Thomas Aquinas Commentary Isaiah 38:1-22

"In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith Jehovah, Set thy house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live. Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto Jehovah, and said, Remember now, O Jehovah, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. Then came the word of Jehovah to Isaiah, saying, Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years. And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city. And this shall be the sign unto thee from Jehovah, that Jehovah will do this thing that he hath spoken: behold, I will cause the shadow on the steps, which is gone down on the dial of Ahaz with the sun, to return backward ten steps. So the sun returned ten steps on the dial whereon it was gone down. The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sickness. I said, In the noontide of my days I shall go into the gates of Sheol: I am deprived of the residue of my years. I said, I shall not see Jehovah, [even] Jehovah in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world. My dwelling is removed, and is carried away from me as a shepherd`s tent: I have rolled up, like a weaver, my life; he will cut me off from the loom: From day even to night wilt thou make an end of me. I quieted [myself] until morning; as a lion, so he breaketh all my bones: From day even to night wilt thou make an end of me. Like a swallow [or] a crane, so did I chatter; I did moan as a dove; mine eyes fail [with looking] upward: O Lord, I am oppressed, be thou my surety. What shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it: I shall go softly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul. O Lord, by these things men live; And wholly therein is the life of my spirit: Wherefore recover thou me, and make me to live. Behold, [it was] for [my] peace [that] I had great bitterness: But thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; For thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. For Sheol cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee: They that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: The father to the children shall make known thy truth. Jehovah is [ready] to save me: Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments All the days of our life in the house of Jehovah. Now Isaiah had said, Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a plaster upon the boil, and he shall recover. Hezekiah also had said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of Jehovah?" — Isaiah 38:1-22 (ASV)

1. In those days. In this part, the prophet describes some events resulting from the preceding history, namely, the sickness of Hezekiah. He incurred this because of his ingratitude, for after such a great victory he did not compose a song of thanksgiving, as was the custom. This section is divided into two parts:

• In the first, he describes Hezekiah’s sickness and healing.
• In the second, he describes the congratulations of his friends: at that time (chapter 39).

Regarding the first part, he does three things:

1. He describes the sickness.
2. He describes Hezekiah’s deliverance from it: and Hezekiah turned his face (Isaiah 38:2).
3. He describes the instructions for the deliverance: now Isaiah had ordered (Isaiah 38:21).

Regarding the first point, he does two things:

1. He describes the sickness: Hezekiah was sick; a grievous sickness makes the soul sober .
2. He describes the announcement of death: and Isaiah the son of Amos the prophet came to him; take order, meaning, make arrangements for who ought to succeed you: in the time when you shall end the days of your life, and in the time of your decease, distribute your inheritance .

2. An objection is raised that Hezekiah lived afterward and did not die. Therefore, what the prophet said to him, you shall die, was false and did not announce the outcome of events with unchangeable truth.Cf. Cassiodorus, Expositio Psalmorum, Prologue 1; cited in ST, II-II.171.6, s.c.; Gregory, Moralia 12.2.

The response is that while the plans for all things that happen in the entire course of time have existed in God from eternity, some plans were placed into created things to be unfolded through the work of nature and will. Other plans God retained for Himself alone, so that He brings them into reality when He wills. Therefore, prophets see in the mirror of eternity as much of either of these types of plans as God wishes to reveal to them.

The plans revealed to Isaiah were those placed into things—that is, things that come about through secondary causes, namely natural and meritorious ones—according to which the king’s sickness was leading to death. Thus, regarding the sense found in the prophet’s words, he spoke the truth, because according to these secondary causes, it was so. Likewise, regarding the other sense, which the Holy Spirit intended, he also spoke the truth, because Hezekiah died to his ingratitude when he later gave the thanks he owed to God, just as Nineveh was also overturned regarding its state of iniquity, as Augustine says.Cf. Enarrations on the Psalms 1.8; City of God 21.24.4.

3. And Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall. Here the prophet describes Hezekiah’s deliverance from sickness, and concerning this, he presents three things:

1. The prayer of Hezekiah is presented.
2. The promise of healing: and the word of the Lord came to Isaiah (Isaiah 38:4).
3. The thanksgiving of Hezekiah: the writing of Hezekiah (Isaiah 38:9).

Regarding the first point, he describes three things:

1. His preparation for prayer: toward the wall, of the temple or of his house, so that he might pray more devoutly and privately: I have called upon you in the day of my trouble (Psalms 86:7).
2. The prayer itself: and prayed; remember, asking that God would grant him life for the good things he had done, for God is said to have forgotten when He does not give a reward. He prayed in truth, that is, in true worship of God, and with a perfect heart, regarding love.

   An objection is raised from Proverbs 20:9: who can say: my heart is clean? The response is that Hezekiah does not say his heart is absolutely perfect, but that he had not wavered by following idols, as it says in 1 Kings 18:21. In the day of evils be not unmindful of good things .

3. His deep sorrow: and Hezekiah wept. Blessed are they that mourn (Matthew 5:5); the prayer of the humble and the meek has always pleased you .

4. And the word of the Lord came to Isaiah. Here the promise of healing is presented.

1. First, he presents the hearing of the prayer: and the word of the Lord came, before he left the middle of the court (2 Kings 20:4); I have heard your prayer, as mentioned above: at the voice of your cry (Isaiah 30:19).
2. Second, he presents the promise: behold I will add; you will add days to the days of the king (Psalms 61:6).
3. Third, he presents the confirmation by a sign: and this shall be a sign to you; with the sun, that is, through the movement of the sun; ten lines, by which ten hours were calculated according to the movement of the shadow. And the sun returned: if it did so instantly, then that artificial day had twenty-two hours of daylight, nearly doubled, according to the Gloss. But if it returned through the lines successively, so that it passed through ten, returned through ten, and then passed through them again, then that day had thirty-two hours, nearly tripled, according to Dionysius.Letter 7 to Polycarp, section 2 (PG 3, 1080C–D; Dion. 1491).

Now this was done either with all the other heavenly bodies going back, or with the sun having a shorter path or a faster movement, so that it would reach its position at the same time as the others: in his days the sun went backward . And this sign corresponded to what it signified, thus: when you shall think yourself consumed, you shall rise as the day star (Job 11:17).

5. The writing of Hezekiah. Here his thanksgiving for the healing promised to him is presented.

1. First, he presents the title: the writing, namely, this is the writing.
2. Second, he presents the song: I said, in which he does three things: first, he laments the danger he has escaped; second, he recalls the benefit he has received: O Lord, if man’s life be such (Isaiah 38:16).
3. Third, he asks for the fulfillment of what God has promised: O Lord, save me (Isaiah 38:20).

And he laments three things:

1. The horror of death: in the midst of my days, that is, in my youth, to the gates of hell, that is, limbo, death, or the grave: my life was drawing near to hell beneath .
2. The loss of good things, first regarding the vision of God: I sought, from the Lord, that He might supply the residue of my years taken away from me, or I sought in myself how much life remained for me. I said, to myself: I shall not see the Lord God, only through a likeness for now, in the land of the living, in heavenly beatitude: I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living (Psalms 27:13). Or, I shall not see the Lord God anymore, by seeing the temple and the worship of the Lord, in the land of the living, namely, the land of the Jews: he is not the God of the dead but of the living (Matthew 22:32). Second, regarding human society: I shall behold man, living in this life, no more: there shall not a man dwell there (Jeremiah 49:18). Or the man, Christ, promised to us. Third, regarding the posterity of his sons: my generation, that is, of sons, for he did not yet have sons, is rolled away from me, folded up, so that it is not continued to his descendants, as above: it shall be removed as the tent of one night (Isaiah 24:20). And fourth, regarding the shortness of his life: my life is cut off, as by a weaver, while still weaving an unfinished cloth; but beginning in youth: my days have passed more swiftly than the web is cut by the weaver (Job 7:6).
3. His anxiety of heart.

   First, regarding the continual expectation of death: from morning, I was saying, even tonight you will make an end of me, in death. And then, not dying, I hoped, again, till morning, so that the sorrow of sickness would end with death. Nonetheless, as a lion so has he—that is, the infirmity or God himself through the sorrow of sickness—broken all my bones: if I lie down to sleep, I shall say: when shall I rise? And again, I shall look for the evening, and shall be filled with sorrows even till darkness (Job 7:4).

   Second, regarding the deferral of hope. He describes the sorrow of one who hopes: I will cry like a young swallow, looking for its mother because it does not see her, and like a dove, that is, with mourning: her bondwomen were led away mourning as doves (Nahum 2:7). And he describes the deferral of hope: my eyes are weakened, as if fatigued, looking upward, in hope: hope that is deferred afflicts the soul (Proverbs 13:12); I have lifted up my eyes (Psalms 121:1). And he presents a kind of dispute with God: Lord, I suffer violence, as if to say, “Violence is being done to me; I am afflicted beyond what I deserve.” Answer you, be my security, for me. What shall I say, as if turning to himself, “What can I set against God?” Or what shall he answer, when he must respond to my questions, whereas he himself has done it, that is, made me, or brought my punishment: if he will contend with him (Job 9:3), and below: shall he gainsay his maker (Isaiah 45:9).

   Third, regarding the recollection of past events: I will recount to you all my years, in which I experienced good things, or in which I sinned against you: I will speak in the affliction of my spirit (Job 7:11).

7. O Lord, if man’s life be such. Here he recalls the benefit he has received.

• First, he recalls his correction: if man’s life be such, that is, if the life of men is so miserable, or if life is acquired through tribulation: reproofs of instruction are the way of life (Proverbs 6:23). And then he says: behold in peace, as if to say, “Among the people who have peace from the Assyrians, my bitterness hangs over me”: laughter shall be mingled with sorrow (Proverbs 14:13).
• Second, he recalls his deliverance from punishment: but you have delivered my soul, my life; and from guilt: you have cast all my sins behind your or my back, as if forgetting them: you have mercy upon all, Lord .
• Third, he assigns the reason for his deliverance.
  1. First, regarding the uselessness of death: for hell, that is, the damned, or the grave; death, the devil, or the dead, cannot praise your truth, the truth of His promises, or the Son: for there is no one in death, that is mindful of you: and who shall confess to you in hell? (Psalms 6:5).
  2. Second, regarding the praise of the living: the living, the living, repeated for greater affirmation, or because of the twofold life: we that live bless the Lord (Psalms 115:18).
  3. Third, regarding the spreading of divine praise: the father shall make the truth known to the children: how great things he commanded our fathers, that they should make the same known to their children (Psalms 78:5–6).

8. O Lord, save me. Here he asks for the promise to be fulfilled: save me, from the Assyrians and from sickness: I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise shall be always in my mouth (Psalms 34:1).

9. Now Isaiah had ordered. Here he describes the sequence of the healing. This section has been transposed and ought to come before the giving of the sign, as is clear from 2 Kings 20:7–11. But because the author’s intention is not to present history but prophecy, he first sets out what pertains to prophecy.

• First, he describes the method of healing: lay it as a plaster upon the wound, inflicted by God, or an ulcer, which is flesh opened from a corrupted bodily fluid. For they say that he suffered from the royal disease, which is called “lupus,” which the fig and everything sweet make worse, so that the entire healing should be attributed to divine power. Others say that it was an abscess, which occurs from bodily fluids collecting internally when the flesh is not yet broken. Figs are helpful for the maturation of an abscess, so that it is shown that medicine should not be rejected: the apothecary shall make sweet confections .
• Second, Hezekiah asks for a sign: and Hezekiah had said: what shall be the sign? The Jews require signs: and the Greeks seek after wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:22).

10. In death I will trust the house of my conscience ,

• if it is pure from the contamination of sin, as below: the place is too strait for me (Isaiah 49:20); that I should depart from my sanctuary (Ezekiel 8:6);
• if it is firm in good works: the rain fell (Matthew 7:25);
• if it is great with love, as below: the place is too strait for me (Isaiah 49:20); and below: enlarge the place (Isaiah 54:2).

11. The eyes are exalted (Isaiah 38:14),

• by the pride of the heart: Lord, my heart is not exalted (Psalms 130:1), and are weakened by God lowering them, as above: the lofty eyes of man are humbled (Isaiah 2:11);
• by the curiosity of investigation: why dost you stare with your eyes, as if they were thinking great things? (Job 15:12); and are weakened by the oppression of light: he that is a searcher of majesty shall be overwhelmed by glory (Proverbs 25:27);
• by contemplation, as below: lift up your eyes on high (Isaiah 40:26), and are weakened because of the smallness of our thought: all men see him, every one beholds afar off (Job 36:25).