Charles Ellicott Commentary Isaiah 38

In those days. — On any supposition, the narrative of Hezekiah’s illness throws us back to a time fifteen years before his death, and therefore to an earlier date than the destruction of the Assyrian army, which it follows here. So in Isaiah 38:6, the deliverance of the city is spoken of as still future. Assuming the rectified chronology given above, we are carried to a time ten or eleven years before the invasion, which was probably in part caused by the ambitious schemes indicated in Isaiah 39:0. It follows from either view that we have no ground for assuming, as some commentators have done, either:

1. that the illness was an attack of the plague that destroyed the Assyrian army,
2. or that the treasures which Hezekiah showed to the Babylonian ambassadors were in part the spoil of that army.

Set thine house in order. — Literally, Give orders to your house, euphemistic for “make your will.” The words are a striking illustration, like Jonah’s announcement that Nineveh should be destroyed in three days (Jonah 3:4), of the conditional character of prophecy. It would seem as if Isaiah had been consulted half as prophet and half as physician as to the nature of the disease. It seemed to him fatal; it was necessary to prepare for death. The words may possibly imply a certain sense of disappointment at the result of Hezekiah’s reign. In the midst of the king’s magnificence and prosperity, there was that in the inner house of the soul, as well as in that of the outer life, which required ordering.

Turned his face toward the wall ... — The royal couch was in the corner, as the Eastern place of honor, the face turned to it, as seeking privacy and avoiding the gaze of men. (Compare to Ahab in 1 Kings 21:4.)

Remember now, O Lord. —Devout as the prayer is, there is a tone of self-satisfaction in it which contrasts with David’s prayer (Psalms 51:1–3). He rests on what he has done regarding religious reformation, and practically asks what he has done that he should be cut off by an untimely death. The tears may have been less egotistic than the words, and, therefore, were more effective.

Fifteen years. —The words fix the date of the illness, taking the received chronology, as 713 B.C. The next verse shows that there was danger at the time to be feared from Assyria, but does not necessarily refer to Sennacherib’s invasion. Sargon’s attack (Isaiah 20:1) may have caused a general alarm.

This shall be a sign to you... —The offer reminds us of that made to Ahaz, but it was received in a far different spirit. In 2 Kings 20:8–11, the story is more fully told. Hezekiah asks for a sign and is offered his choice: Shall the shadow go forward or backward? With a certain childlike simplicity, he chooses the latter, as the more difficult of the two.

The sun-dial of Ahaz, probably copied from Syrian or Assyrian art like his altar (2 Kings 16:10)—Herodotus (ii. 109) attributes the sun-clock to the Chaldeans—seems to have been an obelisk standing on steps (the literal meaning of the Hebrew word for dial), casting its shadow to indicate the time, with each step representing an hour or half-hour.

The nature of the phenomenon seems as curiously limited as that of the darkness of the crucifixion. There was no prolongation of the day in the rest of Palestine or Jerusalem, for the backward movement was limited to the step-dial. At Babylon, no such phenomenon had been observed, and one ostensible purpose of Merodach-baladan’s embassy was to investigate its nature (2 Chronicles 32:31). An inquiry into the causation of a miracle is almost a contradiction in terms, but the most probable explanation of the recorded fact is that it was the effect of a supernatural, but exceedingly circumscribed, refraction. A prolonged afterglow following the sunset, reviving for a time the brightness of the day, might produce an effect such as that described to one who gazed at the step-dial.