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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Isaiah 38:4 - 38:4
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The prospect is now mercifully changed. “And it came to pass (K. Isaiah was not yet out of the inner city; keri סהָצֵר, 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 הָעִיר (the city) the keri and the earlier translators have הָצֵר. The city of David is not called the “inner city” anywhere else; in fact, Zion, with the temple hill, formed the upper city, so that apparently it is the inner space of the city of David that is here referred to, and Isaiah had not yet passed through the middle gate to return to the lower city, where he dwelt. The text of Kings is the more authentic throughout; except that עַמִּי נְגִיד, “the prince of my people,” is an annalistic adorning which is hardly original. סהָלוֹךְ in Isaiah is an inf. abs. used in an imperative sense; שׁוּב, on the other hand, which we find in the other text, is imperative. On yōsiph, see at Isa 29:14.