Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
living . . . living--emphatic repetition, as in Isaiah 38:11, Isaiah 38:17; his heart is so full of the main object of his prayer that, for want of adequate words, he repeats the same word.
father to the children--one generation of the living to another. He probably, also, hints at his own desire to live until he should have a child, the successor to his throne, to whom he might make known and so perpetuate the memory of God's truth.
truth--faithfulness to His promises; especially in Hezekiah's case, His promise of hearing prayer.
The second part of the song passes from prayer to thanksgiving at the prayer being heard.
What shall I say?--the language of one at a loss for words to express his sense of the unexpected deliverance.
both spoken . . . and . . . done it-- (Numbers 23:19). Both promised and performed (1 Thessalonians 5:24; Hebrews 10:23).
himself--No one else could have done it (Psalms 98:1).
go softly . . . in the bitterness--rather, "on account of the bitterness"; I will behave myself humbly in remembrance of my past sorrow and sickness from which I have been delivered by God's mercy (see 1 Kings 21:27, 1 Kings 21:29). In Psalms 42:4, the same Hebrew verb expresses the slow and solemn gait of one going up to the house of God; it is found nowhere else, hence ROSENMULLER explains it, "I will reverently attend the sacred festivals in the temple"; but this ellipsis would be harsh; rather metaphorically the word is transferred to a calm, solemn, and submissive walk of life.
The prayer and thanksgiving song of Hezekiah is only given here, not in the parallel passages of Second Kings and Second Chronicles. Isaiah 38:9 is the heading or inscription.
Other commentary entries containing this verse:
Isaiah 35:10
Isaiah 38:11
1 Thessalonians 4:13
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