a word · noun, common masculine singular construct
LORD
יְהוָ֔הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
Isaiah
יְשַׁעְיָ֖הוּye.sha'.Ya.hu
H3470
Jeshajah · proper noun, a man's name
saying
לֵאמֹֽרle.Mor
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
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).
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 Kg2 20:4, the quickness of God's answer to the prayer is marked, "afore Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him"; that is, before he had left Hezekiah, or at least when he had just left him, and Hezekiah was in the act of praying after having heard God's message by Isaiah (compare Isa 65:24; Psa 32:5; Dan 9:21).
John Gill on Isaiah 38:4
Then came the word of the Lord to Isaiah,.... Before he had got out into the middle court, 2 Kings 20:4,
saying, as follows:
John Calvin on Isaiah 38:4
Then came the word of Jehovah. Isaiah had departed, leaving the sting, as the saying is, in the wound, reckoning as abandoned him on whom he had pronounced sentence in the name of God himself. Yet with what trembling uneasiness he was tormented, and even with what terror he was seized, may be partly learned from the song. What interval of time elapsed between the Prophet's departure and return we know not, but it is certain that the glad tidings of life were not brought until, after long and severe struggles, he perceived that he was utterly ruined; for it was a severe trial of faith that he should be kept plunged in darkness by the hiding of God's face. We have said that, while the doctrine…
The Church Fathers
(Verses 4-6) And the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying: Go and tell Hezekiah: Thus says the Lord God of David, your father: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your days, and I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will protect it. The history, which is read consecutively in the volume of Kings, is referred to in a seemingly backwards order, as if it were a prophetic account. While Hezekiah was weeping with great sorrow, before Isaiah had left the middle part of the courtyard, the word of the Lord came to him, saying: Return and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you. But the Prophet of the Lord returns to the king by the command, in order to heal the one who had struck him; and he is called Hezekiah, the leader of his people, and the son of David, whose works he followed, for he did what was right in all things as David his father had done; and his prayer is heard, and tears are seen, for he walked before the Lord in truth and with a perfect heart, and he wept with great weeping; and he did what was pleasing in his eyes. Fifteen years are added to his life, which he did not ask for, and moreover, while he is still alive, the security of the kingdom is promised to him. But if, as some think, to live in the body is a condemnation, and according to what is said: Return, my soul, into your rest (Ps. 114:7). And in another place: Bring my soul out of prison (Ps. 141:8), death is to be desired so that we may be freed from prison: how then does the Lord now grant as a favor that he who was to be set free should still live for fifteen years in prison?
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
Disease · Of Hezekiah — Of Hezekiah
Hezekiah · .Sickness and restoration of — .Sickness and restoration of
Life, Natural · Sometimes prolonged, in answer to prayer — Sometimes prolonged, in answer to prayer
Prophecy · . — .
Tears · Observed by God — Observed by God
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 prospect is now mercifully changed. "And it came to pass (K. Isaiah was not yet out of the inner city; keri סהצר, the forecourt, and) the word of Jehovah came to Isaiah (K. to him) as follows: Go (K. turn again) and say to Hizkiyahu (K. adds, to the prince of my people), Thus saith Jehovah, the God of David thine ancestor, I have heard thy prayer, seen thy tears; behold, I (K. will cure thee, on the third day thou shalt go up to the house of Jehovah) add (K. and I add) to thy days fifteen years. And I will deliver thee ad this city out of the hand of the king of Asshur, and will defend this city (K. for mine own sake and for David my servant's sake)." In the place of העיר (the city) the…
I have always been faithful to you: Hezekiah’s heart was right with the Lord for most of his reign (2 Kgs 18:1-5), although his dependence on Egypt was a time of weakness when he did not act faithfully (Isa 31:1-9).
