Mine eyes fail with looking upward; O LORD, I am oppressed, be thou my surety. 15. What shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, And himself hath done it : 3 Because of 2 the bitterness of my soul. 16. O Lord, by these things men live, And wholly therein is the life of my spirit: 4 And make me to live. 17. Behold, it was for my peace That I had great bitterness : But thou hast in love to my soul delivered it 1 m. as in solemn procession, cf. Ps. 42: 4. 2 Gr. mine eyes have failed with looking to the height of the heaven to the Lord (vs. 14), who has delivered me and removed the pain of my soul. 3 Gr. Yea, O Lord, for it was told thee concerning this; and thou hast awakened my breath, and I am comforted, and live. 4 Gr. om. behold bitterness. 5 Heb. thou hast loved my soul from the pit; Gr. thou hast taken my soul that it should not perish. 6 m. nothingness. 14. Omit or a crane. For chatter read twitter. Fail with looking upward read look tearfully upward. I am oppressed: read perhaps care thou for me. 15. This perplexing verse has thus been emended and rendered by Duhm: What shall I utter and speak unto him, Since 'tis he that has done it? I will restlessly toss all the time of my slumber, 16. The rendering of AV and RV is quite impossible. With the help of the Greek version, Duhm proposes a text, which reads: Lord, touching this my heart makes mention to thee, Refresh thou my spirit, give me health and revive me. 17. Behold . . . bitterness. This clause, emphasizing, as nowhere else in the song, the disciplinary effect of the suffering, is omitted, perhaps rightly, in the Greek version. Thou hast in 18. 19. 20. 21. For thou hast cast all my sins For the grave cannot praise thee, The living, the living, he shall praise thee, As I do this day: The father to the children Shall make known thy truth. The LORD is ready to save me: Therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments All the days of our life In the house of the LORD. Hezekiah's Recovery (38: 21 f.) Now Isaiah had said, "Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a plaister upon the boil, and he shall 22. recover." Hezekiah also had said, "What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?" love. : perhaps, Thou didst keep back my soul from the pit of destruction. Recovery is the proof and seal of sin forgiven. 18 f. Life is peculiarly precious, for only to the living is worship possible (cf. vs. II). The restored man has the duty of acquainting his children with the divine truth, i.e., faithfulness (cf. Ps. 48: 13). 20. Whatever be the origin of the song, it is adapted by this verse to the use of the worshipping community. Jehovah, be pleased to deliver us, And stringed music we will play, etc. Read: 21 f. In their present position, these verses are clearly belated, HEZEKIAH'S VANITY AND ISAIAH'S REBUKE (Chap. 39) 39. 1 At that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and 1 a present to Hezekiah: for he heard that he had been sick, and was recovered. And Hezekiah was glad of them, and shewed them the house of his precious things, the silver, 2. and the gold, and the spices, and the precious oil, and all the house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah shewed them not. Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him, What said these men? and from whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said, 3. 1 Gr. ambassadors and gifts. following as they do the song of thanksgiving for recovery. Particularly so is the reference to the sign which, strictly speaking, must precede vss. 7 f. Lay, rather rub. 39: 1. At that time after Hezekiah's recovery. MerodachBaladan gave much trouble to Assyria before he was finally overthrown. He reigned over Babylon from 721 to 710 B.C., when he was driven out by Sargon. On Sargon's death, in 705, he recovered his power, but held it only for a few months. This embassy to Hezekiah (? 704 B.C.), ostensibly to congratulate him on his recovery, had no doubt the deeper political object of securing his help in a revolt against Assyria. 2. The house of his precious things his treasure house. The silver and gold which fill the treasure house show that the period covered by Chaps. 38 f. must be earlier than 36 f., when the treasury was depleted (2 Kings 18: 14-16; cf. Isa. 38: 1). The house of his armor the armory alluded to in 22:8 as the house of the forest. 3–7. Isaiah, who is the sworn foe of entangling political alliances (cf. 30: 1 ff.), rightly fears the fatal consequences of such a visit, and has his prophetic word ready for the foolish king; but it may fairly be doubted whether vss. 5-7 adequately represent Isaiah's announcement. There is no rebuke of Hezekiah's pride or of his foreign leanings, no announcement of immediate or speedy conse They are come from a far country unto me, even from 4. Babylon. Then said he, What have they seen in thine house? And Hezekiah answered, All that is in mine house have they seen there is nothing among my 5. treasures that I have not showed them. Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the LORD of hosts. 6. Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon: nothing shall 7. be left, saith the LORD. And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the 8. king of Babylon. Then said Hezekiah unto Isaiah, Good is the word of the LORD which thou hast spoken. 1 He said moreover, 2 For there shall be peace and truth in my days. 1 1 Gr. om. 2 Gr. let there be, I pray. quences; but instead, a prediction of deportation and disgrace for Hezekiah's posterity in the land of Babylon. In all Isaiah's genuine prophecies, Assyria, not Babylon, is the eastern power to be reckoned with; nor is there any hint that the domination of Assyria is to be followed by the domination of Babylon. This prophecy is not, like Isaiah's prophecies in general, deeply rooted in the contemporary situation. Nevertheless there is a certain poetic truth in it; it is marked by that sense of Nemesis which is so frequent in the Old Testament. From Babylon had come the temptation, in Babylon the sin would be punished; everything had been displayed by Hezekiah, everything would be taken to Babylon. 8. Good: Hezekiah listens with pious resignation to the word of doom. It does not affect him personally, there is to be peace and stability in his days a sentiment which does not raise our respect for the king. |