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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Isaiah 38:15 - 38:15
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In strophe 3 he now describes how Jehovah promised him help, how this promise put new life into him, and how it was fulfilled, and turned his sufferings into salvation.
“What shall I say, that He promised me, and He hath carried it out:
I should walk quietly all my years, on the trouble of my soul?!
'O Lord, by such things men revive, and the life of my spirit is always therein:
And so wilt Thou restore me, and make me to live!'
Behold, bitterness became salvation to me, bitterness;
And Thou, Thou hast delivered my soul in love out of the pit of destruction
For Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back.”
The question, “What shall I say?” is to be understood as in 2Sa 7:20, viz., What shall I say, to thank Him for having promised me, and carried out His promise? The Vav in וְאָמַר introduces the statement of his reason (Ges. §155, 1, c). On הִדַּדָּה (= הִתְדַּדָּה), from דָּדָה (= דָּאדָא), see at Psa 42:5. The future here, in Isa 38:15, gives the purpose of God concerning him. He was to walk (referring to the walk of life, not the walk to the temple) gently (without any disturbance) all his years upon the trouble of his soul, i.e., all the years that followed upon it, the years that were added to his life. This is the true explanation of עַל, as in Isa 38:5; Isa 32:10; Lev 15:25; not “in spite of” (Ewald), or “with,” as in Psa 31:24; Jer 6:14, where it forms an adverb. A better rendering than this would be “for,” or “on account of,” i.e., in humble salutary remembrance of the way in which God by His free grace averted the danger of death. What follows in Isa 38:16 can only be regarded in connection with the petition in Isa 38:16, as Hezekiah's reply to the promise of God, which had been communicated to him by the prophet. Consequently the neuters עֲלֵיהֶם and בָּהֶן( dna (cf., Isa 64:4; Job 22:21; Eze 33:18-19) refer to the gracious words and gracious acts of God. These are the true support of life (עַל as in Deu 8:3) for every man, and in these does the life of his spirit consist, i.e., his inmost and highest source of life, and that “on all sides” (לְכָל, which it would be more correct to point לַכֹּל, as in 1Ch 7:5; cf., bakkōl, in every respect, 2Sa 23:5). With this explanation, the conjecture of Ewald and Knobel, that the reading should be רוּחוֹ, falls to the ground. From the general truth of which he had made a personal application, that the word of God is the source of all life, he drew this conclusion, which he here repeats with a retrospective glance, “So wilt Thou then make me whole (see the kal in Job 39:4), and keep me alive” (for וְתַחֲיֵניִ; with the hope passing over into a prayer). The praise for the fulfilment of the promise commences with the word hinnēh (behold). His severe illness had been sent in anticipation of a happy deliverance (on the radical signification of mar, which is here doubled, to give it a superlative force, see Comm. on Job, at Job 16:2-5). The Lord meant it for good; the suffering was indeed a chastisement, but it was a chastisement of love. Casting all his sins behind Him, as men do with things which they do not wish to know, or have no desire to be reminded of (compare e.g., Neh 9:26), He “loved him out,” i.e., drew him lovingly out, of the pit of destruction (châshaq, love as a firm inward bond; belı̄, which is generally used as a particle, stands here in its primary substantive signification, from bâlâh, to consume).