John Gill Commentary Isaiah 38

In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death
This was about the time that Sennacherib invaded Judea, threatened Jerusalem with a siege, and his army was destroyed by an angel from heaven; but, whether it was before or after the destruction of his army, interpreters are not agreed. Some of the Jewish writers, as Jarchi upon the place, and others, say, it was three days before the ruin of Sennacherib's army; and that it was on the third day that Hezekiah recovered, and went up to the temple, that the destruction was; and that it was the first day of the passover; and that this was before the city of Jerusalem was delivered from him; and the fears of him seem clear from (Isaiah 38:6) and some are of opinion that his sickness was occasioned by the consternation and terror he was thrown into, by reason of the Assyrian army, which threatened ruin to him and his kingdom. Though Josephus ^F2 says, that it was after his deliverance from it, and when he had given thanks to God for it; however, it is certain it was in the same year, since it was in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah's reign that Sennacherib invaded Judea, and from this his sickness and recovery fifteen years were added to his days, and he reigned no more than twenty nine years, (2 Kings 8:2 2 Kings 8:13) (20:6).

What this sickness was cannot be said with certainty; some have conjectured it to be the plague, since he had a malignant ulcer, of which he was cured by a plaster of figs; but, be it what it will, it was a deadly one in its own nature, it was a sickness unto death, a mortal one; though it was not eventually so, through the interposition of divine power, which prevented it. The reason of this sickness, which Jarchi gives, that it was because he did not take to himself a wife, is without foundation; more likely the reason of it was, to keep him humble, and that he might not be lifted up with the deliverance, or be more thankful for it:

and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came unto him :
not of his own accord to visit him, but was sent by the Lord with a message to him: and said unto him, thus says the Lord, set your house in order ;
or, "give orders to your house" ^F3 : to the men of your house, as the Targum; his domestics, his counsellors and courtiers, what they should do after his death; how his personal estate should be disposed of; how the throne should be filled up; who should succeed him, since he had no son: the family and secular affairs of men should be put in order, and direction given for the management of them, and their substance and estates should be disposed of by will before their death; and much more a concern should be shown for the setting in order their spiritual affairs, or that they may be habitually ready for death and eternity;

for you shall die, and not live :
or not recover of your sickness, as the Targum adds: "for you are a dead man", as it may be rendered, in all human appearance; the disease being deadly, and of which he could not recover by the help of any medicine; nothing but almighty power could save him; and this is said, to observe to him his danger, to give him the sentence of death in himself, and to set him a praying, as it did.

FOOTNOTES:

• F2: Antiqu. l. 10. c. 2. sect. 1.
• F3: (Ktybl wu) "praecipe domui tuae", Musculus, Vatablus, Pagniaus, Montanus.
• F1: Seder Olam Rabba, c. 23. p. 65.

Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall
Not figuratively to the wall of his heart, as Jerom; but literally, either to the wall of his bedchamber where he lay sick, that his tears might not be seen, and his prayers interrupted, and that he might deliver them with more privacy, freedom, and fervency; or else to the wall of the temple, as the Targum, towards which good men used to look when they prayed, (1 Kings 8:38) (Daniel 6:10), which was a type of Christ, to whom we should have respect in all our petitions, as being the only Mediator between God and man: and prayed unto the Lord; as follows:

And said, remember now, O Lord, I beseech you
He puts the Lord in mind of his good walk and works, which are never forgotten by him, though they may seem to be: and this he the rather did, because it might be thought that he had been guilty of some very enormous crime, which he was not conscious he had; it being unusual to cut men off in the prime of their days, but in such a case:

how I have walked before you in truth, and with a perfect heart ;
or rather, "that I have walked before you", as Noldius, since the manner of walking is declared in express terms; so the Targum, Syriac, and Arabic versions, and others; that the course of his life in the sight of God, having the fear of him upon his heart, and before his eyes, was according to the truth of his word, institutions, and appointments; that he walked in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, and in the sincerity, integrity, and uprightness of his soul; and however imperfect his services were, since no one walks so as to be free from sin, yet he was sincere and without dissimulation in the performance of them; his intentions were upright, his views were purely to the glory of God:

and have done that which is good in your sight ;
agreeably both to the moral and ceremonial law, in his private capacity as a man, in the administration of justice in his government as a king; and particularly in reforming the nation; in destroying idols, and idol worship; in breaking in pieces the brazen serpent, when used to idolatrous purposes; and in setting up the pure worship of God, and his ordinances; and which he does not plead as meritorious, but mentions as well pleasing to God, which he graciously accepts of, and encourages with promises of reward:

and Hezekiah wept sore ;
not only because of his death, the news of which might be shocking to nature; but because of the distressed condition the nation would be in, having now the Assyrian army in it, or at least not wholly free from fears, by reason of that monarch; and besides, had no son to succeed him in the throne, and so difficulties and troubles might arise within themselves about a successor; and it may be, what troubled him most of all was, that dying without issue, the Messiah could not spring from his seed.

Then came the word of the Lord to Isaiah before he had got out into the middle court (2 Kings 20:4), saying as follows:

Go and say to Hezekiah
Turn again, and tell him, (2 Kings 20:5) : thus says the Lord the God of David yourfather ;
this is said, to show that he remembered the covenant he made with David his father, concerning the kingdom,and the succession of his children in it; and that he had a regard to him, as walking in his steps:

I have heard your prayer ;
and therefore was not surely a foolish one, as Luther somewhere calls it, since it was heard and answered soquickly: I have seen your tears ;
which he shed in prayer, and so studiously concealed from others, when he turned his face to the wall:

behold, I will add unto your days fifteen years ;
that is, to the days he had lived already, and beyond which it was not probable, according to the nature ofhis disease, he could live; and besides, he had the sentence of death pronounced on him, and had it withinhimself, nor did he pray for his life; so that these fifteen years were over and above what he could or didexpect to live; and because it was unusual in such a case, and after such a declaration made, that a manshould live, and especially so long a time after, it is ushered in with a "behold", as a note of admiration;it being a thing unheard of, and unprecedented, and entirely the Lord's doing, and which, no doubt, wasmarvellous in the eyes of the king.