Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 38:21
For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay [it] for a plaster upon the boil, and he shall recover.
21. lay it for a plaister ] Lit. rub it. Lump should be cake, as in R.V. Many commentators suppose that the malady from which Hezekiah suffered was the plague; and Gesenius explains that the appearance of the “boil” would be a hopeful, though not a certain, symptom of recovery. He adds that the application of figs is resorted to by modern Arabian and Turkish physicians in cases of pestilence.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
21, 22. Cf. 2Ki 20:7-8. The verses are obviously out of their true places here. The pluperfects in the English Translation are ungrammatical (Driver, Tenses, pp. 84 ff.), and we must render And Isaiah said And Hezekiah said.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For Isaiah had said – In the parallel place in Kings the statement in these two verses is introduced before the account of the miracle on the sun-dial, and before the account of his recovery 2Ki 20:7-8. The order in which it is introduced, however, is not material.
Let them take a lump of figs – The word used here ( debelah) denotes a round cake of dried figs pressed together in a mass 1Sa 25:18. Figs were thus pressed together for preservation, and for convenience of conveyance.
And lay it for a plaster – The word used here ( marach) denotes properly to rub, bruise, crush by rubbing; then to rub, in, to anoint, to soften. Here it means they were to take dried figs and lay them softened on the ulcer.
Upon the boil – ( mashechyn). This word means a burning sore or an inflamed ulcer Exo 9:9, Exo 9:11; Lev 13:18-20. The verb in Arabic means to be hot, inflamed; to ulcerate. The noun is used to denote a species of black leprosy in Egypt, called elephantiasis, distinguished by the black scales with which the skin is covered, and by the swelling of the legs. Here it probably denotes a pestilential boil; an eruption, or inflamed ulceration produced by the plague, that threatened immediate death. Jerome says that the plaster of figs was medicinal, and adapted to reduce the inflammation and restore health. There is no improbability in the supposition; nor does anything in the narrative prohibit us from supposing that natural means might have been used to restore him. The miracle consisted in the arrest of the shade on the sun-dial, and in the announcement of Isaiah that he would recover. That figs, when dried, were used in the Materia Medica of the ancients, is asserted by both Pliny and Celsus (see Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxiii. 7; Celsus, v. 2, quoted by Lowth.)
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 38:21
He shall recover
Christ in the sick room
I.
The Holy Ghost shows us a king and ruler of men, a dweller in palaces, a possessor of all that money can obtain, a good man, a friend of God, laid low by disease like the poorest man in the kingdom.
1. This is the old story. After all there is nothing wonderful in this. The tabernacle in which our soul lives is a most frail and complicated machine. I do not wonder so much that we die as that we live so long.
2. But whence comes this liability to sickness, disease, and death? There is only one book that supplies an answer to this question. That book is the Bible, The fall of man at the beginning has brought sin into the world, and sin has brought with it the curse of sickness, suffering, and pain. Here lies one among many proofs that the Bible is given by inspiration of God. It accounts for many things which the Deist cannot explain.
II. Learn from this chapter that sickness is not an unmixed evil. Hezekiah received spiritual benefit from his illness. Sickness ought to do us good. And God sends it in order to do us good.
1. Sickness is meant to make us think, to remind us that we have an immortal soul; and that if this soul is not saved we had better never have been born.
2. Sickness is meant to teach us that there is a world beyond the grave, and that the world we now live in is only a training-place for another dwelling, where there will be no decay, no sorrow, no tears, no misery, and no sin.
3. Sickness is meant to make us look at our past lives honestly, fairly, and conscientiously.
4. Sickness is meant to make us see the emptiness of the world, and its utter inability to satisfy the highest and deepest wants of the soul.
5. Sickness is meant to send us to our Bibles.
6. Sickness is meant to make us pray.
7. Sickness is meant to make us repent and break off our sins.
8. Sickness is meant to draw us to Christ.
9. Sickness is meant to make us sympathising towards others. (Anon.)
A fig-plaster
The application of figs leaves it uncertain whether a boil (bubon) or a carbuncle (charbon) is to be supposed. Figs were a popular emolliens or maturans; they were used to hasten the rising of the swelling, and therefore the mattering-process. (F. Delitzsch, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 21. Let them take a lump of figs, c.] God, in effecting this miraculous cure, was pleased to order the use of means not improper for that end. “Folia, et, quae non maturuere, fici, strumis illinuntur omnibusque quae emollienda sunt discutiendave.” – PLIN. Nat. Hist. xxiii. 7. “Ad discutienda ea, quae in corporis parte aliqua coierunt, maxime possunt-ficus arida,” c. – CELSUS, v. 11. See the note on 2Kg 20:7. Philemon Holland translates the passage as a medical man: – “The milke or white juice that the figge tree yieldeth is of the same nature that vinegre: and therefore it will curddle milke as well as rennet, or rendles. The right season of gathering this milkie substance is before that the figs be ripe upon the tree and then it must be dried in the shadow: thus prepared, it is good to break impostumes, and keepe ulcer open.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
This was rather a sign appointed by God, than a natural means of the cure; for if it had a natural faculty to ripen a sore, yet it could never cure such a dangerous and pestilential disease, at least in so little time.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
For Isaiah had said,…. Before the above writing was made, which ends in the preceding verse; for this and the following are added by Isaiah, or some other person, taken out of 2Ki 20:7. The Septuagint version adds, “to Hezekiah”; but the speech seems rather directed to some of his servants, or those that were about him:
let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaster upon the boil, and he shall recover; which was done, and he did accordingly recover. Aben Ezra, Jarchi, and. Kimchi, all of them say, that this was a miracle within a miracle, since figs are hurtful to ulcers; and so say others; though it is observed by some, that they are useful for the ripening and breaking of ulcers; however, it was not from the natural force of these figs, but by the power of God, that this cure was effected; for, without that, it was impossible so malignant an ulcer and so deadly a sickness as Hezekiah’s were could have been cured, and especially so suddenly; nor were these figs used as a medicine, but as a sign of recovery, according to the Lord’s promise, and as a means of assisting Hezekiah’s faith in it.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The text of Isaiah is not only curtailed here in a very forced manner, but it has got into confusion; for Isa 38:21 and Isa 38:22 are removed entirely from their proper place, although even the Septuagint has them at the close of Hezekiah’s psalm. They have been omitted from their place at the close of Isa 38:6 through an oversight, and then added in the margin, where they now stand (probably with a sign, to indicate that they were supplied). We therefore insert them here, where they properly belong. “Then Isaiah said they were to bring (K. take) a fig-cake; and they plaistered (K. brought and covered) the boil, and he recovered. And Hizkiyahu said (K. to Isaiah) , What sign is there that (K. Jehovah will heal me, so that I go up) I shall go up into the house of Jehovah?” As sh e chn never signifies a plague-spot, but an abscess (indicated by heightened temperature), more especially that of leprosy (cf., Exo 9:9; Lev 13:18), there is no satisfactory ground, as some suppose, for connecting Hezekiah’s illness (taken along with Isa 33:24) with the pestilence which broke out in the Assyrian army. The use of the figs does not help us to decide whether we are to assume that it was a boil ( bubon ) or a carbuncle ( c harbon ). Figs were a well-known emmoliens or maturans, and were used to accelerate the rising of the swelling and the subsequent discharge. Isaiah did not show any special medical skill by ordering a softened cake of pressed figs to be laid upon the boil, nor did he expect it to act as a specific, and effect a cure: it was merely intended to promote what had already been declared to be the will of God. is probably more original than the simpler but less definite . Hitzig is wrong in rendering , “that it (the boil) may get well;” and Knobel in rendering it, “that he may recover.” It is merely the anticipation of the result so common in the historical writings of Scripture (see at Isa 7:1 and Isa 20:1), after which the historian goes back a step or two.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
On Isa 38:21, Isa 38:22, see the notes at the close of Isa 38:4-6, where these two vv. belong.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
21. And Isaiah said Isaiah now relates what was the remedy which he prescribed to Hezekiah. Some think that it was not a remedy, because figs are dangerous and hurtful to boils; but that the pious king was warned and clearly taught by this sign that the cure proceeded from nothing else than from the favor of God alone. As the bow in the sky, (97) by which God was pleased to testify that mankind would never be destroyed by a flood, (Gen 9:13,) appears to denote what is absolutely contrary to this; (for it makes its appearance, when very thick clouds are gathering, and ready to fall as if they would deluge the whole world;) so they think that a plaster, which was not at all fitted for curing the disease, was purposely applied by the Prophet, in order to testify openly that God cured Hezekiah without medicines. But since figs are employed even by our own physicians for maturing a pustule, it is possible that the Lord, who had given a promise, gave also a medicine, as we see done on many other occasions; for although the Lord does not need secondary means, as they are called, yet he makes use of them whenever he thinks proper. And the value of the promise is not lessened by this medicine, which without the word would have been vain and useless; because he had received another supernatural sign, by which he had plainly learned that he had received front God alone that life of which he despaired.
(97) “ L’arc en la nuce.” “The bow in the cloud.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
3. PRESCRIPTION
TEXT: Isa. 38:21-22
21
Now Isaiah had said, Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a plaster upon the boil, and he shall recover.
22
Hezekiah also had said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of Jehovah?
QUERIES
a.
What value did the cake of figs have for Hezekiah?
PARAPHRASE
For Isaiah had told Hezekiahs servants, Make an ointment of crushed figs and spread it over the boil, and he will get well again. And then Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, What sign will the Lord give me to prove that He will heal me?
COMMENTS
Isa. 38:21 OINTMENT: The Hebrew word marahk, translated plaster, means literally, rub, bruise, crush. Isaiahs instructions evidently were to crush some figs into a soft, fluid ointment that could be rubbed on the boil. If the reader will compare the parallel account of Hezekiahs illness in 2Ki. 20:1-11 he will find the psalm of thanksgiving omitted. The account in II Kings ends with the medicinal ointment and the omen. Isa. 38:21-22 are not out of order here. The psalm of thanksgiving is simply inserted in Isaiahs account and omitted in the Kings account. The Ras Shamra (Ugaritic) literature indicates that figs and their juices were used by the ancients for healing purposes. However, it would seem here the fig ointment was used more as a symbolic agent rather than an actual medicinal cure. Hezekiahs illness was terminal! Hezekiahs healing was miraculous. The fig ointment was commanded of God as a test of Hezekiahs faith. It is the same principle with our eating the flesh of the Son of man and drinking His blood. The emblems are symbolic, not the actual flesh and blood of the physical body of Jesus. Partaking of the emblems serves as a means of proving our faith. They serve as a test of our obedience. What the shehkiyn (boil) was is difficult to know. The word may mean hot or inflammed or ulcerated. It would bring death in Hezekiahs case.
Isa. 38:22 OMEN: The Hebrew word aoth is translated sign and also may be translated token, or type. One of the great differences between Ahaz, the king who displeased God in his leadership of the nation of Judah, and Hezekiah who pleased God in his leadership, was that Ahaz refused to seek Gods sign of divine guidance while Hezekiah sought a sign from God of His divine help. When an abundance of divine signs have been demonstrated it is displeasing to God to seek after more signs (cf. Mat. 12:38-42). It would not honor God for men and women today to seek signs from God. He has given His greatest miraculous sign, once and for all, Jesus Christ, God Incarnate! (cf. Heb. 1:1). Many eyewitnesses have left us a record of Gods complete and final supernatural revelationthe New Testament. But Hezekiah did not have such an abundance of confirmation, He was not wrong in asking for a sign.
QUIZ
1.
What was the nature of the medicinal application made to Hezekiahs boil?
2.
Are these two verses out of order?
3.
How could fig juice heal a terminal disease?
4.
Was Hezekiah correct in asking for a sign?
5.
Why would it displease God for men to ask for more signs today?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(21) For Isaiah had said . . .The direction implies some medical training on the part of Isaiah (see Note on Isa. 1:6, and Introduction), such as entered naturally into the education of the prophet-priests. They were to Israel, especially in the case of leprosy and other kindred diseases, what the priests of Asclepios were to Greece. The Divine promise guaranteed success to the use of natural remedies, but did not dispense with them, and they, like the spittle laid on the eyes of the blind in the Gospel miracles (Mar. 7:33, Joh. 9:6), were also a help to the faith on which the miracle depended. Both this and the following verse seem, as has been said, to have been notes to Isa. 38:8, supplied from the narrative of 2 Kings 20, and placed at the end of the chapter instead of at the foot of the page, as in modern MSS. or print. The word for boil appears in connection with leprosy in Exo. 9:9, Lev. 13:18, but is used generically for any kind of abscess, carbuncle, and the like. (Comp. Job. 2:7.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
21, 22. For Isaiah had said Introduced thus, these verses give the occasion for the previous song of gratitude. But their proper place is between the sixth and seventh verses, and they are so arranged in the corresponding narrative in 2 Kings 20.
A lump of figs A cake of bruised figs to be applied to the ulcer.
Boil From a word implying heated, inflamed; thus quite likely denoting the disease to have been the remains of the pestilence in the land. This kind of plaster was not known, or is said to be not now known, as an efficacious remedy; but it was ordered and it did its work.
Hezekiah also had said An additional reason for composing the above song of praise.
What is the sign The sign of a divine interference in the use of natural agencies, effecting a most remarkable change of the apparent course of the sun on the dial of Ahaz. What is its import? That I shall go up to the house of the Lord? Communion with God, the first thought and design of the prolonged life.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Final Conclusions ( Isa 38:21-22 ).
It would be a mistake to see these as comments as words casually added on with no real significance, and to pass over them too quickly. The first states how his healing was brought about, by a laying of a poultice on his eruption of the flesh, bringing out that it was indeed God Who had restored him. The second was even more significant, for it leads on into what follows and stresses that it is to be seen in the light of the fact that Hezekiah had asked for and received a God-given miraculous sign.
At first sight both seem to be equally pious comments. Isaiah confident that Yahweh would heal him, Hezekiah eager to go up to the house of Yahweh. But what a difference in attitude. One was eager that God’s power might be revealed, the other simply concerned about the certainty of his own healing.
Isa 38:21
‘Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs and lay it for a plaster on the boil, and he will recover.’
Note that Isaiah’s work of healing is not described as though it was the most important aspect of the account. It almost has the appearance of an afterthought. For the concentration of the passage is not on the healing but on the significance of Hezekiah’s experience. But it is an important afterthought. It is brought in to emphasise that the healing was indeed genuinely of God through His prophet.
The boil and the seriousness of the illness possibly indicate some kind of plague illness. The method of using a poultice to draw the boil was clearly known. And it equally clearly worked. If it was a miracle no emphasis is laid on the fact that it was so. The emphasis is rather on the fact that it was God’s doing. Once the boil was drawn healing could go on apace. But Hezekiah certainly saw it as a miracle of forgiveness and healing. A similar kind of plaster (of dried raisins) for use on horses is witnessed to in a Ugaritic text.
Isa 38:22
‘Hezekiah had also said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of Yahweh?” ’
Hezekiah’s main concern was whether the healing would occur as quickly as Yahweh had promised (1Ki 20:28). This note is added in order to prepare for the following verses. ‘The sign’ here must be the one described in Isa 38:7, for it is the only one mentioned in the passage. Here in Isaiah that sign was stated as having a twofold purpose, ‘Look,’ had promised Yahweh, ‘I will add to your life fifteen years, and I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city. And this will be the sign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do this thing that He has spoken’ (Isa 38:5-6). Thus the sign was intended to point both to his healing and the certainty of the coming miraculous deliverance.
But 1Ki 20:28 explains that the sign that was given to Hezekiah had in fact been asked for by him as evidence that he would be healed so that he could go up to the house of Yahweh within three days. And it is made clear here that that is his main concern, his own healing, and progression from it. While God had wanted it also to be the greater sign of His power to deliver and His promise of future deliverance (Isa 38:6), Hezekiah only thought in terms of his own healing. So Hezekiah, instead of being taken up with, and excited about, the promise of future deliverance, expresses concern lest he be unable to go up to the house of Yahweh on the third day. This again brings out Hezekiah’s selfish concentration on his own need rather than on his people’s needs. It sounded pious enough, but it was proof of his mediocrity.
No doubt he also saw himself as being restrained from going up to the house of Yahweh because the eruption rendered him unclean (see Lev 13:18), and it suggests that he longed to do so as soon as appropriate. He wanted to be ‘clean’ again. Such an ambition was not to be despised. It was good that he wanted to go up to the house of Yahweh. But why did he want to do it? Are we to see this as because he longed to carry out his intercessory prayer as the priest after the order of Melchizedek? (compare Isa 37:1; Isa 37:14). But that was no longer necessary. The sign had been God’s guarantee of deliverance. Or are we to see it as in order that he might give thanks for his recovery? That he saw it as putting the cap on any delay in his recovery? The context suggests the latter.
In other words his mind was concentrated on the wrong thing. While God had tried to direct his thoughts to the great deliverance, all Hezekiah could think of was his own restoration. There could be no greater contrast than that between this current representative of the house of David, whose only desire was to survive and to whom the coming deliverance was secondary, and the coming Servant whom Isaiah will shortly describe, Whose whole concern will be to do the will of God and Whose whole attention will be on the final deliverance, even though He would have to face death in order to bring it about (Isa 52:13 to Isa 53:12). The Hezekiah revealed here fits well with the Hezekiah revealed in Isa 39:8.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Isa 38:21. For Isaiah had said, &c. Now Isaiah had said. “It seems to me extremely probable, (says Dr. Mead,) that the king’s disease was a fever, which terminated in an abscess: for, in cases of this kind, those things are always proper which promote suppuration, especially digestive and resolving cataplasms, and dried figs are excellent for this intention. Thus the Omnipotent, who could remove this distemper by his word alone, chose to do it by the effect of natural remedies. And here we have a useful lesson given us in adversities, not to neglect the use of those things which the bountiful Creator has bestowed upon us; and at the same time to add our fervent prayers, that he would be graciously pleased to prosper our endeavours.” We may add further, that though it be admitted that a roasted fig, with white sugar powdered, be at this time used, and found to be a suppurative for a plague-boil, yet this will not lessen the reality of the miraculous interposition of Jehovah; because, in the present use, the work of suppuration is gradual and progressive; but the cure wrought on the application to Hezekiah was instantaneous. See Mead’s Medica Sacra, and the Philosophical Transactions, vol. 47: p. 387.
REFLECTIONS.1st, To what has been observed before on the subject of this chapter, we may add,
1. That, since death is the common lot, it is our duty, before it approaches, to provide for it, both by a settlement of all our worldly concerns, that they may not at that time occupy our thoughts; and more especially by such a daily dying to the world and every thing temporal, as may make the day of our removal neither unexpected nor unacceptable.
2. In every situation, sick, afflicted, or tempted, prayer is the great relief. It is the heart’s ease to unbosom ourselves to God.
3. It will be a comfort in every calamity, and a joy in the hour of death, to have our conscience bear us witness in the Holy Ghost, that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the world.
4. God regards every tear which falls from the eye of his mourners, and will give them quickly the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness.
5. The prosperity promised to Zion was better to Hezekiah than the restoration of his health; as the welfare of the church, and the interests of the Redeemer’s kingdom, are ever dearer to the faithful, than any other concern, merely relative to themselves.
6. One miracle served to confirm Hezekiah’s faith; we have seen the glorious Redeemer work innumerable: and shall we distrust him?
2nd, In grateful acknowledgment of the divine mercy shewn him in his recovery, Hezekiah composed his sacred thanksgiving; and such memorials are not only profitable to keep alive our own gratitude, but stand as monuments of God’s mercy, and an encouragement to trust him for future generations. We have,
1. The desperateness of his case. I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave; though in the prime of life, he saw the gates of the grave open to receive him: I am deprived of the residue of my years, which, in the course of nature, he might have expected to have lived; but his grief was more that he was removed in the midst of his usefulness, than in the midst of his days. I said, I shall not see the Lord, even the Lord in the land of the living; no more frequent the courts of his house, and join in the ordinances of his worship, encouraging by his example the piety of his people. I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world, be no longer able to serve the interests of God among his subjects, or be the instrument of advancing their reformation and happiness; and also no more enjoy the company of those near and dear to him, with whom, in the house of God, he used to hold sweet communion. Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd’s tent, or my habitation; the tabernacle of his body, ready to return to dust, is quickly and as easily removed as the shepherd’s tent. I have cut off like a weaver my life, who, when his piece is finished, cuts it out of the loom; and his sins might be regarded by him as the cause of his days being shortened. He will cut me off with a pining sickness, or from the thrum, alluding to the metaphor of the weaver, and acknowledging the hand of God in the affliction, in whose hands are life and death. I reckoned till morning, or, set my time till morning, concluding it impossible longer to survive; that as a lion, so will he, or it, break all my bones; the Lord’s afflicting hand, or his disease, the pains of which were as acute as if he had been torn and gnawed by a lion. From day even to night wilt thou make an end of me; though beyond expectation he saw the light of another day, he had no hopes of seeing a third. Note; (1.) When we are in distress, we are too apt to sink into despondence. (2.) A solicitude for God’s glory, and his interest among men, is the only truly laudable motive which can make a good man prefer a continuance in the body to a departure to his Lord. (3.) The gates of the grave stand open day and night; it becomes us frequently to think of passing through them. (4.) Our most settled abode here is but as a poor shepherd’s tent, and our passage through time swift as the weaver’s shuttle: it should, therefore, awaken our solicitude to secure a more durable mansion, that when the days of time are cut off, we may be enabled with joy to step forward into eternity.
2. His fervent prayer in his distress. Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter; sometimes aloud, in extremity of pain; sometimes low, worn out with anguish, or so interrupted and broken were his prayers, through the torment he endured. I did mourn as a dove, bemoaning himself over his transgressions: mine eyes fail with looking upward; ready to close in death, despairing of relief. O Lord, I am oppressed, or it oppresseth me, my disease: undertake for me, to pluck me from the bars of the pit; or it may be rendered, I have no righteousness; be surety for me; as containing his humble confession, and his dependance for pardoning grace on that Redeemer, who, in the fullness of time, should be his people’s surety. Note; (1.) Nothing can make a dying-bed easy, but confidence in the sufficiency of our divine Surety to undertake for us in the great day. (2.) Till our eyes are closed, our lips ought not to be silent; yea, when our tongue can no longer perform its office, to this dear Redeemer should our soul aspire, till we breathe it forth into his bosom.
3. His grateful acknowledgments. What shall I say? where words are wanting to express the gratitude I feel. He hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it: sure is every word of his promise, and now by experience he can bear testimony thereto. I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul; meditating upon the mercies received, and ashamed of his own sinful distrust: or the words may be rendered, I shall go cheerfully all my years, after the bitterness of my soul; the storm blown over, peace and prosperity shall crown all the years that God doth prolong. O Lord, by these things men live; by the word of divine promise, and the gracious providence of God: and in all these things is the life of my spirit; the power, providence, and grace of God, appearing thus wonderfully for him, gave renewed life to his soul as well as his body, filling him with faith, and love, and joy. He instances several particulars which call for especial praise.
[1.] His recovery: So wilt thou recover me, and make me to live; or so hast thou recovered me, and made me to live; and every new life bestowed justly calls on us to adore the gracious giver.
[2.] The pleasing contrast of ease for pain, health for sickness. Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: or, as it may be rendered, behold, into peace hath he changed my great bitterness.
[3.] The love of God seen in his case made the mercy unspeakably sweeter and more endeared to him. Thou hast, in love to my soul, delivered it from the pit of corruption, the grave: or, with tender love thou hast embraced my soul, from the pit of corruption; snatching me from it, as a tender parent, when I was rushing into the horrible pit. Note; Health restored is doubly pleasing, when we can see that it is in love to our souls.
[4.] His sins pardoned, fully and freely: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. And herein every believing soul is called upon to join the thanksgiving of this pious king; for, (1.) Our souls and bodies, by reason of sin original and actual, in heart and life, are forfeited, and ready to fall into the bottomless pit of eternal perdition. (2.) The transcendently rich and gracious love of God in Christ Jesus hath interposed to pluck us from ruin, and to this alone we are indebted. (3.) All the bitterness which a sense of guilt and danger awakens in the conscience, God’s love removes, and fills the soul, O blessed change! with joy and peace in believing.
4. His resolution to continue himself, and excite others to join him, in this constant and delightful work of praise: For the grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee: silence there reigns; no grateful songs ascend from the dust, and no more service can be rendered to God’s interests here below, by those who are departed. They that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth; there God can be no longer glorified by faith or hope in his promises; but the living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: those whose bodily lives are through mercy renewed, and their souls spiritually alive also, these would join him in God’s praise. The father to the children shall make known thy truth; transmitting to posterity the memorial of God’s faithfulness, to encourage their trust, and awaken their gratitude. The Lord was ready to save me; instant as I called, relief appeared: therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life; I, and all the faithful rejoicing in my mercies, will render the ceaseless tribute of our songs in the house of the Lord. Note; (1.) Since in the grave we can no more glorify God, what now our hand findeth to do for him, let us do it with our might. (2.) Who shall praise him, if they do not who have been recovered from going down to the pit? (3.) While life and breath endure, so long should our praises last, and then we shall go where they will never end. (4.) Godly parents will not fail to transmit to their children the memorial of their father’s mercies, and to encourage them to trust in the same promises which themselves have proved so faithful.
5. At the close of this history it is remarked, as in 2Ki 20:7-11 that the sign was given at Hezekiah’s request; and a lump of figs, at Isaiah’s command, laid on the boil, either as a means to procure his recovery, or as a sign to assure him of it. Note; (1.) Though in sickness our dependance must not be on the medicines, yet we are to trust God in the use of means. (2.) The great comfort of health is, ability to attend on God’s worship, and be employed actively in his service; and this is the great end for which a good man wishes to live.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Isa 38:21 For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay [it] for a plaister upon the boil, and he shall recover.
Ver. 21. Let them take a lump of figs. ] Commenciatur hic usus medicinae. The patient must pray, but withal make use of means; trust God, but not tempt him. See Trapp on “ 2Ki 20:7 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Isa 38:21-22
21Now Isaiah had said, Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may recover. 22Then Hezekiah had said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?
Isa 38:21-22 These verses are absent in the DSS of Isaiah, but they are in the LXX. A form of them is found earlier in the account in 2Ki 20:7-8. The NJB puts them in their translation after Isa 38:6.
Isa 38:21 Let them take a cake of figs, and apply it to the boil, that he may recover We know from other ancient Israeli documents that figs were used as a medicine (also in Ugarit). Here we have the exact nature of Hezekiah’s illness (i.e., a boil). Whether it was some kind of cancerous growth or a boil at a vulnerable place is uncertain.
Notice it is YHWH who heals, but court physicians who apply medicine (i.e., figs). Again the ancients did not differentiate between the divine cause and a natural cause. All causation is attributed to God. He is intimately involved in His world, His covenant people, and individuals!
This verse has three JUSSIVES.
1. Let them take – BDB 669, KB 724, Qal IMPERFECT used in a JUSSIVE sense
2. Let them apply it (lit. rub) – BDB 598, KB 634, Qal IMPERFECT used in a JUSSIVE sense
3. Let him live – BDB 310, KB 309, Qal JUSSIVE
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Isa 38:21-22
Isa 38:21-22
“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?”
This injection of some pertinent fact into a narrative subsequently to its actual chronological occurrence is a typical feature of the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation. As an example, in Jonah, after the men cast lots and charged him with being the cause of the danger they were in, learned that Jonah was a follower of Jehovah; “Then, the men were exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, What is this that thou hast done? For the men knew that he was fleeing from Jehovah, because he had told them” (Jon 1:10). Thus there appears here a fact that the mariners had learned at the time of Jonah’s taking passage on the ship of Tarshish.
The fact that dried figs were used in the medical practice of the ancients is confirmed by both Roman historians, Pliny, and Celsus. The significance is that natural means were frequently utilized by the Lord in the performance of those wonders with which the Bible is filled.
The additional information provided in these last two verses was summarized thus by Dummelow: “The remedy for the king’s disease was suggested by Isaiah, and the sign was given at the king’s request.
In this connection, even during the charismatic age of the church when elders endowed with the gift of healing, prayed for the sick, they also anointed the sufferer with oil, as in Jas 5:13-15.
Isa 38:21 OINTMENT: The Hebrew word marahk, translated plaster, means literally, rub, bruise, crush. Isaiahs instructions evidently were to crush some figs into a soft, fluid ointment that could be rubbed on the boil. If the reader will compare the parallel account of Hezekiahs illness in 2Ki 20:1-11 he will find the psalm of thanksgiving omitted. The account in II Kings ends with the medicinal ointment and the omen. Isa 38:21-22 are not out of order here. The psalm of thanksgiving is simply inserted in Isaiahs account and omitted in the Kings account. The Ras Shamra (Ugaritic) literature indicates that figs and their juices were used by the ancients for healing purposes. However, it would seem here the fig ointment was used more as a symbolic agent rather than an actual medicinal cure. Hezekiahs illness was terminal! Hezekiahs healing was miraculous. The fig ointment was commanded of God as a test of Hezekiahs faith. It is the same principle with our eating the flesh of the Son of man and drinking His blood. The emblems are symbolic, not the actual flesh and blood of the physical body of Jesus. Partaking of the emblems serves as a means of proving our faith. They serve as a test of our obedience. What the shehkiyn (boil) was is difficult to know. The word may mean hot or inflammed or ulcerated. It would bring death in Hezekiahs case.
Isa 38:22 OMEN: The Hebrew word aoth is translated sign and also may be translated token, or type. One of the great differences between Ahaz, the king who displeased God in his leadership of the nation of Judah, and Hezekiah who pleased God in his leadership, was that Ahaz refused to seek Gods sign of divine guidance while Hezekiah sought a sign from God of His divine help. When an abundance of divine signs have been demonstrated it is displeasing to God to seek after more signs (cf. Mat 12:38-42). It would not honor God for men and women today to seek signs from God. He has given His greatest miraculous sign, once and for all, Jesus Christ, God Incarnate! (cf. Heb 1:1). Many eyewitnesses have left us a record of Gods complete and final supernatural revelation-the New Testament. But Hezekiah did not have such an abundance of confirmation, He was not wrong in asking for a sign.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
For Isaiah: 2Ki 20:7, Mar 7:33, Joh 9:6
Reciprocal: Lev 13:18 – a boil 2Ch 32:24 – gave him a sign
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 38:21-22. For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs See note on 2Ki 20:7. Hezekiah also had said Or, for Hezekiah had said; What is the sign that I shall go up Namely, within three days, as is more fully related 2Ki 20:5; 2Ki 20:8; to the house of the Lord? For thither he designed to go first, partly that he might pay his vows and thanksgivings to God, and partly that he might engage the people to praise God with him and for him.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
38:21 For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and {z} lay [it] for a plaster upon the boil, and he shall recover.
(z) Read 2Ki 20:7 .
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The poem having ended, Isaiah now added a postscript giving more detail about Hezekiah’s recovery. Isa 38:21-22 are more smoothly integrated into the story of Hezekiah’s recovery in 2 Kings 20 than they are here. This fact has led scholars to speculate about which account was first, which was second, or did both draw from a common source? There is no way to answer this question for sure. Hezekiah had evidently suffered from a boil, but the boil was probably only a symptom of a more serious disease (cf. Isa 38:1). When Isaiah, acting as a physician, applied a fig poultice to the boil, the king recovered (cf. Jas 5:14).
"This is an example of healing occurring because of a combination of prayer, medicine, and God’s work." [Note: J. Martin, p. 1090.]