Isa 38:17

“Behold for peace, it is bitter for me, yea it is bitter When I was notified of the tidings of peace, even that was bitter for me, for my recovery was dependent upon the merit of others (v. 5): “So has the Lord God of your father David said...”; (supra 37:35) “For My sake and for the sake of David your father.” Here You let me know that I am a sinner (See Ber. 10b). (So did the Sages explain it, but in order to reconcile the verse, it appears to mean: Behold for peace, it was bitter for me, yea it was bitter - When I was given the news by You that You would save me from the hand of Sennacherib, it was bitter for me, yea it was bitter because of my illness, that I was close to death, and I did not rejoice with the news.) But You desired my soul, that it descend not to the grave.”

“Behold when I hoped for peace, etc., when I was in the middle of my years, (Hezekiah was 39 years old, when he was taken ill); for when the choler is predominant in man, he is ailing in his youth, but healthy in his old age; the reverse takes place, if the phlegm is predominant; but the middle years are generally expected to be peaceful. מר לי מר I had great bitterness. The repetition indicates emphasis. Some derive מר from תמורה the reverse. בלי Some compare it with בלתי I am waxed old (Gen. 18:12), and consider it as a noun like פרי fruit meaning corruption. Others say that בלי means in this verse not, and that the sentence is inverted. The first explanation is preferable: And thou hast desired my soul, and brought me up from the pit of corruption. For thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. A figure taken from man, that does not see, what is behind his back; for we know, that God, the Creator of all bodies, has no body. This verse proves the assertion of some authorities, that in consequence of a sin committed by him, Hezekiah should have died earlier; and since, as they otherwise stated, he who dies before his fifty-second year suffers the punishment כָּרְת to be cut off,: He who dies in the fiftieth year of his life, dies by the punishment of כָּרֵת; he who dies in the fifty-second year enjoys a death like that of the prophet Samuel. he was grieved, that he should be punished with כָּרְת, not being conscious of having committed a sin deserving it; he says therefore: Remember now, how I have walked before Thee, and have done what is good in Thine eyes (ver. 3); he mentions two things, the thought and the practice. Tradition says, that he had not yet obeyed the commandment to marry..”

“For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee,.... That is, they that are in the grave, and under the power of death, they cannot celebrate the praises of God with their bodily organs; their souls may praise him in heaven, but they in their bodies cannot till the resurrection morn, or as long as they are under the dominion of the grave; so the Targum, "they that are in the grave cannot confess before thee, and the dead cannot praise thee;'' in like manner the Septuagint and Arabic versions: this shows the design of God in restoring him from his sickness, and the view he himself had in desiring life, which was to praise the Lord; and which end could not have been answered had he died, and been laid in the grave: they that go down to the pit cannot hope for thy truth: for the performance of promises, in which the truth and faithfulness of God appear; or for the Messiah, the truth of all the types of the former dispensation; those that go down to the pit of the grave, or are carried and laid there, can have no exercise of faith and hope concerning these things.”

“for peace--instead of the prosperity which I had previously. great bitterness--literally, "bitterness to me, bitterness"; expressing intense emotion. in love--literally, "attachment," such as joins one to another tenderly; "Thou hast been lovingly attached to me from the pit"; pregnant phrase for, Thy love has gone down to the pit, and drawn me out from it. The "pit" is here simply death, in Hezekiah's sense; realized in its fulness only in reference to the soul's redemption from hell by Jesus Christ (Isa 61:1), who went down to the pit for that purpose Himself (Psa 88:4-6; Zac 9:11-12; Heb 13:20). "Sin" and sickness are connected (Psa 103:3; compare Isa 53:4, with Mat 8:17; Mat 9:5-6), especially under the Old Testament dispensation of temporal sanctions; but even now, sickness, though not invariably arising from sin in individuals, is connected with it in the general moral view. cast . . . behind back--consigned my sins to oblivion. The same phrase occurs (Kg1 14:9; Neh 9:26; Psa 50:17). Contrast Psa 90:8, "Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance."”

“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”