Charles Ellicott Commentary Isaiah 38:18

"For Sheol cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee: They that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth." — Isaiah 38:18 (ASV)

For the grave ... —i.e., Sheol, or Hades. We return to the king’s thoughts of the dim shadow-world, Death and Sheol (joined together, as in Isaiah 28:15; Psalms 6:5). In that region of dimness there are no psalms of thanksgiving, no loud hallelujahs. The thought of spiritual energies developed and intensified after death is essentially one which belongs to the “illuminated” immortality (2 Timothy 1:10), of Christian thought. (Psalms 30:9; Psalms 88:11–12; Psalms 115:17; Ecclesiastes 9:4–5; Ecclesiastes 9:10).