Isaiah 38:16

O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit: so wilt thou recover me, and make me to live.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(16) By these things . . .—i.e., by the word of God and the performance which fulfils it. For “in all these things,” read wholly through them. The words remind us of Deuteronomy 8:3, “Man doth not live by bread alone . . .”

Benson Commentary

Isaiah 38:16. By these things men live — By virtue of thy gracious word, or promise, and powerful work; or, by thy promises, and thy performance of them: and therefore it is not strange that one word of God hath brought me back from the jaws of death. And in all these things is the life of my spirit — As all men’s lives are thy gift, so I shall always acknowledge the preservation of mine to be owing to thy goodness in promising, and thy faithfulness in fulfilling thy promise. So wilt thou recover me, &c. — Or, for thou hast recovered me. Thou hast restored my health and prolonged my life. — Bishop Lowth.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

38:9-22 We have here Hezekiah's thanksgiving. It is well for us to remember the mercies we receive in sickness. Hezekiah records the condition he was in. He dwells upon this; I shall no more see the Lord. A good man wishes not to live for any other end than that he may serve God, and have communion with him. Our present residence is like that of a shepherd in his hut, a poor, mean, and cold lodging, and with a trust committed to our charge, as the shepherd has. Our days are compared to the weaver's shuttle, Job 7:6, passing and repassing very swiftly, every throw leaving a thread behind it; and when finished, the piece is cut off, taken out of the loom, and showed to our Master to be judged of. A good man, when his life is cut off, his cares and fatigues are cut off with it, and he rests from his labours. But our times are in God's hand; he has appointed what shall be the length of the piece. When sick, we are very apt to calculate our time, but are still at uncertainty. It should be more our care how we shall get safe to another world. And the more we taste of the loving-kindness of God, the more will our hearts love him, and live to him. It was in love to our poor perishing souls that Christ delivered them. The pardon does not make the sin not to have been sin, but not to be punished as it deserves. It is pleasant to think of our recoveries from sickness, when we see them flowing from the pardon of sin. Hezekiah's opportunity to glorify God in this world, he made the business, and pleasure, and end of life. Being recovered, he resolves to abound in praising and serving God. God's promises are not to do away, but to quicken and encourage the use of means. Life and health are given that we may glorify God and do good.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

O Lord, by these things men live - The design of this and the following verses is evidently to set forth the goodness of God, and to celebrate his praise for what he had done. The phrase 'these things,' refers evidently to the promises of God and their fulfillment; and the idea is, that people are sustained in the land of the living only by such gracious interpositions as he had experienced. It was not because people had any power of preserving their own lives, but because God interposed in time of trouble, and restored to health when there was no human prospect that they could recover.

And in all these things - In these promises, and in the divine interposition.

Is the life of my spirit - I am alive in virtue only of these things.

So wilt thou recover me - Or so hast thou recovered me; that is, thou hast restored me to health.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

16. by these—namely, by God's benefits, which are implied in the context (Isa 38:15, "He hath Himself done it" "unto me"). All "men live by these" benefits (Ps 104:27-30), "and in all these is the life of my spirit," that is, I also live by them (De 8:3).

and (wilt) make me to live—The Hebrew is imperative, "make me to live." In this view he adds a prayer to the confident hope founded on his comparative convalescence, which he expressed, "Thou wilt recover me" [Maurer].

Matthew Poole's Commentary

By these things; by virtue of thy gracious word or promise, and powerful work; by thy promises, and thy performances of them, mentioned in the foregoing verse. This place may be explained by comparing it with Deu 8:3, Man doth not live by bread, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord. The sense is, Not I only, but all men, do receive and recover, and hold their lives by thy favour, and the word of thy power; and therefore it is not strange that one word of God hath brought me back from the very jaws of death.

In all these things is the life of my spirit; and as it is with other men, so hath it been with me in a special manner; for in these above all other things is the life of my spirit or soul, i.e. either the comfort (which is sometimes called life) of my spirit; or rather, that life which is in my body, from my spirit or soul united to it.

So wilt thou recover me, and make me to live; or, and or for thou hast recovered me, &c., to wit, by these things.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

O Lord, by these things men live,.... Not by bread only, but by the word of God: by the promise of God, and by his power performing it; and by his favour and goodness continually bestowed; it is in him, and by his power and providence, that they live and move, and have their being, and the continuance of it; and it is his lovingkindness manifested to them that makes them live comfortably and go on cheerfully:

and in all these things is the life of my spirit; what kept his soul in life were the same things, the promise, power, and providence of God; what revived his spirit, and made him comfortable and cheerful, was the wonderful love and great goodness of God unto him, in appearing to him, and for him, and delivering him out of his sore troubles. Ben Melech renders and gives the sense of the words thus; "to all will I declare and say, that in these", in the years of addition (the fifteen years added to his days) "are the life of my spirit"; so Kimchi. The Targum interprets it of the resurrection of the dead,

"O Lord, concerning all the dead, thou hast said, that thou wilt quicken them; and before them all thou hast quickened my spirit:''

so wilt thou recover me, and make me to live; or rather, "and" or "for thou hast recovered (t) me, and made me to live"; for the Lord had not only promised it, but he had done it, Isaiah 38:15, and so the Targum,

"and hast quickened me, and sustained me.''

(t) So Gataker.

Geneva Study Bible

O Lord, {q} by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit: so wilt thou {r} restore me, and make me to live.

(q) They who will outlive the men that are now alive, and all they who are in these years will acknowledge this blessing.

(r) That after that you had condemned me to death you restored me to life.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

16. The thought expressed by E.V. is somewhat as follows: “By such Divine words and deeds (Isaiah 38:15) men are preserved in life; and by such things my spirit is revived.” No one will say that this is either good Hebrew or a natural sense; and the text is almost certainly corrupt. The verb “live” closely resembles an Aramaic verb (ḥivvâh occurring several times in the O.T.) meaning “to declare”; and this was evidently read by LXX.: περὶ αὐτῆς γὰρ ἀνηγγέλη σοι. Starting with this, Duhm makes the verse read:

“Lord, of this doth my heart make mention to Thee,

Give rest to my spirit and recover me, &c.”

His emendations however are somewhat sweeping.

so wilt thou … live] The first verb is impf. (fut.), the second imperat. recover me is literally “give me health.”

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 16. - By these things; i.e. "the things which thou speakest and doest" (ver. 15). Man does not "live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord" (Deuteronomy 8:3). And in all these things. This rendering is against the laws of grammar. Translate, and wholly in them. Isaiah 38:16

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

In strophe 3 he now describes how Jehovah promised him help, how this promise put new life into him, and how it was fulfilled, and turned his sufferings into salvation.

"What shall I say, that He promised me, and He hath carried it out:

I should walk quietly all my years, on the trouble of my soul?!

'O Lord, by such things men revive, and the life of my spirit is always therein:

And so wilt Thou restore me, and make me to live!'

Behold, bitterness became salvation to me, bitterness;

And Thou, Thou hast delivered my soul in love out of the pit of destruction

For Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back."

The question, "What shall I say?" is to be understood as in 2 Samuel 7:20, viz., What shall I say, to thank Him for having promised me, and carried out His promise? The Vav in ואמר introduces the statement of his reason (Ges. 155, 1, c). On הדּדּה ( equals התדּדּה), from דּדה ( equals דּאדא), see at Psalm 42:5. The future here, in Isaiah 38:15, gives the purpose of God concerning him. He was to walk (referring to the walk of life, not the walk to the temple) gently (without any disturbance) all his years upon the trouble of his soul, i.e., all the years that followed upon it, the years that were added to his life. This is the true explanation of על, as in Isaiah 38:5; Isaiah 32:10; Leviticus 15:25; not "in spite of" (Ewald), or "with," as in Psalm 31:24; Jeremiah 6:14, where it forms an adverb. A better rendering than this would be "for," or "on account of," i.e., in humble salutary remembrance of the way in which God by His free grace averted the danger of death. What follows in Isaiah 38:16 can only be regarded in connection with the petition in Isaiah 38:16, as Hezekiah's reply to the promise of God, which had been communicated to him by the prophet. Consequently the neuters עליהם and בּהן( dna (cf., Isaiah 64:4; Job 22:21; Ezekiel 33:18-19) refer to the gracious words and gracious acts of God. These are the true support of life (על as in Deuteronomy 8:3) for every man, and in these does the life of his spirit consist, i.e., his inmost and highest source of life, and that "on all sides" (לכל, which it would be more correct to point לכּל, as in 1 Chronicles 7:5; cf., bakkōl, in every respect, 2 Samuel 23:5). With this explanation, the conjecture of Ewald and Knobel, that the reading should be רוּחו, falls to the ground. From the general truth of which he had made a personal application, that the word of God is the source of all life, he drew this conclusion, which he here repeats with a retrospective glance, "So wilt Thou then make me whole (see the kal in Job 39:4), and keep me alive" (for ותחיני; with the hope passing over into a prayer). The praise for the fulfilment of the promise commences with the word hinnēh (behold). His severe illness had been sent in anticipation of a happy deliverance (on the radical signification of mar, which is here doubled, to give it a superlative force, see Comm. on Job, at Job 16:2-5). The Lord meant it for good; the suffering was indeed a chastisement, but it was a chastisement of love. Casting all his sins behind Him, as men do with things which they do not wish to know, or have no desire to be reminded of (compare e.g., Nehemiah 9:26), He "loved him out," i.e., drew him lovingly out, of the pit of destruction (châshaq, love as a firm inward bond; belı̄, which is generally used as a particle, stands here in its primary substantive signification, from bâlâh, to consume).