Isaiah 38

Isaiah pulled out a diary of his or some notes regarding the events that took place the year before the Third Campaign of Sennacherib to Jerusalem, the one Sennacherib boasted that he was locked up like a bird in a cage, thus in 701 BCE but a year before that will be 702. Hezekiah started his reign in 716 BCE and reigned for 29 years until 687 BCE. The last campaign of Sennacherib must have been thus before 687 BCE, thus between 689-687 BCE. That was thus the main content of chapter 37. However the first verse of chapter 37 was talking about the campaign in 701 BCE and for Isaiah to say here “in those days” simply means a year before the description of chapter 37:1, thus in 702 BCE. That is the year Hezekiah got sick since God gave him 15 more years to live. There are two reports in the Bible of this chapter. This one of Isaiah is by himself and a historian wrote more detail and maybe encyclopaedic information in a Book of Chronicles of the Kings of Judah (2 Kings 20:21). Between Isaiah’s time in 700 BCE and 2 Kings 20 time in 586 BCE was thus this more full description of the Book of Chronicles. It is not the current Book of Chronicles since it does not mention the event. Isaiah contributed to this “encyclopaedic” Chronicles with his own works and others did too from the same time. The historiographer of 2 Kings extrapolated from this lost Chronicles and some information overlapped Isaiah but sometimes he added more detail not given by Isaiah but from court-records or other witnesses. However, the historian of 2 Kings could not see the original text but only hear it since he made many slips of the ear and the word order of sentence are sometimes mixed up so that it was a slip of the memory. The Exile was difficult for writers and historians. Library building mania like the Niniveh Library and the Babylon Library may have made the Hebrews hid their Scriptures from theft. It was not easy to get direct access. Hezekiah became ill in 702 BCE. He was about to die and Isaiah came to inform him that he should prepare his testament (v. 1). Hezekiah turned to the wall and prayed (v. 2). The Targum says it was the wall of the sanctuary. The Lord should remember how he walked before the Lord in truth and with a whole heart and did what was good. He wept (v. 3). He wept bitterly and we only learn why near the end of Isaiah’s chapter. Why was he scared to die? Isaiah will explain it later. The historian of 2 Kings added the exact place where Isaiah was when the Lord spoke to him but Isaiah knew where he was and thus did not need to repeat where it was that the Lord spoke to him but the message was that the Lord will add 15 years to his life (v. 4-5). The message from the Lord is longer in 2 Kings here. Someone was probably writing down exactly Isaiah’s words and Isaiah is just extracting from his longer speech and the Lord’s longer speech to him. It was the time for the arrival of the Sennacherib on his Third Campaign in 701 BCE but the Lord promised to save him (v. 6). The Lord gave him a sign then that a shadow will move back ten steps on Ahaz stairway. For that to happen the Lord needed to tilt the earth’s axis a few degrees. It happened (v. 8). Then Isaiah interrupted his own cryptic notes of his diary by citing a long Hezekiah Hymn (vv. 9-20c). It is a talking with God that he wishes to live for the Lord longer and that in death there is no change to speak to the Lord (v. 18a-b) or see the Lord (v. 11a which is the shortest form for Yahweh since it is only Yah Yah which the Targum elaborated as ‘the Terrible One, even the Lord’ and which the so-called Greek Byzantine Septuagint translated as ‘the salvation of God’) and that he is then composed until the [resurrection] morning (v. 13a). “Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness” (v. 18c). He wants to give thanks to the Lord (v. 19a). Hezekiah felt very bad about the fact that he is going to die “I shall look on man no more” (v. 11c); “I rolled up my life” (v. 12b); “I moan” (v. 14b). But why Hezekiah is not ready to die? The answer is given in verse 19b “a father tells his sons about Your faithfulness/truth. The Lord will surely save me so we [Hezekiah and his children] will play my songs on stringed instruments all days of our [Hezekiah and his children] life at the house of the Lord” (v. 19b-20c). Isaiah ordered the men to “take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil that he may recover” (v. 21). In 2 Kings 20 the order of the instruction is in a different order. It was probably a citation by the court scribe making an exact verbatim index of the order by Isaiah. That order Isaiah saw and included verbatim in verse 21 and it sounds almost as if he did not write it but he did. He kept it the way he use his source, exactly the same even if it sounds strange. That is how exact the Word of God is. The HE-I shift or interchange of narrative of history was a common phenomenon in cuneiform texts as well. Then Hezekiah took courage and wanted to see the sign and go up to the house of the Lord (v. 22). Hezekiah did not want to die because had unfinished business regarding the spiritual education of his children. He wanted time to spent time with them and take them to the house of God and play stringed instruments, lyre and harp, together with them and sing songs together “all the days of our life”. The Targum also understood the role of parental spiritual education here in verse 19 and Hezekiah’s songs as the “Lord’s melodies”. The positive side of Hezekiah’s negative news is that he came to realize that the Lord loved him and cast behind Him his sins “for You have cast all my sins behind Your back” (v. 17).

Dear God

Hezekiah had unfinished business regarding his own household and those dear and near to him. Help each one of us to make a similar plea to you. Grant that you will give us also health when needed. May we have commitment to that gift of Yours. Amen.

Koot van Wyk, (DLitt et Phil; ThD) Kyungpook National University, Department of Liberal Education, Sangju, South Korea; conjoint lecturer of Avondale College, Australia