Isaiah 38:1 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, 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.
a day (as the warm hours) · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
Hezekiah
חִזְקִיָּ֖הוּchiz.ki.Ya.hu
H2396
Chizkijah · proper noun, a man's name
sick
חָלָ֥הcha.Lah
H2470
properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
death
לָמ֑וּתla.Mut
H4191
to die (literally or figuratively) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
Isaiah
יְשַׁעְיָ֨הוּye.sha'.Ya.hu
H3470
Jeshajah · proper noun, a man's name
prophet
הַנָּבִ֗יאha.na.Vi'
H5030
a prophet or (generally) inspired man · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
son
בֶןven-
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct
Amoz
אָמ֜וֹץ'a.Motz
H531
Amots · proper noun, a man's name
came
וַיָּב֣וֹאvai.ya.Vo'
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
said
וַיֹּ֨אמֶרvai.Yo.mer
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
saith
אָמַ֤ר'a.Mar
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
LORD
יְהוָה֙Yah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
house
לְבֵיתֶ֔ךָle.vei.Te.kha
H1004
a house (in the greatest variation of applications · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
order
צַ֣וtzav
H6680
(intensively) to constitute · verb, piel imperative, 2nd person masculine singular
die
מֵ֥תmet
H4191
to die (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
live
תִֽחְיֶֽהTich.Yeh
H2421
to live · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
2 Chronicles 32:24 In those days Hezekiah was sick to the death, and prayed unto the LORD: and he spake unto him, and he gave him a sign.
Isaiah 38:1-8 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, Se…
2 Kings 20:1-11 In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set…
2 Samuel 17:23 And when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his ass, and arose, and gat him home to his house, to his city, and pu…
Jonah 3:10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; an…
Acts 9:37 And it came to pass in those days, that she was sick, and died: whom when they had washed, they laid her in an upper chamber.
Isaiah 37:21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent unto Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Whereas thou hast prayed to me against Sennacheri…
Philippians 2:27-30 For indeed he was sick nigh unto death: but God had mercy on him; and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 38:1-8
We may hence observe, among others, these good lessons: - 1. That neither men's greatness nor their goodness will exempt them from the arrests of sickness and death. Hezekiah, a mighty potentate on earth and a mighty favourite of Heaven, is struck with a disease, which, without a miracle, will certainly be mortal; and this in the midst of his days, his comforts, and usefulness. Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. It should seem, this sickness seized him when he was in the midst of his triumphs over the ruined army of the Assyrians, to teach us always to rejoice with trembling. 2. It concerns us to prepare when we see death approaching: "Set thy house in order, and thy heart especially…
In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death,.... This was about the time that Sennacherib invaded Judea, threatened Jerusalem with a siege, and his army was destroyed by an angel from heaven; but, whether it was before or after the destruction of his army, interpreters are not agreed. Some of the Jewish writers, as Jarchi upon the place, and others (a), say, it was three days before the ruin of Sennacherib's army; and that it was on the third day that Hezekiah recovered, and went up to the temple, that the destruction was; and that it was the first day of the passover; and that this was before the city of Jerusalem was delivered from him; and the fears of him seem clear from Isaiah 38:6 and s…
In those days. The Prophet now relates that the pious king was violently assailed by a different kind of temptation, namely, that he was seized with a mortal disease and despaired of life; and not only so, but likewise that he suffered dreadful agony, in consequence of having received from God a warning of his death, as if in a hostile manner God had thundered on his head from heaven. At what time that happened, whether after the siege, or during the siege, is not very evident; but it is unnecessary to give ourselves much trouble on that subject. It may be easily inferred from the sacred history, that this event happened about the fourteenth year of his reign, either while he was invaded by…
The Church Fathers
(Chapter 38, Verse 1) In those days, Hezekiah fell sick even unto death. And Isaiah, the son of Amos the prophet, came to him, and said to him: Thus saith the Lord: Set thy house in order, for thou shalt die, and not live. Whom the Lord loves, He corrects and disciplines every son whom He receives (Prov. III). In order that Ezechias' heart would not be lifted up after incredible triumphs, and victory over the midst of captivity, he is visited with infirmity of his body, and hears that he will die, so that, being converted, he may turn to the Lord's judgment. Indeed, we read about this in the prophet Jonah, and in the threats that are said to be future against David, which did not happen, not because God changed His judgment, but because He incited the human race to the knowledge of Himself. For the Lord is remorseful over evils.
But God who, in mercy to man, always works for his salvation, desiring to dispossess Hezekiah of that notion which his erring human judgment had suggested to him, and remembering also his virtues, did not permit him to be deluded to the end, but sent him such a sickness as led him to despair of his life. Then Isaiah the prophet going in unto him said: Set thy house in order, for thou shalt die and not live; and thus at once took away the two opinions he had entertained. For some of the Jews said that the Christ never dies, while others held that he does really die, but rises again from the dead. So by saying thou shalt die the prophet took away from him one opinion—that according to which he thought he would never die, but when he added thereto and said: thou shalt not live, he took away the other opinion, according to which others asserted that he rises from the dead. For, being under the test of sickness, he was taught by both expressions that he was not Christ. But the Prophet with great wisdom suggested to him by the power of the Holy Spirit, that he was not the Christ, when he said to him: Set thy house in order, for thou shalt die and not live; as if he said, arrange thine affairs, settling to whom thou wilt transmit thy kingdom, in order that the promise of God may be guarded against the possibility of failure, for thou art not the Christ proclaimed by the Prophets, who has a kingdom without successor, but thou shalt undoubtedly have a successor, and thou hast not done well in neglecting to beget children to succeed thee in thy kingdom. It must therefore be thy concern now to arrange thine affairs, and to declare whom thou wilt have to be thy successor in the kingdom. As he had fancied that he would have but himself for his successor, Hezekiah on coming to know otherwise wept bitterly, and having repented and turned himself on his bed to the wall—the quarter in which the Temple lay, in accordance with the practice obtaining among the Jews—he made his supplication with his thoughts, you may be sure, directed to the Temple
Dictionary and topics
Hezekiah — Whom Jehovah has strengthened. (1.) Son of Ahaz (2 Kings 18:1; 2 Chr. 29:1), whom he succeeded on the throne of the kingdom of Judah. He reigned twenty-nine years (B.C. 726-697). The history of this…
Isaiah — (Heb. Yesh’yahu, i.e., “the salvation of Jehovah”). (1.) The son of Amoz (Isa. 1:1; 2:1), who was apparently a man of humble rank. His wife was called “the prophetess” (8:3), either because she was…
Wills — Under a system of close inheritance like that of the Jews, the scope forbid bequest in respect of land was limited by the right of redemption and general re-entry in the jubilee year; but the law…
Disease · Of Hezekiah — Of Hezekiah
Hezekiah · .Sickness and restoration of — .Sickness and restoration of
Isaiah · kings of — kings of
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The story of Hezekiah’s healing connects Hezekiah’s extension of life with Jerusalem’s relief from the Assyrians. The events of this story took place before Jerusalem’s rescue from the Assyrians but were placed in a thematic rather than chronological order. One theme is the importance of prayer (see 37:14-20; 38:2-3). The Lord does listen! Hezekiah had learned the lesson of trust that his father, Ahaz, refused. As a result, Judah and Jerusalem were spared total destruction by the Assyrians. Yet Hezekiah was not the Messiah, the Son of David promised in 7:14; 9:1-7; 11:1-16; 16:5; 32:1, and 33:17-22. Thus, these accounts of his failure and mortality (chs 38–39) prepare the reader for the reve…
In those days Three days before Sennacherib’s downfall, Hezekiah became ill, and the third day, when he went up to the house of the Lord, was the day of Sennacherib’s downfall, and it was the first festive day of Passover.
for you are going to die and you shall not live You are going to die in this world, and you shall not live in the world to come, for you have not married, as it is stated in Berachoth 10b.
[Daniel 4:27] "'Wherefore, O king, let my counsel meet with thy favor, and make up for thy sins by deeds of charity, and thine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor. Perhaps God will forgive thy transgressions.'" Since he had previously pronounced the sentence of God, which of course cannot be altered, how could he exhort the king to deeds of charity and acts of mercy towards the poor? This difficulty is easily solved by reference to the example of King Hezekiah, who Isaiah had said was going to die (Isaiah 38:1); and again, to the example of the Ninevites, to whom it was said: "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed" (Jonah 3:4). And yet the sentence of God was changed in response to the prayers of Hezekiah and the city of Nineveh, not by any means because of the ineffectualness of the judgment itself but because of the conversion of those who merited pardon. Morever in Jeremiah God states that He threatens evil for the nation (Jeremiah 18:7-8), but if it does that which is good, He will alter His threats to bestow mercy. Again, He affirms that He directs His promises to the man who does good; and if the same man thereafter works evil, He says that He changes His decision, not with regard to the men themselves, but with regard to their works which have thus changed in character. For after all, God is not angered at men but at their sins; and when no sins inhere in a man, God by no means inflicts a punishment which has been commuted. In other words, let us say that Nebuchadnezzar performed deeds of mercy toward the poor in accordance with Daniel's advice, and for that reason the sentence against him was delayed of execution for twelve months. But because he afterwards while walking about in his palace at Babylon said boastingly: "Is this not the great Babylon which I myself have built up as a home for the king by the might of my power and the glory of my name?" therefore he lost the virtue of his charitableness by reason of the wickedness of his pride. "It may be that God will forgive thy sins." In view of the fact that the blessed Daniel, foreknowing the future as he did, had doubts concerning God's decision, it is very rash on the part of those who boldly promise pardon to sinners. And yet it should be recognized that indulgence was promised to Nebuchadnezzar in return, as long as he wrought good works. Much more, then, is it promised to other…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
