In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.
Ver. 1. In those days.] In the fourteenth year of Hezekiah's reign, as appeareth by comparing 2 Kings 20:6, and 2 Kings 18:13; then, when Hannibal ad portas, the Assyrian was in the land. Crosses commonly come thick and many together, Jam 1:2 and all for the best. Rom 8:28
Was Hezekiah sick unto death.] Sick of the plague, as it is thought, and may be probably gathered from 2 Kings 20:7, and had the tokens likely; so that in human apprehension he was a dead man, neither could he recover but by a miracle. A good man may have the plague, and die of it too - as did Oecolampadius, Franeiscus Junius, Chimedontius, Mr Stafford, Mr Greenham, Mr John Blackwell (my most loving friend), and Mr Jeremy Burroughs, if I mistake not - notwithstanding that patent for preservation, Psalms 91:1. All such promises being conditional, as was also this following sentence; and so Hezekiah understood it; else he would not have prayed, as he did, that it might not be accomplished.
For thou shalt die, and not live.] That is, In the order of second causes to their effects, thy disease is deadly, for it hath seized upon the vitals: dispositio corporis tui ad mortem ordinatur. When the prophets foretold things ut futura in seipsis, then they always happened: but when they foretold them only as in their causes, they might happen or not, as 1 Kings 21:20 John 3:4, and here. That is an uncharitable gloss that some Rabbis set upon these words, Thou shalt die here, and not live in the world to come. But they have an edge against him, yet without all cause, as intent only to his own preservation for his time in peace, 2Ki 20:19 and therefore say they, the prophet Isaiah out of a dislike of that his answer, turneth to the people, Isaiah 40:1 ; Isa 39:8 saying, "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people," &c.