Catholic Commentary on Isaiah 38

“I said, in the prime of my life must I go through the gates of death and be robbed of the rest of my years?” (Isaiah 38:10)

Hezekiah's Illness and Recovery

Hezekiah becomes ill and is at the point of death. Isaiah tells him: put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover. Hezekiah turns his face to the wall and prays: remember, LORD, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes. And Hezekiah weeps bitterly. Before Isaiah has left the middle court, the word of the LORD comes: go back and tell Hezekiah that I have heard his prayer and seen his tears; I will add fifteen years to his life. I said, in the prime of my life must I go through the gates of death and be robbed of the rest of my years? Hezekiah's prayer of thanksgiving follows his recovery.

The Catechism identifies Hezekiah's prayer in facing death as the model of the human cry for life addressed to the God who gives and takes life: the tears seen by God are the tears that move him (CCC 2616).

Living the Word

Brothers and sisters, God saw Hezekiah's tears. The prayer was brief: remember how I have walked before you. The tears did the rest. God sees every tear. He responds to tears the way a father responds to a child's weeping, with compassion that looks for how to help. Weep before God. He sees every tear.

Prayer

Lord God, you heard Hezekiah's prayer and saw his tears. See ours. Hear our cry for life. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

38
Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery
(2 Kings 20:1-11; 2 Chronicles 32:24-31)
1 In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Put your house in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.’ ”
 
2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, 3 saying, “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before You faithfully and with wholehearted devotion; I have done what was good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
 
4 And the word of the LORD came to Isaiah, saying, 5 “Go and tell Hezekiah that this is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: ‘I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. 6 And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city.* 38:6 MT and LXX; DSS includes for My sake and for the sake of My servant David; see 2 Kings 20:6. 7 This will be a sign to you from the LORD that He will do what He has promised: 8 I will make the sun’s shadow that falls on the stairway of Ahaz go back ten steps.’ ”
 
So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had descended.
Hezekiah’s Song of Thanksgiving
 
9 This is a writing by Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery:
 
10 I said, “In the prime † 38:10 Or In the quiet or In the middle of my life
I must go through the gates of Sheol
and be deprived of the remainder of my years.”
11 I said, “I will never again see the LORD,
even the LORD, in the land of the living;
I will no longer look on mankind
with those who dwell in this world.
12 My dwelling has been picked up and removed from me
like a shepherd’s tent.
I have rolled up my life like a weaver;
He cuts me off from the loom;
from day until night You make an end of me.
13 I composed myself ‡ 38:13 Or I cried out; see Targum Yonaton. until the morning.
Like a lion He breaks all my bones;
from day until night You make an end of me.
14 I chirp like a swallow or crane;
I moan like a dove.
My eyes grow weak as I look upward.
O Lord, I am oppressed; be my security.”
 
15 What can I say?
He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done this.
I will walk slowly all my years
because of the anguish of my soul.
16 O Lord, by such things men live,
and in all of them my spirit finds life.
You have restored me to health
and have let me live.
17 Surely for my own welfare
I had such great anguish;
but Your love has delivered me from the pit of oblivion,
for You have cast all my sins behind Your back.
18 For Sheol cannot thank You;
Death cannot praise You.
Those who descend to the Pit
cannot hope for Your faithfulness.
19 The living, only the living, can thank You,
as I do today;
fathers will tell their children
about Your faithfulness.
20 The LORD will save me;
we will play songs on stringed instruments
all the days of our lives
in the house of the LORD.
 
21 Now Isaiah had said, “Prepare a lump of pressed figs and apply it to the boil, and he will recover.”
 
22 And Hezekiah had asked, “What will be the sign that I will go up to the house of the LORD?”

*38:6 38:6 MT and LXX; DSS includes for My sake and for the sake of My servant David; see 2 Kings 20:6.

†38:10 38:10 Or In the quiet or In the middle

‡38:13 38:13 Or I cried out; see Targum Yonaton.

Public Domain