Isaiah
Chapter 38
Hezekiah’s Illness and Healing
During that time, Hezekiah became very sick, and the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, came to him with a message from the Lord: “Put your house in order for you shall die; you shall not live.”
Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall and prayed to the Lord:
“Ah, the Lord! Remember how I have walked before you in truth and wholeheartedly and done what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah:
“Go and tell Hezekiah what the Lord, the God of his father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. See! I am adding fifteen years to your life
and I will save you and this city from the power of the king of Assyria. I will defend it for my sake and for David, my servant.”
Isaiah answered: “This will be a sign for you from the Lord that he will do what he has promised.
See! I will make the shadow descending on Ahaz’s stairway go back ten steps.” So the sunlight returned to the ten steps it had traversed on the stairway.
Song of Hezekiah
Canticle of Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery:
Once I said: In the noontime of my life, I go; I am sent to the land of the dead, for the rest of my years.
I said: Never again shall I see the Lord in the land of the living; never again shall I see the inhabitants of the earth.
Like a shepherd’s tent, my dwelling has been pulled down and thrown away; like a weaver, you rolled up my life and cut it from the loom: from day to night you made me waste away.
I have cried for help until morning. Like a lion, he has broken all my bones.
I have uttered shrill cries like a swallow or a crane, I have moaned like a dove. My eyes all the while are growing weary as I look up to the heavens: Come and help me, O Lord! For I am troubled.
But how can I speak and what shall I say to him, if he himself is doing this to me? I will have to walk all my years bearing this anguish of my soul.
O Lord, give me back my health and give me back my life!
My anguish has turned to peace; you have retrieved my life from the pit of corruption; You have cast all my sins behind you.
For the dead cannot give you thanks, death cannot give you praise; those who go down to the pit cannot hope for your kindness.
The living, the living alone can give you thanks and praise, as I do; fathers will tell their sons of your fidelity.
O Lord, come and save me! We will sing, accompanied by harps, in the temple of the Lord all the days of our life.
Isaiah then said: “Bring a fig cake to rub on the ulcer and let Hezekiah be cured!”
Hezekiah asked: “What is the sign that I should go up to the house of the Lord?”
Commentaries
Historical Section.
Aside from Hezekiah’s prayer of thanksgiving (Isaiah 38:9-20), this historical account closely matches 2 Kings 18:13-20, which describes the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem in 701 B.C. and its miraculous deliverance (2 Kgs 19:35-37). Isaiah does not mention that Hezekiah surrendered to Senna-cherib and paid him tribute, as stated in 2 Kings 18:14-16.
Hezekiah’s Illness and Healing.
Since the king’s recovery happens at the same time as Jerusalem’s liberation, this chapter should come before Isa 36-37. Unlike Ahaz, who rejected the Lord’s message (7:4), and Uzziah, who died from leprosy for daring to enter the sanctuary (2 Chr 26:16-21), Hezekiah is the faithful king who recovered from the plague, went back to the temple, and reigned for fifteen more years.
Song of Hezekiah.
This psalm has two parts. The first is a lament for being at the gates of the abyss (Sheol was seen as a prison), where he feels forced to enter in the middle of his life (10-12). In the second part, the king suddenly thanks the Lord for changing his luck. He admits his sin of trusting in political alliances instead of in God (17).