Isa 38:1-5 | JFB | STEP | 1. Set ... house in order-- Make arrangement as to the succession to the throne; for he had then no son; and as to thy other concerns. thou shall die-- speaking according to the ordinary course of the disease. His being spared fifteen years was not a change in God's mind, but an illustration of God's dealings being unchangeably regulated by the state of man in relation to Him.

‏ Isaiah 38:1-5

CHAPTER 38 Is 38:1-22. Hezekiah's Sickness; Perhaps Connected with the Plague or Blast Whereby the Assyrian Army Had Been Destroyed.

1. Set ... house in order--Make arrangement as to the succession to the throne; for he had then no son; and as to thy other concerns.

thou shall die--speaking according to the ordinary course of the disease. His being spared fifteen years was not a change in God's mind, but an illustration of God's dealings being unchangeably regulated by the state of man in relation to Him.

2. The couches in the East run along the walls of houses. He turned away from the spectators to hide his emotion and collect his thoughts for prayer.

3. He mentions his past religious consistency, not as a boast or a ground for justification; but according to the Old Testament dispensation, wherein temporal rewards (as long life, &c., Ex 20:12) followed legal obedience, he makes his religious conduct a plea for asking the prolongation of his life.

walked--Life is a journey; the pious "walk with God" (Ge 5:24; 1Ki 9:4).

perfect--sincere; not absolutely perfect, but aiming towards it (Mt 5:45); single-minded in walking as in the presence of God (Ge 17:1). The letter of the Old Testament legal righteousness was, however, a standard very much below the spirit of the law as unfolded by Christ (Mt 5:20-48; 2Co 3:6, 14, 17).

wept sore--Josephus says, the reason why he wept so sorely was that being childless, he was leaving the kingdom without a successor. How often our wishes, when gratified, prove curses! Hezekiah lived to have a son; that son was the idolater Manasseh, the chief cause of God's wrath against Judah, and of the overthrow of the kingdom (2Ki 23:26, 27).

4. In 2Ki 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 Is 65:24; Psa 32:5; Da 9:21).

5. God of David thy father--God remembers the covenant with the father to the children (Ex 20:5; Psa 89:28, 29).

tears--(Psa 56:8).

days ... years--Man's years, however many, are but as so many days (Ge 5:27).