Isaiah 38

But God who, in mercy to man, always works for his salvation, desiring to dispossess Hezekiah of that notion which his erring human judgment had suggested to him, and remembering also his virtues, did not permit him to be deluded to the end, but sent him such a sickness as led him to despair of his life. Then Isaiah the prophet going in unto him said: Set thy house in order, for thou shalt die and not live; and thus at once took away the two opinions he had entertained. For some of the Jews said that the Christ never dies, while others held that he does really die, but rises again from the dead. So by saying thou shalt die the prophet took away from him one opinion—that according to which he thought he would never die, but when he added thereto and said: thou shalt not live, he took away the other opinion, according to which others asserted that he rises from the dead. For, being under the test of sickness, he was taught by both expressions that he was not Christ. But the Prophet with great wisdom suggested to him by the power of the Holy Spirit, that he was not the Christ, when he said to him: Set thy house in order, for thou shalt die and not live; as if he said, arrange thine affairs, settling to whom thou wilt transmit thy kingdom, in order that the promise of God may be guarded against the possibility of failure, for thou art not the Christ proclaimed by the Prophets, who has a kingdom without successor, but thou shalt undoubtedly have a successor, and thou hast not done well in neglecting to beget children to succeed thee in thy kingdom. It must therefore be thy concern now to arrange thine affairs, and to declare whom thou wilt have to be thy successor in the kingdom. As he had fancied that he would have but himself for his successor, Hezekiah on coming to know otherwise wept bitterly, and having repented and turned himself on his bed to the wall—the quarter in which the Temple lay, in accordance with the practice obtaining among the Jews—he made his supplication with his thoughts, you may be sure, directed to the Temple

[Daniel 4:27] "'Wherefore, O king, let my counsel meet with thy favor, and make up for thy sins by deeds of charity, and thine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor. Perhaps God will forgive thy transgressions.'" Since he had previously pronounced the sentence of God, which of course cannot be altered, how could he exhort the king to deeds of charity and acts of mercy towards the poor? This difficulty is easily solved by reference to the example of King Hezekiah, who Isaiah had said was going to die (Isaiah 38:1); and again, to the example of the Ninevites, to whom it was said: "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed" (Jonah 3:4). And yet the sentence of God was changed in response to the prayers of Hezekiah and the city of Nineveh, not by any means because of the ineffectualness of the judgment itself but because of the conversion of those who merited pardon. Morever in Jeremiah God states that He threatens evil for the nation (Jeremiah 18:7-8), but if it does that which is good, He will alter His threats to bestow mercy. Again, He affirms that He directs His promises to the man who does good; and if the same man thereafter works evil, He says that He changes His decision, not with regard to the men themselves, but with regard to their works which have thus changed in character. For after all, God is not angered at men but at their sins; and when no sins inhere in a man, God by no means inflicts a punishment which has been commuted. In other words, let us say that Nebuchadnezzar performed deeds of mercy toward the poor in accordance with Daniel's advice, and for that reason the sentence against him was delayed of execution for twelve months. But because he afterwards while walking about in his palace at Babylon said boastingly: "Is this not the great Babylon which I myself have built up as a home for the king by the might of my power and the glory of my name?" therefore he lost the virtue of his charitableness by reason of the wickedness of his pride.

"It may be that God will forgive thy sins." In view of the fact that the blessed Daniel, foreknowing the future as he did, had doubts concerning God's decision, it is very rash on the part of those who boldly promise pardon to sinners. And yet it should be recognized that indulgence was promised to Nebuchadnezzar in return, as long as he wrought good works. Much more, then, is it promised to other men who have committed less grievous sins than he. We read in Jeremiah also of God's direction to the people of the Jews, that they should pray for the Babylonians, inasmuch as the peace of the captives was bound up with the peace of the captors themselves (Jeremiah 29:7).

In those days Hezekiah was sick unto death; and Isaiah son of Amos, the Prophet, came in to him and said to him: Thus says the Lord: Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live. And Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, and prayed to the Lord, and said: I beseech you, O Lord, remember, I pray, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done what is good in your eyes: and Hezekiah wept with a great weeping. Whom the Lord loves he rebukes, and he chastises every son whom he receives (Prov 3). Lest the heart of Hezekiah be lifted up after his incredible triumphs and the victory won out of the midst of captivity, he is visited with infirmity of body and hears that he is going to die, so that, turning to the Lord, he may bend his sentence. This indeed we read also in the prophet Jonah, and in the threats against David, which are said to be coming and were not done: not because God changes his sentence, but because he calls mankind to the knowledge of himself. For the Lord repents over evils.

771. In those days. In this part, he sets out some things occasioned by the preceding history, namely, the sickness of Ezechias, which he incurred because of his ingratitude, because after such a victory he did not compose a song of thanksgiving, as was the custom. And this is divided into two parts:

in the first, he sets out his sickness and healing;

in the second, he sets out the congratulations of his friends: at that time (ch. 39).

Concerning the first, he does three things:

first, he sets out the sickness;

second, his delivery from it: and Ezechias turned his face (Isa 38:2);

third, the order of the delivery: now Isaiah had ordered (Isa 38:21).

Concerning the first, he does two things:

first, he sets out the sickness: Ezechias was sick: a grievous sickness makes the soul sober (Sir 31:2);

second, he sets out the announcement of death: and Isaiah the son of Amos the prophet came unto him; take order, arranging who ought to succeed you: in the time when you shall end the days of your life, and in the time of your decease, distribute your inheritance (Sir 33:24).

772. On the contrary, it is objected that he lived afterwards and did not die; therefore, what the prophet said to him, you shall die, was false, and was not announcing the issue of things with invariable truth.

To which it is to be said that while the plans for all things which happen in the entire course of time have existed in God from eternity, some were placed into things which are unfolded through the work of nature and will; others he retained only to himself, so that when he wills them, he brings them into actuality. Therefore, prophets see in the mirror of eternity as much of either of these as God wishes to reveal to them. Therefore those plans had been revealed to Isaiah, which were placed into things—things that come to be through inferior causes, namely, natural and meritorious causes—according to which the sickness of the king was ordered toward death. Thus, as to the sense which is found in the words of the prophet, he spoke the truth, because according to inferior causes, it was so; similarly too, as to the other sense, which the Holy Spirit understood, he spoke the truth, because he died to that ingratitude when afterwards, he gave the thanks he owed to God, just as Ninive also was overturned as to the state of its iniquity, as Augustine says.

780. In death I will trust the house of conscience (see 38:1), if it is pure from the contagion of sin, below: the place is too strait for me (Isa 49:20); that I should depart from my sanctuary (Ezek 8:6); if it is firm in good works: the rain fell (Matt 7:25); if it is great with love, below: the place is too strait for me (Isa 49:20); below: enlarge the place (Isa 54:2).

And Hezekiah turned his face to the wall because he could not go to the Temple: to the wall of the Temple, that is, next to which Solomon had built the palace. Or simply to the wall, lest he seem to display his tears to those sitting by. Or certainly, according to Jeremiah, to his heart; who calls CIR (קיר), that is, wall, the heart: so that he entreated the Lord with his whole mind.

773. And Ezechias turned his face toward the wall. Here he sets out his delivery from sickness, and concerning this, he sets out three things:

first, the prayer of Ezechias is set out;

second, the promise of healing: and the word of the Lord came to Isaiah (Isa 38:4);

third, the thanksgiving of Ezechias: the writing of Ezechias (Isa 38:9).

Concerning the first, he sets out three things.

First, his preparation for prayer: toward the wall, of the temple, or of his house, so that he might pray more devoutly and privately: I have called upon you in the day of my trouble (Ps 86:7).

Do you want to know the power of repentance? Do you want to understand this strong weapon of salvation and the might of confession? By confession Hezekiah routed 185,000 of the enemy. That was important, but it was small compared with what else happened. The same king's repentance won the repeal the sentence God had passed on him. When he was sick, Isaiah had said, "Give direction for your household, for you will surely die, and not live." What expectation was left? What hope of recovery was there? The prophet had said, "You will surely die." But Hezekiah remembered what was written: "In the hour that you turn and lament, you will be saved." He turned his face to the wall, and from his bed of pain his mind soared up to heaven (for no wall is so thick as to stifle fervent prayer). He said, "Lord, remember me." … He whom the prophet's sentence had forbidden to hope was granted fifteen further years of life, the sun turning back its course as a witness.

And he says: I beseech you, O Lord, remember, I pray, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done what is good in your eyes. And hearing that he is going to die, he does not pray for life and many years, but leaves to God's judgment what he wishes to grant. For he knew that Solomon had pleased God for this reason, that he did not ask for more years of life; but as one about to go to the Lord, he recounts his works, how he walked before him in truth and with a perfect heart. Happy the conscience that in time of affliction remembers its good works: For blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8). And what of its being written elsewhere: Who shall boast that he has a pure heart (Prov 20:9)? This is solved thus: perfection of heart is ascribed to him here because he destroyed the idols, overturned the vessels of the temple of Baal, broke the bronze serpent in pieces, and did the other things which Scripture records. And he wept with a great weeping because of the Lord's promise to David, which he saw would perish in his death. For at that time Hezekiah had no sons; for after his death Manasseh began to reign in Judea when he was twelve years old. From which it is clear that Manasseh was begotten after the third year of the life granted to him. So all this weeping is because he despaired that the Christ would be born of his seed. Others assert that even holy men are terrified by death, because of the uncertainty of judgment and their ignorance of God's sentence as to what abode they will have. And at the same time the question of fate is solved, and of the chains of necessity and of causes: that the day of death is by no means fixed beforehand for each person, but that by the will of God and by causes unknown to mortals one either lives or dies; especially since the necessity of death, once set, is here postponed, and we have read that very many were raised up after death.

Second, he sets out the prayer itself: and prayed; remember, that you would grant me life for the good things I have done, for God is said to have forgotten when he does not give a reward; in truth, of worship of you, with a perfect heart, as to love.

On the contrary, Proverbs 20:9 says: who can say: my heart is clean?; and to this is to be said that he does not say that his heart is perfect absolutely, but as to the fact that he had not halted after idols, as it says in 1 Kings 18:21. In the day of evils be not unmindful of good things (Sir 11:25).

Third, he sets out his compunction, and Ezechias wept: blessed are they that mourn (Matt 5:5): the prayer of the humble and the meek has always pleased you (Jdt 9:16).

And the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying: Go and say to Hezekiah: Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add to your days fifteen years, and I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of the Assyrians, and I will protect it. And this shall be a sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this word which he has spoken: Behold, I will make the shadow of the lines, by which it had gone down on the dial of Ahaz in the sun, go back ten lines: and the sun went back ten lines by the steps by which it had gone down. Here, as in a prophecy, the history is related in reversed order, which in the volume of Kings is read in better sequence. While Hezekiah was weeping with a great weeping, before Isaiah had gone out of the middle part of the court, the word of the Lord came to him, saying: Go back and say to Hezekiah, the leader of my people: I have heard your prayer and seen your tear: Behold, I have healed you. And Hezekiah said to Isaiah: What will be the sign that the Lord will heal me (2 Kgs 20:4 and 5)? To him the Prophet answered: This shall be the sign from the Lord that the Lord will do the word which he has spoken: Do you wish the shadow to advance so many lines, or to go back as many steps? And Hezekiah said to him: It is easy for the shadow to increase by ten lines, and I do not wish this to be done; but that it go back ten steps. And when, at Isaiah's calling upon the power of the Lord, the sign had been accomplished, Isaiah commanded that a lump of fresh figs be brought: and when they had brought it and laid it upon his wound, he was cured. The Prophet returns to the king at the Lord's command, so that he who had struck might himself heal; and Hezekiah is called the leader of his people, and son of David, whose works he followed, for he had done what was right according to all that David his father did: and his prayer is heard and his tears are seen, because he had walked before the Lord in truth and with a perfect heart, and had wept with a great weeping, and had done what was pleasing in his eyes. Fifteen years are added to his life, which he had not asked for, and besides, the security of the kingdom during his lifetime is promised. But if, as some think, to live in the body is a condemnation, and, according to what is said: Return, my soul, to your rest (Ps 114 [116]:7), and in another place: Bring my soul out of prison (Ps 141 [142]:8), death is to be desired, that we may be freed from prison: how does the Lord now grant it as a benefit that one who was about to be freed should live yet fifteen years in prison?

774. And the word of the Lord came to Isaiah. Here the promise of healing is set out.

And first, he sets out the hearing of the prayer, and the word of the Lord came, before he left the middle of the court (2 Kgs 20:4).

The number seven, as has often been said, denotes the week occasioned by the sabbath of the Old Testament. The number eight signifies the Lord's day, on which he clearly rose again, and this is relevant to the New [Testament]. When joined together, they are seen to make up the number fifteen.… Some commentators think that the fifteen additional years accorded to King Hezekiah are related to this parallel, so that the number fifteen is shown to have signified the course of his perfect life.

When Hezekiah, king of Judah, was still sick and weeping, there came an angel, and said to him: "I have seen thy tears, and I have heard thy voice. Behold, I add unto thy time fifteen years. And this shall be a sign to thee from the Lord: Behold, I turn back the shadow of the degrees of the house of thy father, by which the sun has gone down, the ten degrees by which the shadow has gone down," so that day be a day of thirty-two hours. For when the sun had run its course to the tenth hour, it returned again. And again, when Joshua the son of Nun was fighting against the Amorites, when the sun was now inclining to its setting, and the battle was being pressed closely, Joshua, being anxious lest the heathen host should escape on the descent of night, cried out, saying, "Sun, stand thou still in Gibeon; and thou moon, in the valley of Ajalon," until I vanquish this people. And the sun stood still, and the moon, in their places, so that day was one of twenty-four hours. And in the time of Hezekiah the moon also turned back along with the sun, that there might be no collision between the two elemental bodies, by their bearing against each other in defiance of law. And Merodach the Chaldean, king of Babylon, being struck with amazement at that time-for he studied the science of astrology, and measured the courses of these bodies carefully-on learning the cause, sent a letter and gifts to Hezekiah, just as also the wise men from the east did to Christ.

Prayer sometimes brings the dead back to life, but sometimes it may slay the living, as happened with the godly Peter. He brought Tabitha back to life by prayer, but he effected the death of Ananias and Sapphira. … The case of Hezekiah was also astonishing. Through prayer he added to the days of his life as king. He routed the mighty Assyrian army through the agency of a spiritual being.

I have heard your prayer, above: at the voice of your cry (Isa 30:19).

Second, he sets out the promise: behold I will add: you will add days to the days of the king (Ps 61:6).

And a sign is given, that the sun should go back ten steps, which we, following Symmachus, have rendered as lines and dial; for he understood the steps as lines, to make the sense clearer to readers. Or else the steps had been built by mechanical art in such a way that the shadow, descending through each one, marked off the spaces of the hours. This sign was a type both of the present time and of the future: that as the sun went back to its beginning, so Hezekiah's life too returned to years already unwoven; and that for us, who live in the hebdomad and the ogdoad, the spaces of life are prolonged through the resurrection of Christ. The guides to the holy Places in this province are accustomed to show, within the enclosure of the Temple, the steps of the house of Hezekiah, or of Ahaz, down which the sun descended. But I will never believe that the house, I do not say of Ahaz, who was an impious king, but of any righteous king whatever, was in the Temple of God: since Solomon is said, among other things, to have offended God for this reason, that he built Millo on high, from which, walking in the tower of his palace, he used to look down on the court of the Temple (1 Kgs 9).

Third, he sets out the confirmation by a sign: and this shall be a sign to you.

For Hezekiah's sake the sun turned back, but for Christ the sun was eclipsed. The sun did not simply retrace its path for Christ but was completely eclipsed. This shows the difference between Hezekiah and Jesus. The former's prayer resulted in the canceling of God's decree. But does not Jesus forgive sins? Repent, shut your door, and pray to be forgiven. Pray that Christ may remove you from the burning flames, for confession has power even to quench fire, power even to tame lions.

We find in the commentaries, written by our predecessors, that day had thirty-two hours. For when the sun had run its course, and reached the tenth hour, and the shadow had gone down by the ten degrees in the house of the temple, the sun turned back again by the ten degrees, according to the word of the Lord, and there were thus twenty hours. And again, the sun accomplished its own proper course, according to the common law, and reached its setting. And thus there were thirty-two hours.

With the sun, that is, through the movement of the sun; ten lines, by which ten hours were calculated according to the movement of the shadow; and the sun returned: if it did so right away, then that artificial day had twenty-two hours of daylight, nearly doubled according to the Gloss; but if it returned through the lines successively, so that it came through ten and returned through ten and again went through ten, then that day had thirty-two hours, nearly tripled, according to Dionysius.

Now this was done, either with all the other heavenly bodies going back, or with the sun having a shorter path or a faster movement, so that it would reach its position at the same time as the others: in his days the sun went backward (Sir 48:23). And this sign coincided with the thing it signified, thus: when you shall think yourself consumed, you shall rise as the day star (Job 11:17).

The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick and had recovered from his infirmity. LXX: The prayer of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he was sick and rose up from his infirmity. I wonder how the Seventy alone put prayer for writing, since prayer is called THEPHELLATH (תפלת), and not MACHTHAB (מכתב), which is what is written in the present place; otherwise prayer would fittingly be said if it concerned the present time and not the past. For it is clear that after his health was restored, rising from his infirmity, he wrote these things down; from which it follows that it is not a prayer but a thanksgiving for the benefit he had received.

775. The writing of Ezechias. Here his thanksgiving for the healing promised to him is set out.

And first, he sets out the title: the writing, namely, this is the writing;

second, he sets out the song: I said, in which he does three things: first, he laments the danger which he has escaped; second, he recalls the benefit which he has received: O Lord, if man's life be such (Isa 38:16); third, he asks for the fulfillment of what God has promised: O Lord, save me (Isa 38:20).

In the mystery of the anointing of kings, Christ is symbolized by David, Solomon, Ezechiah and Josiah. Christ is symbolized by Ezechiah: "Once I said, 'In the noontime of life I must depart! To the gates of the nether world I shall be consigned.'"

I said in the noontide of my days I shall go, as if he said, I always cherished this thought in my heart, saying to myself, that I shall live always and never die. For by his saying: In the noontide of my days I shall go, he indicated that his days would never be shortened; and as if some one, while he was silent, had asked: while you were absorbed in these meditations what happened to you? he continues and says: At the gates of the grave I shall leave the residue of my years; meaning, while I was thus meditating, I was all at once seized with a dreadful sickness, and could no longer cling to my former notion, but thought I should spend the rest of my years in the grave

I said: In the half of my days I shall go to the gates of hell: I sought the remainder of my years. I said: I shall not see the Lord God in the land of the living: I shall not behold man any more, and the dweller of rest. My generation has ceased: it is taken away and rolled up from me like a shepherds' tent. My life is cut off as by a weaver: while I was yet beginning, he cut me off: from morning to evening you will make an end of me. I hoped until morning: like a lion, so he has broken all my bones. From morning to evening you will make an end of me. LXX: I said: In the height of my days I shall go to the gates of hell: I will leave the remaining years. I said: I shall by no means any more see the salvation of God in the land of the living, nor shall I see man any more with the inhabitants: I have failed from my kindred. It has gone out and departed from me, as one takes down a tent who had pitched it: like a web my spirit has departed, when it is cut off by the weaver. In that day I was given up until morning: like a lion, so he has broken all my bones. From day to night I was given up. He relates what he thought silently in the time of pressing distress and imminent sickness. I said, he says, in my heart, in the half of my days, or, as Aquila and Symmachus and Theodotion translated, in the infirmity and silence of my days; for which the Seventy translated height, because of the likeness of a letter, reading RAME (רמי) for DAME (דמי): although some have rendered DAME as blood, so that the sense is, In the blood of my days, when my blood and my death were being sought. So in despair I said: I shall go to the gates of hell, either by the common law of nature, or those gates from which the Psalmist sings that he was freed: You who lift me up from the gates of death, that I may announce all your praises in the gates of the daughter of Zion (Ps 9:15). These I think are the gates of hell which do not prevail against Peter (Matt 16), because he slept in the fullness of his days. The saints fill up their days, as Abraham did, who died full of days in a good old age (Gen 25). But sinners and the impious die in the half of their days, of whom the Psalmist also speaks: Men of blood and deceitful men shall not live out half their days (Ps 54 [55]:25). For they do not fulfill the works of virtue, nor are they eager to amend their faults by penance. Hence in the middle of life's course and in the darkness of their errors they will be led to Tartarus. I sought, he says, the remainder of my years, thinking that he would live no longer.

And he laments three things.

First, the horror of death: in the midst of my days, that is, in my youth, to the gates of hell, that is, limbo, or death, or the grave: my life was drawing near to hell beneath (Sir 51:6).

I shall no longer behold the salvation of God upon the earth. The salvation of God here signifies Christ; for thus also Symeon, when he took up Christ in his arms, prayed God to be allowed to depart from this life, since his eyes had seen the salvation of God, namely Christ himself for it had been revealed to him by the Spirit that he should not see death, until he had seen the Lord Christ. What Hezekiah then meant to show was this: I not only abandoned that idea and ceased to entertain those lofty imaginations concerning myself, but I do not even think I shall be privileged to see the Christ upon the earth, as I have only other fifteen years to live. I shall no longer see a man of my own kindred —this means, after the fifteen years which God has granted to me as an addition to my years, I shall, when dying, not only not be counted worthy to see Him, but not even to see any man, nay, not so much as one of my kindred. I am deprived of the residue of my life; this means, having thrown away therefore my former estimate of myself, and considering what was my duty for the future, I recognised that my life would come to an end

I said: I shall not see the Lord, the Lord in the land of the living. For Lord and Lord, IA (יה) is set twice in the Hebrew, which sounds in the last syllable of ALLELUIA (הללויה); for which the Seventy translated: I shall by no means any more see the salvation of God in the land of the living. Of which it is written in another place: I will please the Lord in the region of the living (Ps 114 [116]:9). And again: I will please the Lord in the light of the living (Ps 55 [56]:9). The region of the Saints, then, is the very one that is called the light of the living. For he is not the God of the dead but of the living (Matt 22). And this is all that he fears: that, led down to hell, he may by no means deserve to behold the salvation of God.

There follows: I shall not behold man any more, and the dweller of rest. This we had formerly joined to the following verse because of the ambiguity of the word; for the Hebrew word HOLED, if it is read or written ELED (חלד), means rest; if EDEL (חדל), it means setting. So he fears that he may not dwell in rest with the saints and the men of God, that he may not see the Lord in the land of the living, that his generation may be dissolved like a tent, that like a web it may be cut off at the very beginning of the light, and that the Christ may by no means arise from his seed. And that our body is called a tent the Apostle too teaches, saying: We who are in this tent groan, being burdened (2 Cor 5:4).

Second, he laments the loss of good things, as to the vision of God: I sought, from the Lord, that he might supply, the residue, taken away from me, or I sought in myself how much life remained for me. I said, to myself: I shall not see the Lord God, still only through a likeness, in the land of the living, in heavenly beatitude: I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living (Ps 27:13); or I shall not see the Lord God, any more, seeing the temple and the worship of the Lord, in the land of the living, namely, the land of the Jews: he is not the God of the dead but of the living (Matt 22:32). And as to the society of men: I shall behold man, living in this life, no more: there shall not a man dwell there (Jer 49:18). Or the man, Christ, promised to us.

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

From morning, he says, to evening you will make an end of me: I hoped until morning: which Job too says he endured in his distress and in the torments of his body (Job 4), when in the day he awaited the night, and in darkness looked for the light, thinking that with the change of the times his torments could change. That this is true he knows who burns with high fevers, whose inner fire, like a lion, consumes all his bones, and who, for the greatness of his pain, does not think he will live any longer.

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).

In that day I was delivered till morning as to a lion, he did so break all my bones—from day even to night was I delivered over; meaning: In the time then of my sickness, I was delivered over to the fever as to a terrible lion that was crushing all my bones, so that, as it raged, I was tortured incessantly from morning till evening and from evening till day-dawn

776. Third, he laments his anxiety of heart.

And first, as to the continual expectation of death: from morning, namely, I was speaking, even tonight you will make an end of me, in death. And then, not dying, I hoped, again, till morning, so that simultaneously with death the sorrow of sickness was ended; nonetheless, as a lion so has he, infirmity or God himself through the sorrow of sickness, broken all my bones: if I lie down to sleep, I shall say: when shall I rise? And again, I shall look for the evening, and shall be filled with sorrows even till darkness (Job 7:4).

As a swallow so shall I chatter, and as a dove so shall I mourn; that is, In the time of my sickness I would utter cries like the sharp and quivering notes of the swallow, and in my pangs I would wail after the wont of doves. The words, I shall chatter, and I shall mourn are used instead of I chattered and I mourned, one tense being put for another—this being an idiom of frequent occurrence in divine scripture; as when Isaiah says: He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, instead of he will be led. Mine eyes failed me in looking at the height of heaven towards the Lord, who rescued me, and took away the anguish of my soul, O Lord; concerning it, it was told unto thee; meaning: And so much did I strain the eyes of my mind in looking up to the height of heaven, laying upon Thee, even upon God the Preserver of all, the anguish of my soul, which Thou didst remove from me, having changed my arrogance into humility and obedience to religion, on account of which, O Lord, I shall for ever give thanks unto Thee

Like the young of a swallow, so will I cry: I will meditate like a dove: my eyes are worn thin looking upward. O Lord, I suffer violence; answer for me: what shall I say, or what will he answer me, since he himself has done it? LXX: Like a swallow, so will I cry; like a dove, so will I meditate. For my eyes have failed with looking to the height of heaven, to the Lord, who has rescued me and taken away the pain of my soul, and he himself has done it. Imminent death and the pressing pain of sickness, like a lion, were breaking all the bones of my body; but I, like the swallow and the dove, joined days and nights with weeping and groaning; and from God alone, who could help, with my eyes lifted on high, I awaited aid. And I said to him: I suffer more than my deserts require; but even if I have erred in anything, I will turn to the better; do you answer for me: For it is not of him who wills nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy (Rom 9:16). And again he turns back into himself: What shall I say, or what shall I plead against you, my maker? Or what will he answer me, who himself has done what he willed? Whatever he has decreed, then, must be endured. For young of a swallow, or swallow, as the Seventy translated, in the Hebrew is written SUS AGOR (סוס עגור), which Aquila translated the horse Agor; Theodotion, SIS AGUR (סיס עגור); for the middle vowel-letter, if vau is put between two Samec, is read sus and means horse; if jod, it is read sis and is called swallow. Symmachus translated thus: Like a shut-in swallow, so will I sing. This word agor is also read in Jeremiah, where it is written: The kite in heaven has known its time: the turtledove and the swallow and the stork have kept their times (Jer 8:7).

Second, as to the deferral of hope; and he sets out things: the compunction of the one who hopes: I will cry like a young swallow, looking for its mother, because it does not see her, like a dove, namely, with mourning: her bondwomen were led away mourning as doves (Nah 2:7). And he sets out the deferral of hope: my eyes are weakened, as though fatigued, looking upward, in hope: hope that is deferred afflicts the soul (Prov 13:12); I have lifted up my eyes (Ps 121:1). And he sets out a certain dispute with God: Lord, I suffer violence, as if to say: violence is done to me, I am afflicted beyond what I deserve; answer you, be surety, for me.

781. The eyes are exalted (Isa 38:14), by the elation of the heart: Lord, my heart is not exalted (Ps 131:1) and are weakened by God lowering them, above: the lofty eyes of man are humbled (Isa 2:11); by the curiosity of inquiry: why dost you stare with your eyes, as if they were thinking great things? (Job 15:12); and are weakened by the oppression of light: he that is a searcher of majesty shall be overwhelmed by glory (Prov 25:27); by contemplation, below: lift up your eyes on high (Isa 40:26), and are weakened because of smallness of thought: all men see him, every one beholds afar off (Job 36:25).

I will reckon up all my years in the bitterness of my soul. O Lord, if one lives thus, and if in such things is the life of my spirit, you will rebuke me and you will give me life. Behold, in peace my bitterness is most bitter. But you have rescued my soul, that it should not perish: you have cast all my sins behind your back. For hell will not confess to you, nor will death praise you: those who go down into the pit will not await your truth. The living, the living, he will confess to you, as I also do today. The father will make your truth known to the children. O Lord, save me, and we will sing our psalms all the days of our life in the house of the Lord. LXX: O Lord, concerning it, it was announced to you: and you have raised up my spirit, and, having comforted me, you have given me life. Behold, in peace is my bitterness: for you have delivered my soul, that it should not perish, and you have cast all my sins behind me. For in hell they will not praise you, nor will the dead bless you. Nor will those who are in hell hope for your mercy: the living will bless you, as I also do. For from today I will make sons, who will announce your righteousness, O Lord of my salvation, and I will not cease blessing you with the psaltery all the days of my life before the house of God. Nothing belonging to mortals is long-lasting, and all the happiness of the world is lost even while it is held. For when the time of tribulation has come, all that is past is no help to the one who endures it. Hence the foolish opinion of Epicurus, who asserts that present evils are softened by the remembrance of past goods. So Hezekiah says that he reckons up all the years of his reign, and of his past happiness, as he thought it, in his present bitterness.

What shall I say, as though turned to himself: what can I set against God? Or what shall he answer, when he must respond to my questions, whereas he himself has done it, made me, or my punishment: if he will contend with him (Job 9:3), below: shall he gainsays his maker (Isa 45:9).

Third, as to the recollection of past events: I will recount to you all my years, in which I suffered good things, or in which I sinned against you: I will speak in the affliction of my spirit (Job 7:11).

And because he is now secure and no longer suffers what he relates, he philosophizes on the human state and says: O Lord, if one lives thus: if we have been born in such a condition, you have rebuked me, but you have given me life, and you have granted peace, the Assyrian being put to flight; but my peace was more bitter to me than all bitterness, because, when tranquillity was restored to the peoples and the city was secure, I alone entered the threshold of death. But you have rescued my soul, that it should not perish, either for the present life or for the future. For you have cast all my sins behind your back, lest I should look upon them in sadness, but that I might contemplate your mercy.

777. O Lord, if man's life be such. Here he recalls the benefit which he has received;

and first, correction: if man's life be such, that is, if the life of men is so miserable, or if life is acquired through tribulation: reproofs of instruction are the way of life (Prov 6:23).

And thou hast resuscitated my breath, and having been comforted by thee I lived. For thou didst rescue my soul that it might not perish, and thou hast cast behind me all my sins; meaning: For by comforting me Thou didst resuscitate my breath and I lived; having rallied my soul that was perishing, Thou hast cast my sins behind, and not suffered them to be spread out before me

And then he sets out: behold in peace, as if to say: in the people having peace from the Assyrians, bitterness, hangs over me: laughter shall be mingled with sorrow (Prov 14:13).

Second, he recalls his liberation from punishment: but you have delivered my soul, my life; and from guilt: you have cast all my sins behind your or my back, as though forgetting them: you have mercy upon all, Lord (Wis 11:24–25).

[Those who live in a godly manner] and participate in such goodness are the only ones able to give glory to God, and that is what really constitutes a feast and a holy day. For the feast is not indulging in a lot of food or dressing up in lovely clothes. It is not enjoying days of leisure. It is acknowledging God and offering thanksgiving and songs of praise to him. But this belongs to the saints alone, who live in Christ.… That is the way it was with Hezekiah, who was delivered from death and therefore praised God, saying, "Those who are in hell cannot praise you; the dead cannot bless you; but the living shall bless you, as I do today."

For they that are in the grave cannot praise thee, nor can the dead celebrate thee; nor can they that are in the grave hope for thy mercy. The living shall praise thee, even as I also do; meaning: For if Thou hadst not granted me still to live, how could I have been converted, or have repented and been saved, or have hope of Thy mercy, since the dead who are in the grave can do nothing of this kind, but in Thy compassion Thou hast graciously granted me this

For hell and death will not confess, nor will they praise you, according to what is written: But in hell who will confess to you (Ps 6:6)? And confession in this place is taken not for penance but for glory and praise, as we read also in the Gospel: I will confess to you, O Lord, Father of heaven and earth (Matt 11:25). Those who go down into the pit, he says, will not await your truth: better than mercy in the Seventy. For he who is in hell does not await the truth of judgment but the mercy of God: especially since the Savior descended into hell to free the prisoners from the lower world. For pit the same translators more plainly rendered hell.

Third, he assigns the reason for his liberation, and first, as to the uselessness of death: for hell, that is, the damned, or the grave; death, the devil, or the dead; your truth, the truth of his promises, or the Son: for there is no one in death, that is mindful of you: and who shall confess to you in hell? (Ps 6:5).

"For from this day I shall beget children who will announce your righteousness." Some say that he promises to institute a choir [chorostasia] and to appoint chanters of psalms with good voices in the temple. Others, who pay attention to more esoteric things, say that Hezekiah, since he thought on a high plane, was of the opinion that he would have a kingdom without end and unceasing life. For he was persuaded that the writings concerning the son of David destined to be the Christ were said about himself. Hence they say, although he was in the fifteenth year of his reign he does not seem to have procreated children. Accordingly, on learning that his end was near, he pays attention to the question of his successors and adds with reference to his children that they will announce the righteousness of the Lord. However, this statement was not verified since. Manasseh was wicked and impious.

The living, the living, he will confess to you, as I also do today. Here too confession is put for praise. For he does not confess his crimes, but gives thanks to God: and praise is not beautiful in the mouth of a sinner (Sir 15). And while hell and death do not confess nor praise God, on the contrary life and the living glorify the Lord. And what follows: The father will make your truth known to the children, signifies what is said in Deuteronomy: Ask your father, and he will declare it to you; your elders, and they will tell you (Deut 32:7), so that through the successions and each generation the clemency of God may be proclaimed to posterity. For which the Seventy set: For from today I will make sons, who will announce your righteousness. And the causal conjunction joins what follows to what precedes: namely, that the living, and he himself living, bless God for this reason, that from this day he would make sons who would announce his truth, which certainly was not in his own power. For those children were not promised him through the Prophet; only the present life was granted. Especially since he begot a most impious son, Manasseh, who filled Jerusalem with blood from gate to gate, and did not bless but cursed God, persecuting his saints. We can therefore say this according to the Seventy: that he did not say I will make sons, but παιδία, which we understand either as little ones, or boys, or little infants, and descendants, so that from the fact that he himself obtained mercy, all posterity to come, knowing this, might praise his incredible clemency.

Second, as to the praise of the living: the living, the living, repeated for greater affirmation, or because of the twofold life: we that live bless the Lord (Ps 115:18).

Third, as to the propagation of divine praise: the father shall make the truth known to the children: how great things he commanded our fathers, that they should make the same known to their children (Ps 78:5–6).

At no time should one freely praise God more than when one has passed through afflictions. Nor again should one at any time give thanks more than when he finds rest from toil and temptations. As Hezekiah, when the Assyrians perished, praised the Lord and gave thanks, saying, "The Lord is my salvation, and I will not cease to bless you with harp all the days of my life, before the house of the Lord."

Save me then, O Lord; and all of us who believe in you and have been delivered by your help will sing to you in the Temple all the days of our life.

778. O Lord, save me. Here he asks that the promise be fulfilled: save me, from the Assyrians, and from infirmity: I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise shall be always in my mouth (Ps 34:1).

And Isaiah commanded that they take a lump of figs and plaster it upon the wound, and he would be healed. And Hezekiah said: What will be the sign that I shall go up into the house of the Lord? This is to be read before the prayer of Hezekiah, or Writing, which we have now interpreted: for the plaster was laid on the wound, and the sign of future health was asked by him, before he gave thanks to the Lord, which he is said to have done when healed. The Hebrews say that the word SIIN (שחין), which the Seventy passed over, means ulcer, not wound. For Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion also translated ἕλκος, by which they wish the royal disease to be understood, to which whatever is sweet, whether taken as food or applied to the body, is thought to be contrary. So, that the power of God might be shown, health was restored through things harmful and contrary. Others suppose SIIN to be not ulcer but abscess: when the swelling body is filled with ripened and putrefying pus. And according to the art of physicians, all matter is drawn out to the surface of the skin by dried and pounded figs: and hence a medicine established by use and experience is not to be despised, since God too made this one. So the prayer and thanksgiving is written up to this point. As for the sign that was given, the earlier order of the history has narrated it.

779. Now Isaiah had ordered. Here he sets out the order of the healing. And this has been transposed and ought to be before the giving of the sign, as is clear from 2 Kings 20:7–11; but because he intends not to give history, but prophecy, he first sets out what pertains to prophecy.

And first, he sets out the manner of the healing: lay it as a plaster upon the wound, inflicted by God, or an ulcer, flesh opened from a corrupted humor: for they say that he suffered from the royal disease, which is called "lupus," which the fig and everything sweet make worse, so that the entire healing should be attributed to divine power. Others say that it was an abscess, which occurs from humors collecting internally, when the flesh is not yet broken; figs are helpful for the maturation of an abscess, so that it is shown that medicine is not to be spurned: the apothecary shall make sweet confections (Sir 38:7).

Second, Ezechias asks for a sign: and Ezechias had said: what shall be the sign? The Jews require signs: and the Greeks seek after wisdom (1 Cor 1:22).