Isaiah 38:6

And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria: and I will defend this city.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

38:1-8 When we pray in our sickness, though God send not to us such an answer as he here sent to Hezekiah, yet, if by his Spirit he bids us be of good cheer, assures us that our sins are forgiven, and that, whether we live or die, we shall be his, we do not pray in vain. See 2Ki 20:1-11.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And I will deliver thee and this city - The purport of this promise is, that he and the city should be finally and entirely delivered from all danger of invasion from the Assyrians. It might be apprehended that Sennacherib would collect a large army, and return; or that his successor would prosecute the war which he had commenced. But the assurance here is given to Hezekiah that he had nothing more to fear from the Assyrians (see the notes at Isaiah 31:4-5; Isaiah 37:35). In the parallel place in 2 Kings 20:6, it is added. 'I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.' In the parallel passage also, in 2 Kings 20:7-8, there is inserted the statement which occurs in Isaiah at the end of the chapter Isaiah 38:21-22. It is evident that those two verses more appropriately come in here. Lowth conjectures that the abridger of the history omitted those verses, and when he had transcribed the song of Hezekiah, he saw that they were necessary to complete the narrative, and placed them at the end of the chapter, with proper marks to have them inserted in the right place, which marks were overlooked by transcribers. It is, however, immaterial where the statement is made; and it is now impossible to tell in what manner the transposition occurred.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

6. In 2Ki 20:8, after this verse comes the statement which is put at the end, in order not to interrupt God's message (Isa 38:21, 22) by Isaiah (Isa 38:5-8).

will deliver—The city was already delivered, but here assurance is given, that Hezekiah shall have no more to fear from the Assyrians.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria,.... So that it seems that Hezekiah's sickness was while the king of Assyria was near the city of Jerusalem, and about to besiege it, and before the destruction of the Assyrian army; unless this is said to secure Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from all fears of a return of that king, to give them fresh trouble:

and I will defend this city; from the present siege laid to it, ruin threatened it, or from any attack upon it, by the Assyrian monarch.

Geneva Study Bible

And I will deliver thee and this city {c} from the hand of the king of Assyria: and I will defend this city.

(c) He not only promises to prolong his life, but to give him rest and quietness from the Assyrians, who might have renewed their army to revenge their former defeat.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

6. This is the only verse which would lead us to suppose that the events synchronised with Sennacherib’s invasion; but its genuineness is doubtful. An unqualified assurance of deliverance is hardly consistent with the prophet’s attitude to the king’s policy at the time supposed. Hezekiah was deeply committed to projects of rebellion in the first years of Sennacherib’s reign, and a political message from Isaiah in those circumstances could hardly fail to be accompanied by a warning against the tendency which prevailed at the court. Since the verse breaks the connexion between Isaiah 38:5; Isaiah 38:7, and since the latter part is a reproduction (in 2 Kings an exact reproduction) of ch. Isaiah 37:35, there are some grounds for supposing that it has been inserted by the compiler of the books of Kings.

Isaiah 38:6

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The prospect is now mercifully changed. "And it came to pass (K. Isaiah was not yet out of the inner city; keri סהצר, the forecourt, and) the word of Jehovah came to Isaiah (K. to him) as follows: Go (K. turn again) and say to Hizkiyahu (K. adds, to the prince of my people), Thus saith Jehovah, the God of David thine ancestor, I have heard thy prayer, seen thy tears; behold, I((K. will cure thee, on the third day thou shalt go up to the house of Jehovah) add (K. and I add) to thy days fifteen years. And I will deliver thee ad this city out of the hand of the king of Asshur, and will defend this city (K. for mine own sake and for David my servant's sake)." In the place of העיר (the city) the keri and the earlier translators have הצר. The city of David is not called the "inner city" anywhere else; in fact, Zion, with the temple hill, formed the upper city, so that apparently it is the inner space of the city of David that is here referred to, and Isaiah had not yet passed through the middle gate to return to the lower city, where he dwelt. The text of Kings is the more authentic throughout; except that עמּי נגיד, "the prince of my people," is an annalistic adorning which is hardly original. סהלוך in Isaiah is an inf. abs. used in an imperative sense; שׁוּב, on the other hand, which we find in the other text, is imperative. On yōsiph, see at Isaiah 29:14.