to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal perfect, 1st person common singular
off
בִּדְמִ֥יbid.Mi
H1824
quiet · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
days
יָמַ֛יya.Mai
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix
go
יָלַךְyâlak
H3212
to walk (literally or figuratively)
gates
בְּשַׁעֲרֵ֣יbe.sha.'a.Rei
H8179
an opening · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct
grave
שְׁא֑וֹלshe.'ol
H7585
Hades or the world of the dead (as if a subterranean re… · noun, common both genders singular absolute
deprived
פֻּקַּ֖דְתִּיpu.Kad.ti
H6485
to visit (with friendly or hostile intent) · verb, pual perfect, 1st person common singular
residue
יֶ֥תֶרYe.ter
H3499
properly · noun, common masculine singular construct
years
שְׁנוֹתָֽיshe.no.Tai
H8141
a year (as a revolution of time) · noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix
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
Psalms 102:24 I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are throughout all generations.
2 Corinthians 1:9 But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:
Job 7:7 O remember that my life is wind: mine eye shall no more see good.
Psalms 107:18 Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat; and they draw near unto the gates of death.
Job 6:11 What is my strength, that I should hope? and what is mine end, that I should prolong my life?
Job 17:11-16 My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.
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, Se…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 38:9–end
We have here Hezekiah's thanksgiving-song, which he penned, by divine direction, after his recovery. He might have taken some of the psalms of his father David, and made use of them for his purpose; he might have found many very pertinent ones. He appointed the Levites to praise the Lord with the words of David, Ch2 29:30. But the occasion here was extraordinary, and, his heart being full of devout affections, he would not confine himself to the compositions he had, though of divine inspiration, but would offer up his affections in his own words, which is most natural and genuine. He put this thanksgiving in writing, that he might review it himself afterwards, for the reviving of the good im…
cutting off--ROSENMULLER translates, "the meridian"; when the sun stands in the zenith: so "the perfect day" (Pro 4:18). Rather, "in the tranquillity of my days," that is, that period of life when I might now look forward to a tranquil reign [MAURER]. The Hebrew is so translated (Isa 62:6-7).
go to--rather, "go into," as in Isa 46:2 [MAURER].
residue of my years--those which I had calculated on. God sends sickness to teach man not to calculate on the morrow, but to live more wholly to God, as if each day were the last.
John Gill on Isaiah 38:10
I said, in the cutting off of my days,.... When he was told that he should die, and he believed he should; this he calls a "cutting off" in allusion to the weaver's web, Isaiah 38:12 and a cutting off "his days", he being now in the prime of his age, about thirty nine or forty years of age, and not arrived to the common period of life, and to which, according to his constitution, and the course of nature, he might have attained. The Jews call such a death a cutting off, that is, by the hand of God, which is before a man is fifty years of age. The Vulgate Latin version is, "in the midst of my days"; as it was, according to the common term of life, being threescore and ten, and at most eighty,…
I said in the noontide of my days I shall go, as if he said, I always cherished this thought in my heart, saying to myself, that I shall live always and never die. For by his saying: In the noontide of my days I shall go, he indicated that his days would never be shortened; and as if some one, while he was silent, had asked: while you were absorbed in these meditations what happened to you? he continues and says: At the gates of the grave I shall leave the residue of my years; meaning, while I was thus meditating, I was all at once seized with a dreadful sickness, and could no longer cling to my former notion, but thought I should spend the rest of my years in the grave
(Verse 10) I said in the middle of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I have sought the remainder of my years. He narrates what he silently thought during the time of pressing distress and imminent weakness; I said, he says, in my heart, in the midst of my days, or as Aquila and Symmachus and Theodotion have interpreted, in the weakness and silence of my days, for which the LXX have interpreted it as 'exalted' due to the similarity of the letters, reading 'Rame' instead of 'Dame': although some have turned it into 'Dame', so that the sense is 'In the blood of my days', when my blood, my destruction, was eagerly awaited. Therefore, in despair, I said: I will go to the gates of hell, either by the common law of nature, or those gates about which the Psalmist sings that he has been freed: 'You raised me up from the gates of death, that I may proclaim all your praises at the gates of the daughter of Zion' (Psalm 9:15). I believe these are the gates of hell, which do not prevail against Peter (Matthew 16), for he slept in the fullness of his days. The saints fulfill their days, as was the case with Abraham, who died full of days in old age (Genesis 25). But the sinners and the wicked die in the midst of their days, of whom the Psalmist also speaks: Men of blood and deceit will not live out half their days (Ps. 54:25). For they do not fulfill the works of virtue, nor do they strive to repent and amend their sins. Therefore, in the middle of the course of life, and in the darkness of errors, they will be led to Tartarus. I sought, he says, the remaining years of my life, not thinking that I would live any longer.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Poetry — Has been well defined as “the measured language of emotion.” Hebrew poetry deals almost exclusively with the great question of man’s relation to God. “Guilt, condemnation, punishment, pardon,…
Gates · Illustrative: (Of the grave,) of death — Illustrative: (Of the grave,) of death
Hezekiah · .His psalm of thanksgiving — .His psalm of thanksgiving
Murmuring · .Hezekiah — .Hezekiah
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).
John Calvin on Isaiah 38:10
I said in the cutting off of my days. This is a very melancholy song; for it contains complaints rather than prayers. Hence it is evident that he was oppressed by so great perplexity, that he was weary with groaning, and sunk in lamentations, and did not venture to rise up freely to form a prayer. Murmuring thus within himself, he expresses the cause and intensity of his grief.
As to the cause, it might be thought strange that he had so strong an attachment, and so ardent a longing for this fading life, and that he so much dreaded death. The tendency of the first elements of heavenly doctrine is, that we may learn to sojourn in this world, and to advance swiftly towards the heavenly life. H…
Strophe 1 consists indisputably of seven lines:
"I said, In quiet of my days shall I depart into the gates of Hades:
I am mulcted of the rest of my years.
I said, I shall not see Jah, Jah, in the land of the living:
I shall behold man no more, with the inhabitants of the regions of the dead.
My home is broken up, and is carried off from me like a shepherd's tent:
I rolled up my life like a weaver; He would have cut me loose from the roll:
From day to night Thou makest an end of me."
"In quiet of my days" is equivalent to, in the midst of the quiet course of a healthy life, and is spoken without reference to the Assyrian troubles, which still continued. דּמי, from דּמה, to be quiet, l…
enter the place of the dead? (literally enter the gates of Sheol?): This image comes from an ancient idea that people enter death through gates (see 14:9). Old Testament believers did not understand the afterlife as the New Testament reveals it. It was a shadowy place where all the dead were together and where no praise of God existed (see 38:18; Pss 88:10; 115:17).
Rashi on Isaiah 38:10
I said, In the desolation of my days (בִּדְמִי) When I saw my days בִּדְמִי, in desolation and in silence. Comp. (Zeph. 1:11) “For the entire people of Canaan has been silenced (נִדְמָה).” That is to say that when I became ill, I said, “I will go into the gates of the grave.” Now I will die, since, until that day, no sick person had recovered.
I am deprived of the rest of my years (פֻּקַּדְתִּי) Comp. “(Num. 31:49) No man was missing (נִפְקַד) of us.” I am missing the rest of my years. Jonathan, however, renders: My remembrance has entered for good; years have been added to my years. I have been visited (נִפְקַדְתִּי) for good, and my years have been increased.
