to scan · verb, hiphil imperfect, 1st person common singular
man
אָדָ֛ם'a.Dam
H120
ruddy i.e. a human being (an individual or the species · noun, common masculine singular absolute
inhabitants
י֥וֹשְׁבֵיYo.o.she.vei
H3427
properly · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural construct
world
חָֽדֶלCha.del
H2309
rest · noun, common masculine singular absolute
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 27:13 I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
Psalms 116:8-9 For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.
Job 35:14-15 Although thou sayest thou shalt not see him, yet judgment is before him; therefore trust thou in him.
Psalms 6:4-5 Return, O LORD, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies’ sake.
Psalms 31:22 For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes: nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee…
Ecclesiastes 9:5-6 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is for…
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…
Lord . . . Lord--The repetition, as in Isa 38:19, expresses the excited feeling of the king's mind.
See the Lord (Jehovah)--figuratively for "to enjoy His good gifts." So, in a similar connection (Psa 27:13). "I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living"; (Psa 34:12), "What man is he that desireth life that he may see good?"
world--rather, translate: "among the inhabitants of the land of stillness," that is, Hades [MAURER], in parallel antithesis to "the land of the living" in the first clause. The Hebrew comes from a root, to "rest" or "cease" (Job 14:6).
John Gill on Isaiah 38:11
I said, I shall not see the Lord, even the Lord in the land of the living,.... Not any more, in this world, though in the other, and that more clearly, even face to face: his meaning is, that he should no more see him in the glass of the word; no more praise him in his house; worship him in his temple; enjoy him in his ordinances; and see his beauty, power, and glory, in the sanctuary; and confess unto him, and praise his name (g). The Targum is,
"I shall no more appear before the face of the Lord in the land of the house of his Shechinah, in which is length of life; and I shall no more serve him in the house of the sanctuary.''
In the Hebrew text it is, "I shall not see Jah, Jah"; a word,…
I shall no longer behold the salvation of God upon the earth. The salvation of God here signifies Christ; for thus also Symeon, when he took up Christ in his arms, prayed God to be allowed to depart from this life, since his eyes had seen the salvation of God, namely Christ himself for it had been revealed to him by the Spirit that he should not see death, until he had seen the Lord Christ. What Hezekiah then meant to show was this: I not only abandoned that idea and ceased to entertain those lofty imaginations concerning myself, but I do not even think I shall be privileged to see the Christ upon the earth, as I have only other fifteen years to live. I shall no longer see a man of my own kindred —this means, after the fifteen years which God has granted to me as an addition to my years, I shall, when dying, not only not be counted worthy to see Him, but not even to see any man, nay, not so much as one of my kindred. I am deprived of the residue of my life; this means, having thrown away therefore my former estimate of myself, and considering what was my duty for the future, I recognised that my life would come to an end
(Verses 11-12) I said, I shall not see the Lord God in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more, nor the inhabitant of rest. My generation has ceased: it has been taken away and rolled up from me like a shepherd's tent. My life has been cut off as by a weaver: while I was still beginning, it cut me off. I said, I shall not see the Lord God in the land of the living. For in Hebrew, the name 'Jah' is placed twice, which in the final syllable sounds 'Alleluia', for which the Seventy translated: 'I will not see the salvation of God in the land of the living' (Ps. CXIV, 9). It is also written in another place: 'I will please the Lord in the land of the living' (Ps. CXIV, 9). And again: 'I will please the Lord in the light of the living' (Ps. LV, 9). Therefore, the very region of the Saints is called the light of the living. For God is not the God of the dead, but of the living (Matt. XXII). But this is everything that he fears: not to deserve to behold the salvation of God led to the underworld. It follows: I will not look upon man anymore, and the inhabitant of quietness. This we once connected with the following verse due to the ambiguity of the word; for the Hebrew word Holed, if read or written as Eled, means rest; if read or written as Edel, it means the West. Therefore, he fears that he does not dwell in quietness with the saints and men of God, that he does not see the Lord in the land of the living, that his generation will not dwell in an unshaken tabernacle, that it will not be cut off from the likeness of the web at the beginning of light, and that Christ will not arise from his seed. But as for our body being called a tabernacle, the Apostle instructs, saying: We who are in this tabernacle groan, burdened (2 Cor. V, 4).
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,…
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 38:11
I said, I shall not see God. Amidst such earnest longing for an earthly life, Hezekiah would have gone beyond bounds, if his grief had not been aggravated by the conviction of God's wrath. Since, therefore, he is violently dragged away by his own fault, as if he were unworthy of enjoying the ordinary light of the sun, he exclaims that he is miserable, because henceforth he shall never see either God or man. Among believers the statement would have been regarded as liable to this exception, that, so long as we dwell on the earth, we wander and are distant from God, but that, when the entanglements of the flesh shall have been laid aside, we shall more closely "see God."
In the land of the li…
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…
Hezekiah lamented that if he died, he would not enjoy fellowship with God, his family, and his friends.
Rashi on Isaiah 38:11
[Addendum: I will not see the Eternal (יָהּ) I will no longer use the name יָהּ.
in the land of the living The living use it, but the dead are not permitted, as it is said (Ps. 115:17): “The dead shall not praise the Eternal (יָהּ).” It is a rule for the dead that they may never mention the Name consisting of two letters.]
in the land of the living in the Temple.
I will no longer look upon man (I.e., I will) no longer (look upon) a living (man).
with those who dwell in withdrawal (חָדֶל) For I will be with the dead, who dwell in a land withdrawn and withheld from the living.
