Fathers

Isaiah 38

Tap a verse to read the Fathers. Press and hold, then drag, to make a card.

In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him, and said to him, “Yahweh says, ‘Set your house in order, for you will die, and not live.’ ” Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to Yahweh, and said, “Remember now, Yahweh, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight.” Then Hezekiah wept bitterly. Then Yahweh’s word came to Isaiah, saying, “Go, and tell Hezekiah, ‘Yahweh, the God of David your father, says, “I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city. This shall be the sign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do this thing that he has spoken. Behold, I will cause the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down on the sundial of Ahaz with the sun, to return backward ten steps.” ’ ” So the sun returned ten steps on the sundial on which it had gone down. The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and had recovered of his sickness. I said, “In the middle of my life I go into the gates of Sheol. I am deprived of the residue of my years.” I said, “I won’t see Yah, Yah in the land of the living. I will see man no more with the inhabitants of the world. My dwelling is removed, and is carried away from me like a shepherd’s tent. I have rolled up my life like a weaver. He will cut me off from the loom. From day even to night you will make an end of me. I waited patiently until morning. He breaks all my bones like a lion. From day even to night you will make an end of me. I chattered like a swallow or a crane. I moaned like a dove. My eyes weaken looking upward. Lord, I am oppressed. Be my security.” What will I say? He has both spoken to me, and himself has done it. I will walk carefully all my years because of the anguish of my soul. Lord, men live by these things; and my spirit finds life in all of them: you restore me, and cause me to live. Behold, for peace I had great anguish, but you have in love for my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for you have cast all my sins behind your back. For Sheol can’t praise you. Death can’t celebrate you. Those who go down into the pit can’t hope for your truth. The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do today. The father shall make known your truth to the children. Yahweh will save me. Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments all the days of our life in Yahweh’s house. Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a poultice on the boil, and he shall recover.” Hezekiah also had said, “What is the sign that I will go up to Yahweh’s house?”

About · Privacy · Credits · Support VRSZ

What the Fathers say

Isaiah 38:12

Eastern Fathers

Cosmas Indicopleustes

It has gone out and gone away from me, as one takes down the tent which he had pitched; meaning: And so completely has my former overweening arrogance departed from me, that I am like one, who, after having pitched a tent, forthwith takes it down again. The breath within me is as when a weaver is preparing to cut away the web from the loom; meaning: My very soul had all but left me, just as when the web of a woman who is weaving is ready to be cut

The Christian Topography, Book 8 ↗

Western Saints

Thomas Aquinas

And as to the posterity of his sons: my generation, namely, 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, above: it shall be removed as the tent of one night (Isa 24:20). And as to the shortness of his life: my life is cut off, as by a weaver, while yet weaving an unfinished web; but beginning in youth: my days have passed more swiftly than the web is cut by the weaver (Job 7:6).

Commentary on Isaiah ↗