Isaiah 38:19

The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(19) The father to the children . . .—The words are perfectly general, but they receive a special significance from the fact that Hezekiah’s son and successor, Manasseh, who was only twelve years old at his father’s death (2Kings 21:1), was not born till two or three years afterwards. At the time of his illness the king may still have been childless, and the thought that there was no son to take his place may have added bitterness to his grief. “Thy truth,” has here the sense of “faithfulness” rather than of the truth about God which is the object of belief.

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

The living, the living - An emphatic or intensive form of expression, as in Isaiah 38:11, Isaiah 38:17. Nothing would express his idea but a repetition of the word, as if the heart was full of it.

The father to the children - One generation of the living to another. The father shall have so deep a sense of the goodness of God that he shall desire to make it known to his children, and to perpetuate the memory of it in the earth.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

19. living … living—emphatic repetition, as in Isa 38:11, 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.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

He shall praise thee; they are especially obliged to it, and they only have this privilege.

The father to the children shall make known thy truth; they shall not only praise thee whilst they live, but take care to propagate and perpetuate thy praise and glory to all succeeding generations.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day,.... Every one of the living, or such who are both corporeally and spiritually alive; and therefore the word is repeated; none but such who are alive in a corporeal sense can praise the Lord in this world; and none but such who are spiritually alive can praise him aright, and such do under a true sense of the greatness of his mercies, and of their own unworthiness; and such a one was Hezekiah; for the words may be rendered, "as I am this day (x)"; that is, alive in both the above senses; and so did he praise God, in such a spiritual manner, even on the day he committed this to writing, and was now in the temple offering up this thanksgiving:

the father to the children shall make known thy truth: not meaning himself, for at this time he had no children; though, no doubt, when he had any, as he afterwards had, particularly Manasseh, he took care to acquaint him with the truth and faithfulness of God in the fulfilling of his promises to him; and which every religious parent would do, and so transmit the memory thereof to future ages.

(x) "quails ego sum hodie", Syr.

Geneva Study Bible

The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the {x} children shall make known thy truth.

(x) All posterity will acknowledge and the fathers according to their duty toward their children will instruct them in your graces and mercies toward me.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

19. the father … truth] Cf. Psalm 22:30; Psalm 48:13-14; Psalm 71:18; Psalm 78:3-4.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 19. - The living. Those who still enjoy the light of day. The repetition is emphatic, and has the force of "the living, and the living only." The father to the children. Hezekiah may, or may not, have had children himself at the time. Manasseh was not born; but he may have had daughters, or even other sons, who did not survive him. He is not, however, perhaps, thinking of his own ease. Isaiah 38:19

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

In strophe 4 he rejoices in the preservation of his life as the highest good, and promises to praise God for it as long as he lives.

"For Hades does not praise Thee; death does not sing praises to Thee:

They that sink into the grave do not hope for Thy truth.

The living, the living, he praises Thee, as I do today;

The father to the children makes known Thy truth.

Jehovah is ready to give me salvation;

Therefore will we play my stringed instruments all the days of my life

In the house of Jehovah."

We have here that comfortless idea of the future state, which is so common in the Psalms (vid., Psalm 6:6; Psalm 30:10; Psalm 88:12-13, cf., Psalm 115:17), and also in the book of Ecclesiastes (Ecclesiastes 9:4-5, Ecclesiastes 9:10). The foundation of this idea, notwithstanding the mythological dress, is an actual truth (vid., Psychol. p. 409), which the personal faith of the hero of Job endeavours to surmount (Comment. pp. 150-153, and elsewhere), but the decisive removal of which was only to be effected by the progressive history of salvation. The v. is introduced with "for" (kı̄), inasmuch as the gracious act of God is accounted for on the ground that He wished to be still further glorified by His servant whom He delivered. לא, in Isaiah 38:18, is written only once instead of twice, as in Isaiah 23:4. They "sink into the grave," i.e., are not thought of as dying, but as already dead. "Truth" ('ĕmeth) is the sincerity of God, with which He keeps His promises. Isaiah 38:19 reminds us that Manasseh, who was twelve years old when he succeeded his father, was not yet born (cf., Isaiah 39:7). The להושׁיעני יהוה, μέλλει σώζειν με, is the same as in Isaiah 37:26. The change in the number in Isaiah 38:20 may be explained from the fact that the writer thought of himself as the choral leader of his family; ay is a suffix, not a substantive termination (Ewald, 164, p. 427). The impression follows us to the end, that we have cultivated rather than original poetry here. Hezekiah's love to the older sacred literature is well known. He restored the liturgical psalmody (2 Chronicles 29:30). He caused a further collection of proverbs to be made, as a supplement to the older book of Proverbs (Proverbs 25:1). The "men of Hezekiah" resembled the Pisistratian Society, of which Onomacritos was the head.