Attributed commentary excerpt
Barnes' Notes on Isaiah 38:10
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Notes on the Whole Bible
Albert Barnes (1798–1870) · 19th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
I said - Probably the words ‘I said’ do not imply that he said or spoke this openly or audibly; but this was the language of his heart, or the substance of his reflections. In the cutting off of my days - There has been considerable diversity of interpretation in regard to this phrase. Vitringa renders it as our translators have done. Rosenmuller renders it, ‘In the meridian of my days.’ The Septuagint, Ἐν τῷ ὕψει τῶν ἡμερῶν μου En tō hupsei tōn hēmerōn mou - ‘In the height of my days,’ where they evidently read ברמי instead of בדמי, by the change of a single letter. Aquila, and the Greek interpreters generally, rendered it, ‘In the silence of my days.’ The word used here in Hebrew (דמי demı̂y) denotes properly stillness, quiet, rest; and Gesenius renders it, ‘in the quiet of my days.’ According to him the idea is, ‘now when I might have rest; when I am delivered from my foes; when I am in the midst of my life, of my reign, and of my plans of usefulness, I must die.’ The sense is, doubtless, that he was about to be cut off in middle life, and when he had every prospect of usefulness, and of happiness in his reign. I shall go to the gates of the grave - Hebrew, ‘Gates of sheol.’ On the meaning of the word sheol, and the Hebrew idea of the descent to it through gates, see the notes at Isaiah 5:14; Isaiah 14:9. The idea is, that he must go down to the regions of the dead, and dwell with departed shades (see the note at Isaiah 38:11). The residue of my years - Those which I had hoped to enjoy; of which I had a reasonable prospect in the ordinary course of events. It is evident that Hezekiah had looked forward to a long life, and to a prosperous and peaceful reign. This was the means which God adopted to show him the impropriety of his desire, and to turn him more entirely to his service, and to a preparation for death. Sickness often has this effect on the minds of good people. return to 'Top of Page'
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