea," which announces the fall of Babylon. There has been considerable debate about the authorship of this oracle, but Cheyne, mainly following Dr. Kleinert, gives substantial reasons for leaving it with Isaiah. We postpone the full exposition of chapters 38 and 39 to a later stage, as here it would only interrupt the history. But we will make use of chapters 20 and Isaiah 21:1-10 in the course of the following historical sketch, which is intended to connect the first great period of Isaiah’s prophesying, 740-720, with the second, 705-701. All these fifteen years, 720-705, Jerusalem was drifting to the refuge into which she plunged at the end of them-drifting to Egypt. Ahaz had firmly bound his people to Assyria, and in his reign there was no talk of an Egyptian alliance. But in 725, when the "overflowing scourge" of Assyrian invasion threatened to sweep into Judah as well as Samaria, Isaiah’s words give us some hint of a recoil in the politics of Jerusalem towards the southern power. The "covenants with death and hell," which the men of scorn flaunted in his face as he harped on the danger from Assyria, may only have been the old treaties with Assyria herself, but the "falsehood and lies" that went with them were most probably intrigues with Egypt. Any Egyptian policy, however, that may have formed in Jerusalem before 719, was entirely discredited by the crushing defeat, which in that year Sargon inflicted upon the empire of the Nile, almost on her own borders, at Rafia. Years of quietness for Palestine followed this decisive battle. Sargon, whose annals engraved on the great halls of Khorsabad enable us to read the history of the period year by year, tells us that his next campaigns were to the north of his empire, and till 711 he alludes to Palestine only to say that tribute was coming in regularly, or to mention the deportation to Hamath or Samaria of some tribe he had conquered far away. Egypt, however, was everywhere busy among his feudatories. Intrigue was Egypt’s forte . She is always represented in Isaiah’s pages as the talkative power of many promises. Her fair speech was very sweet to men groaning beneath the military pressure of Assyria. Her splendid past, in conjunction with the largeness of her promise, excited the popular imagination. Centres of her influence gathered in every state. An Egyptian party formed in Jerusalem. Their intrigue pushed mines in all directions, and before the century was out the Assyrian peace in Western Asia was broken by two great explosions. The first of these, in 711, was local and abortive: the second, in 705, was universal, and for a time entirely destroyed the Assyrian supremacy. The centre of the Explosion of 711 was Ashdod, a city of the Philistines. The king had suddenly refused to continue the Assyrian tribute, and Sargon had put another king in his place. But the people-in Ashdod, as everywhere else, it was the people who were fascinated by Egypt-pulled down the Assyrian puppet and elevated Iaman, a friend to Pharaoh. The other cities of the Philistines, with Moab, Edom, and Judah, were prepared by Egyptian promise to throw in their lot with the rebels. Sargon gave them no time. "In the wrath of my heart, I did not divide my army, and I did not diminish the ranks, but I marched against Asdod with my warriors, who did not separate themselves from the traces of my sandals. I besieged, I took, Asdod and Gunt-Asdodim . . . I then made again these towns. I placed the people whom my arm had conquered. I put over them my lieutenant as governor. I considered them like Assyrians, and they practised obedience." It is upon this campaign of Sargon that Mr. Cheyne argues for the invasion of Judah, to which he assigns so many of Isaiah’s prophecies, as, e.g. , chapters 1 and Isaiah 10:5-34 . Some day Assyriology may give us proof of this supposition. We are without it just now. Sargon speaks no word of invading Judah, and the only part of the book of Isaiah that unmistakably refers to this time is the picturesque narrative of chapter 20. In this we are told that "in the year" the Tartan, the Assyrian commander-in-chief, "came to Ashdod when Sargon king of Assyria sent him" [that is to be supposed the year of the first revolt in Ashdod, to which Sargon himself did not come], "and he fought against Ashdod and took it:-in that time Jehovah had spoken by the hand of Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth," the prophet’s robe, "from off thy loins, and thy sandal strip from off thy foot; and he did so, walking naked," that is unfrocked, "and barefoot." For Egyptian intrigue was already busy; the temporary success of the Tartan at Ashdod did not discourage it, and it needed a protest. "And Jehovah said, As My servant Isaiah hath walked unfrocked and barefoot three years for a sign and a portent against Egypt and against Ethiopia" [note the double name, for the country was now divided between two rulers, the secret of her impotence to interfere forcibly in Palestine] "so shall the king of Assyria lead away the captives of Egypt and exiles of Ethiopia, young and old, stripped and barefoot, and with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. And they shall be dismayed and ashamed, because of Ethiopia their expectation and because of Egypt their boast. And the inhabitant of this coastland" [that is, all Palestine, and a name for it remarkably similar to the phrase used by Sargon, "the people of Philistia, Judah, Edom, and Moab, dwelling by the sea"] "shall say in that day, Behold, such is our expectation, whither we had fled for help to deliver ourselves from the king of Assyria, and how shall we escape-we?" This parade of Isaiah for three years, unfrocked and barefoot, is another instance of that habit on which we remarked in connection with Isaiah 8:1 : the habit of finally carrying everything committed to him before the bar of the whole nation. It was to the mass of the people God said, "Come and let us reason together." Let us not despise Isaiah in his shirt any more than we do Diogenes in his tub, or with a lantern in his hand, seeking for a man by its rays at noonday. He was bent on startling the popular conscience, because he held it true that a people’s own morals have greater influence on their destinies than the policies of their statesmen. But especially anxious was Isaiah, as we shall again see from chapter 31, to bring, this Egyptian policy home to the popular conscience. Egypt was a big-mouthed, blustering power, believed in by the mob; to expose her required public, picturesque, and persistent advertisement. So Isaiah continued his walk for three years. The fall of Ashdod, left by Egypt to itself, did not disillusion the Jews, and the rapid disappearance of Sargon to another part of his empire where there was trouble, gave the Egyptians audacity to continue their intrigues against him. Sargon’s new trouble had broken out in Babylon, and was much more serious than any revolt in Syria. Merodach Baladan, king of Chaldea, was no ordinary vassal, but as dangerous a rival as Egypt. When he rose, it meant a contest between Babylon and Nineveh for the sovereignty of the world. He had long been preparing for war. He had an alliance with Elam, and the tribes of Mesopotamia were prepared for his signal of revolt. Among the charges brought him by Sargon is that, "against the will of the gods of Babylon, he had sent during twelve years ambassadors." One of these embassies may have been that which came to Hezekiah after his great sickness (chapter 39). "And Hezekiah was glad of them, and showed them the house of his spicery, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious oil, and all the house of his armour and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah showed them not." Isaiah was indignant. He had hitherto kept the king from formally closing with Egypt; now he found him eager for an alliance with another of the powers of man. But instead of predicting the captivity of Babylon, as he predicted the captivity of Egypt, by the hand of Assyria, Isaiah declared, according to chapter 39, that Babylon would some day take Israel captive; and Hezekiah had to content himself with the prospect that this calamity was not to happen in his time. Isaiah’s prediction of the exile of Israel to Babylon is a matter of difficulty. The difficulty, however, is not that of conceiving how he could have foreseen an event which took place more than a century later. Even in 711 Babylon was not an unlikely competitor for the supremacy of the nations. Sargon himself felt that it was a crisis to meet her. Very little might have transferred the seat of power from the Tigris to the Euphrates. What, therefore, more probable than that when Hezekiah disclosed to these envoys the whole state of his resources, and excused himself by saying "that they were come from a far country, even Babylon," Isaiah, seized by a strong sense of how near Babylon stood to the throne of the nations, should laugh to scorn the excuse of distance, and tell the king that his anxiety to secure an alliance had only led him to place the temptation to rob him more in the face of a power that was certainly on the way to be able to do it? No, the difficulty is not that the prophet foretold a captivity of the Jews in Babylon, but that we cannot reconcile what he says of that captivity with his intimation of the immediate destruction of Babylon, which has come down to us in Isaiah 21:1-10 . In this prophecy Isaiah regards Babylon as he has been regarding Egypt-certain to go down before Assyria, and therefore wholly unprofitable to Judah. If the Jews still thought of returning to Egypt when Sargon hurried back from completing her discomfiture in order to beset Babylon, Isaiah would tell them it was no use. Assyria has brought her full power to bear on the Babylonians; Elam and Media are with her. He travails with pain for the result. Babylon is not expecting a siege; but "preparing the table, eating and drinking," when suddenly the cry rings through her, "‘Arise, ye princes; anoint the shield.’ The enemy is upon us." So terrible and so sudden a warrior is this Sargon! At his words nations move; when he saith, "Go up, O Elam! Besiege, O Media!" it is done. And he falls upon his foes before their weapons are ready. Then the prophet shrinks back from the result of his imagination of how it happened-for that is too painful-upon the simple certainty, which God revealed to him, that it must happen. As surely as Sargon’s columns went against Babylon, so surely must the message return that Babylon has fallen. Isaiah puts it this way. The Lord bade him get on his watchtower-that is his phrase for observing the signs of the times-and speak whatever he saw. And he saw a military column on the march: "a troop of horsemen by pairs, a troop of asses, a troop of camels." It passed him out of sight, "and he hearkened very diligently" for news. But none came. It was a long campaign. "And he cried like a lion" for impatience, "O my Lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower by day, and am set in my ward every night." Till at last, "behold, there came a troop of men, horsemen in pairs, and" now "one answered and said, Fallen, fallen is Babylon, and all the images of her gods he hath broken to the ground." The meaning of this very elliptical passage is just this: as surely as the prophet saw Sargon’s columns go out against Babylon, so sure was he of her fall. Turning to his Jerusalem, he Says, "My own threshed one, son of my floor, that which I have heard from Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you." How gladly would I have told you otherwise! But this is His message and His will. Everything must go down before this Assyrian. Sargon entered Babylon before the year was out, and with her conquest established his fear once more down to the borders of Egypt. In his lifetime neither Judah nor her neighbours attempted again to revolt. But Egypt’s intrigue did not cease. Her mines were once more laid, and the feudatories of Assyria only waited for their favourite opportunity, a change of tyrants on the throne of Nineveh. This came very soon. In the fifteenth year of his reign, having finally established his empire, Sargon inscribed on the palace at Khorsabad the following prayer to Assur: "May it be that I, Sargon, who inhabit this palace, may be preserved by destiny during long years for a long life, for the happiness of my body, for the satisfaction of my heart, and may I arrive to my end! May I accumulate in this palace immense treasures, the booties of all countries, the products of mountains and valleys!" The god did not hear. A few months later, in 705, Sargon was murdered; and before Sennacherib, his successor, sat down on the throne, the whole of Assyrian supremacy in the southwest of Asia went up in the air. It was the second of the great Explosions we spoke of, and the rest of Isaiah’s prophecies are concerned with its results. CHAPTER XXV AN OLD TESTAMENT BELIEVER’S SICKBED; OR, THE DIFFERENCE CHRIST HAS MADE DATE UNCERTAIN Isaiah 38:1-22 ; Isaiah 39:1-8 To the great national drama of Jerusalem’s deliverance, there have been added two scenes of a personal kind, relating to her king. Chapters 38 and 39 are the narrative of the sore sickness and recovery of King Hezekiah, and of the embassy which Merodach-Baladan sent him, and how he received the embassy. The date of these events is difficult to determine. If, with Canon Cheyne, we believe in an invasion of Judah by Sargon in 711, we shall be tempted to refer them, as he does, to that date-the more so that the promise of fifteen additional years made to Hezekiah in 711, the fifteenth year of his reign, would bring it up to the twenty-nine, at which it is set in 2 Kings 18:2 . That, however, would flatly contradict the statement both of Isaiah 38:1 and 2 Kings 20:1 . that Hezekiah’s sickness fell in the days of the invasion of Judah by Sennacherib; that is, after 705. But to place the promise of fifteen additional years to Hezekiah after 705, when we know he had been reigning for at least twenty years, would be to contradict the verse, just cited, which sums up the years of his reign as twenty-nine. This is, in fact, one of the instances in which we must admit our present inability to elucidate the chronology of this portion of the book of Isaiah. Mr. Cheyne thinks the editor mistook the siege by Sennacherib for the siege by Sargon. But as the fact of a siege by Sargon has never been satisfactorily established, it seems safer to trust the statement that Hezekiah’s sickness occurred in the reign of Sennacherib, and to allow that there has been an error somewhere in the numbering of the years. It is remarkable that the name of Merodach-Baladan does not help us to decide between the two dates. There was a Merodach-Baladan in rebellion against Sargon in 710, and there was one in rebellion against Sennacherib in 705. It has not yet been put past doubt as to whether these two are the same. The essential is that there was a Merodach-Baladan alive, real or only claimant king of Babylon, about 705, and that he was likely at that date to treat with Hezekiah, being himself in revolt against Assyria. Unable to come to any decision about the conflicting numbers, we leave uncertain the date of the events recounted in chapters 38 and 39. The original form of the narrative, but wanting Hezekiah’s hymn, is given in 2 Kings 20:1-21 . We have given to this chapter the title "An Old Testament Believer’s Sickbed; or, The Difference Christ has made," not because this is the only spiritual suggestion of the story, but because it seems to the present expositor as if this were the predominant feeling left in Christian minds after reading for us the story. In Hezekiah’s conduct there is much of courage for us to admire, as there are other elements to warn us; but when we have read the whole story, we find ourselves saying, What a difference Christ has made to me! Take Hezekiah from two points of view, and then let the narrative itself bring out this difference. Here is a man, who, although he lived more than twenty-five centuries ago, is brought quite close to our side. Death, who herds all men into his narrow fold, has crushed this Hebrew king so close to us that we can feel his very heart beat. Hezekiah’s hymn gives us entrance into the fellowship of his sufferings. By the figures he so skilfully uses he makes us feel that pain, the shortness of life, the suddenness of death, and the utter blackness beyond were to him just what they are to us. And yet this kinship in pain, and fear, and ignorance only makes us the more aware of something else which we have and he has not. Again, here is a man to whom religion gave all it could give without the help of Christ; a believer in the religion out of which Christianity sprang, perhaps the most representative Old Testament believer we could find, for Hezekiah was at once the collector of what was best in its literature and the reformer of what was worst in its worship; a man permeated by the past piety of his Church, and enjoying as his guide and philosopher the boldest prophet who ever preached the future developments of its spirit. Yet when we put Hezekiah and all that Isaiah can give him on one side, we shall again feel for ourselves on the other what a difference Christ has made. This difference a simple study of the narrative will make clear. I. "In those days Hezekiah became sick unto death." They were critical days for Judah-no son born to the king, { 2 Kings 21:1 } the work of reformation in Judah not yet consolidated, the big world tossing in revolution all around. Under God, everything depended on an experienced ruler; and this one, without a son to succeed him, was drawing near to death. We will therefore judge Hezekiah’s strong passion for life to have been patriotic as well as selfish. He stood in the midtime of his days, with a faithfully executed work behind him and so good an example of kinghood that for years Isaiah had not expressed his old longing for the Messiah. The Lord had counted Hezekiah righteous; that twin-sign had been given him which more than any other assured an Israelite of Jehovah’s favour-a good conscience and success in his work. Well, therefore, might he cry when Isaiah brought him the sentence of death, "Ah, now, Jehovah, remember, I beseech Thee, how I have walked before Thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in Thine eyes. And Hezekiah wept with a great weeping." There is difficulty in the strange story which follows. The dial was probably a pyramid of steps on the top of which stood a short pillar or obelisk. When the sun rose in the morning. the shadow cast by the pillar would fall right down the western side of the pyramid to the bottom of the lowest step. As the sun ascended the shadow would shorten, and creep up inch by inch to the foot of the pillar. After noon, as the sun began to descend to the west, the shadow would creep down the eastern steps; and the steps were so measured that each one marked a certain degree of time. It was probably afternoon when Isaiah visited the king. The shadow was going down according to the regular law; the sign consisted in causing the Shadow to shrink up the steps again. Such a reversal of the ordinary progress of the shadow may have been caused in either of two ways: by the whole earth being thrown back on its axis, which we may dismiss as impossible, or by the occurrence of the phenomenon known as refraction. Refraction is a disturbance in the atmosphere by which the rays of the sun are bent or deflected from their natural course into an angular one. In this case, instead of shooting straight over the top of the obelisk, the rays of the sun had been bent down and inward, so that the shadow fled up to the foot of the obelisk. There are many things in the air which might cause this; it is a phenomenon often observed; and the Scriptural narratives imply that on this occasion it was purely local. { 2 Chronicles 32:31 } Had we only the narrative in the book of Isaiah, the explanation would have been easy. Isaiah, having given the sentence of death, passed the dial in the palace courtyard, and saw the shadow lying ten degrees farther up than it should have done, the sight of which coincided with the inspiration that the king would not die; and Isaiah went back to announce to Hezekiah his reprieve, and naturally call his attention to this as a sign, to which a weak and desponding man would be glad to cling. But the original narrative in the book of Kings tells us that Isaiah offered Hezekiah a choice of signs: that the shadow should either advance or retreat, and that the king chose the latter. The sign came in answer to Isaiah’s prayer, and is narrated to us as a special Divine interposition. But a medicine accompanied it, and Hezekiah recovered through a poultice of figs laid on the boil from which he suffered. While recognising for our own faith the uselessness of a discussion on this sign offered to a sick man, let us not miss the moral lessons of so touching a narrative, nor the sympathy, with the sick king which it is fitted to produce, and which is our best introduction to the study of his hymn. Isaiah had performed that most awful duty of doctor or minister-the telling of a friend that he must die. Few men have not in their personal experience a key to the prophet’s feelings on this occasion. The leaving of a dear friend for the last time; the coming out into the sunlight which he will nevermore share with us; the passing by the dial; the observation of the creeping shadow; the feeling that it is only a question of time; the passion of prayer into which that feeling throws us that God may be pleased to put off the hour and spare our friend; the invention, that is born, like prayer, of necessity: a cure we suddenly remember; the confidence which prayer and invention bring between them; the return with the joyful news; the giving of the order about the remedy-cannot many in their degree rejoice with Isaiah in such an experience? But he has, too, a conscience of God and God’s work to which none of us may pretend: he knows how-indispensable to that work his royal pupil is, and out of this inspiration he prophesies the will of the Lord that Hezekiah shall recover. Then the king, with a sick man’s sacramental longing, asks a sign. Out through the window the courtyard is visible; there stands the same step-dial of Ahaz, the long pillar on the top of the steps, the shadow creeping down them through the warm afternoon sunshine. To the sick man it must have been like the finger of death coming nearer. "Shall the shadow," asks the prophet, "go forward ten steps or go back ten steps? It is easy," says the king, alarmed, "for the shadow to go down ten steps." Easy for it to go down! Has he not been feeling that all the afternoon? "Do not," we can fancy him saying, with the gasp of a man who has been watching its irresistible descent-"do not let that black thing come farther; but ‘let the shadow go backward ten steps."’ The shadow returned, and Hezekiah got his sign. But when he was well, he used it for more than a sign. He read a great spiritual lesson in it. The time, which upon the dial had been apparently thrown back, had in his life been really thrown back; and God had given him his years to live over again. The past was to be as if it had never been, its guilt and weakness wiped out. "Thou hast cast behind Thy back all my sins." As a new born child Hezekiah felt himself uncommitted by the past, not a sin’s-doubt nor a sin’s-cowardice in him, with the heart of a little child, but yet with the strength and dignity of a grown man, for it is the magic of tribulation to bring innocence with experience. "I shall go softly," or literally, "with dignity or caution, as in a procession, all my years because of the bitterness of my soul. O Lord, upon such things do men live; and altogether in them is the life of my spirit. Behold, for perfection was it bitter to me, so bitter." And through it all there breaks a new impression of God. "What shall I say? He hath both spoken with me, and Himself hath done it." As if afraid to impute his profits to the mere experience itself, "In them is the life of my spirit," he breaks in with "Yea, Thou hast recovered me; yea, Thou hast made me to live." And then, by a very pregnant construction, he adds, "Thou hast loved my soul out of the pit of destruction"; that is, of course, "loved, and by Thy love lifted," but he uses the one word "loved," and gives it the active force of "drawing" or "lifting." In this lay the head and glory of Hezekiah’s experience. He was a religious man, an enthusiast for the Temple services, and had all his days as his friend the prophet whose heart was with the heart of God; but it was not through any of these means God came near him, not till he lay sick and had turned his face to the wall. Then indeed he cried, "What shall I say? He hath both spoken with me, and Himself hath done it!" Forgiveness, a new peace, a new dignity, and a visit from the living God! Well might Hezekiah exclaim that it was only through a near sense of death that men rightly learned to live. "Ah, Lord, it is upon these things that men live; and wholly therein is the life of my spirit." It is by these things men live, and therein I have learned for the first time what life is! In all this at least we cannot go beyond Hezekiah, and he stands an example to the best Christian among us. Never did a man bring richer harvest from the fields of death. Everything that renders life really life-peace, dignity, a new sense of God and of His forgiveness-these were the spoils which Hezekiah won in his struggle with the grim enemy. He had snatched from death a new meaning for life; he had robbed death of its awful pomp, and bestowed this on careless life. Hereafter he should walk with the step and the mien of a conqueror-"I shall go in solemn procession all my years because of the bitterness of my soul"-or with the carefulness of a worshipper, who sees at the end of his course the throne of the Most High God, and makes all his life an ascent thither. This is the effect which every great sorrow and struggle has upon a noble soul. Come to the streets of the living. Who are these, whom we. can so easily distinguish from the crowd by their firmness of step and look of peace, walking softly where some spurt and some halt, holding, without rest or haste, the tenor of their way, as if they marched to music heard by their ears alone? These are they which have come out of great tribulation. They have brought back into time the sense of eternity. They know how near the invisible worlds lie to this one, and the sense of the vast silences stills all idle laughter in their hearts. The life that is to other men chance or sport, strife or hurried flight, has for them its allotted distance, is for them a measured march, a constant worship. "For the bitterness of their soul they go in procession all their years." Sorrow’s subjects, they are our kings; wrestlers with death, our veterans: and to the rabble armies of society they set the step of a nobler life. Count especially the young man blessed, who has looked into the grave before he has faced the great temptations of the world, and has not entered the race of life till he has learned his stride in the race with death. They tell us that on the outside of civilisation, where men carry their lives in their hands, a most thorough politeness and dignity are bred, in spite of the want of settled habits, by the sense of danger alone; and we know how battle and a deadly climate, pestilence or the perils of the sea have sent back to us the most careless of our youth with a self-possession and regularity of mind, that it would have been hopeless to expect them to develop amid the trivial trials of village life. But the greatest duty of us men is not to seek nor to pray for such combats with death. It is-when God has found these for us to remain true to our memories of them. The hardest duty of life is to remain true to our psalms of deliverance, as it is certainly life’s greatest temptation to fall away from the sanctity of sorrow, and suffer the stately style of one who knows how near death hovers to his line of march to degenerate into the broken step of a wanton life. This was Hezekiah’s temptation, and this is why the story of his fall in the thirty-ninth chapter is placed beside his vows in the thirty-eighth-to warn us how easy it is for those who have come conquerors out of a struggle with death to fall a prey to common life. He had said, "I will walk softl