The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 2 — Section 38

peace that I had such bitU3rness, such bitter- him. He ie not, however, perhaps, thinking nes,. The po.in that I nnderwcnt was of his own case. for the true peo.ce and comfort of my Ver. 20.-The Lord was ready to save me; soul (comp. Pe. xciv. 12; cxix. 75; Prov. rather, came lo my re=; came and aa'l!ed iii. 12; Heb. xii. 5-11). Thou he.at in me. Therefore we will sing my songs to the love, etc.; literally, thou hast lm,ed my so-u.l stringed instrillllenta; rather, therefore VJi/l back from the pit of deetruction-aa if God'e we play my 6tri"9ed imtruments. Hezekiah love, beaming on the monarch's eoul, had calls the stringed instruments his, because drawn it back from the edge of the pit he he.d recalled their use, and re-established (comp. Hos. xi. 4, "I drew them with cords them e.s e. pa.rt of the temple service after of o. man, with bands of love"). For thou the E1Depcnsion of thnt service by Ahaz hut cast all my sine behind thy be.ck. Where (2 Chron. xxix. 30). Hie intention now is thev could be no more eeen, e.nd therefore to take continual part with the Levites in would be no more remembered ( comp. Micah the chore.I pmises of God, which were e. part vii. 19; Pe. xxv. 7; lxxix. 8 ; eh. xliii. 25; of the daily worship of the temple. This lxiv. 9, etc.). Hezekiah, though lately he is to him the natural mode of expressing bis protested his integrity (ver. 3), did not mean tbankfulneBS to God for the mercy vouch- to say that he was eialeee. He knew that safed him. he had sinned; he regarded hie sine ae Ver. 21.-l!'or Isaiah had said; literally, having brought down upon him the sentence and Isaiah said. It seems a.a if this verse of death ; os God has revoked the sentence, e.nd the next had been a.cd.dentally omitted lie knows that he he.s pardoned hie sine and from their proper place in the narrative, put them away from his remembrance. wl1 ich was between vere. 6 and 7, &nd had then Ver.18.-Thegrave cannot praise thee(com- been appended by a.n e.fter-thonght. They pare the comment on ver. 11). It is avoid- reproduce nearly, but not exactly, the words ing the plain force of theso passages to eay of 2 Kings xix. 7, 8. Let them take a lump that Hezekiah only means that those who go of figs. This remedy is said to be one still to Hades in a. state of condemnation cannot employed in the East for the cure of ordi- be expected there to pr&ise God (Kay). He nary boils; but it mnst have been quite in- spe&ke broadly and generally of a.II: "The snfficient ·for the cure of snch a dangerous living, the living, shall praise thee; She6l tumour, or co.rbuncle, ns that from which co.nnot pre.ise thee; Death cannot celebrate Hezekiah was suffering. In miraculous thee." Manifestly, though he believes in a. cures, both the Olt.l Testament prophets and future ela.te,it is one in which there is either our Lord himself frequently employed o. no enorgy &t oil, or at any r&te no devotional means, insufficient in itself, but snperne.- energy. He mny think, with Isaiah, that turnlly ren,lcred sufficient, to effect the in- "the righteous man," when he is "to.Icon tended pmpose (eco I Kings xvii. 21; 2 Kings o.wo.y," will "entor into peo.ce" (eh. h-ii. iv. 3-1, -H; v. H; John ix. 6; l\lark vii. 33: I, 2): but o.bsolute "pence" precluiles viii. 23, etc.) Upon the boil. The torm here energy (see Arist., 'Eth. Nio.,' i. x. § 2). tr1melatcu "boil" is used in Exodus (ix. Hezekiah shrinks from losing o.11 hie activi- 9-11) for the affliction which conetitnted ties, inolnding hie sense of personal com- the sixth plngue, in Leviticus (xiii. lS-23) munion with Goel. He docs not, perhaps, for nn ulcer accompanying ono of the worst "look on the condition of the faithful de- forms of leprosy, in l>eutc·ronomy (nviii. po.rte,l o.e one of comfortless gloom;" but he 27, 35) for" the botch of Egypt," and in Job viewe it as one of deprivation, 11ud is unwill- (ii. 7) for the lo.et of llie visitations from ing to enter into it. It wne by the coming which ho suffered. It is not unlikely that of Chriet and the preaching of his gospel it was of II leprous chariicter. that "life and immortality" were first truly Ver. 22.-Hezekia.h a.lea he.d said; literally, "brought to light" (2 'rim. i. 10). and Ilezeldah said. Our tmnslatore, both Ver. 19.-The living. Those who etill in thi::1 verae nnd ut the commencement of enjoy the light of day. The repetition ie vcr. 21, h,we endeavoured to conceal the emphe.tio, o.nd has the force of " the living, o.wkwo.rtlness of the 11ezll,8, or rather want of e.nd the living only." The father to the nezu,, with what precedes, by a. modifiro.tion children. Hezekiah me.y, or m&y not, he.ve of the rendering. The true sonse is brought had children bimeelf at the time. ManllSseh out by the prooeeding, which is, howonr, a was not born ; but he may he.ve bad d&ugh- little arbitrary, tcra, or even other SOD.I, who did not survive  40 THE DOOK OF THE PROPHET lSAIAH. (011, nxvm. 1-22,