Cornelius a Lapide

Isaias XXXVIII

Table of Contents

Synopsis of the Chapter

While Sennacherib was departing from Jerusalem against Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, Hezekiah falls into sickness; Isaiah predicts that it will bring him death. Therefore the king weeps and prays to God for his health: God hears him, verse 4, and adds fifteen years to his life; moreover He promises liberation from the Assyrians; and as a sign of this He gives the regression of the shadow on the sundial of Ahaz by ten lines. Therefore the joyful king, verse 9, sings a thanksgiving hymn to God, and orders it to be inscribed on public tablets and displayed.

Vulgate Text: Isaiah 38:1-22

1. In those days Hezekiah was sick unto death: and Isaiah the son of Amoz the prophet came to him, and said to him: Thus says the Lord: Set your house in order, for you shall die, and not live. 2. And Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, and prayed to the Lord, 3. and said: I beseech You, O Lord, remember, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done what is good in Your eyes. And Hezekiah wept with great weeping. 4. And the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying: 5. Go, and say to Hezekiah: Thus says the Lord God of David your father: I have heard your prayer, and have seen your tears: behold, I will add to your days fifteen years: 6. and from the hand of the king of the Assyrians I will deliver you, and this city, and will protect it. 7. And this shall be a sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing which He has spoken: 8. Behold, I will cause the shadow of the lines, by which it had descended on the sundial of Ahaz in the sun, to return backward ten lines. And the sun returned ten lines by the degrees which it had descended. 9. The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and had recovered from his sickness. 10. I said: In the midst of my days I shall go to the gates of the underworld. I sought the remainder of my years. 11. I said: I shall not see the Lord God in the land of the living. I shall not look upon man anymore, nor the inhabitant of rest. 12. My generation has been taken away, and rolled up from me, like a shepherd's tent. My life has been cut off as by a weaver: while I was still beginning the web, He cut me down: from morning until evening You will finish me. 13. I hoped until morning; like a lion so has He crushed all my bones: from morning until evening You will finish me: 14. like a young swallow so shall I cry out, I shall moan like a dove. My eyes have grown weak, looking upward. O Lord, I suffer violence, answer for me. 15. What shall I say, or what shall He answer me, since He Himself has done it? I will reconsider for You all my years in the bitterness of my soul. 16. O Lord, if thus one lives, and in such things is the life of my spirit, You will chastise me, and give me life. 17. Behold, in peace my bitterness is most bitter: but You have delivered my soul that it should not perish, You have cast behind Your back all my sins. 18. For the underworld will not confess to You, nor will death praise You: those who go down into the pit will not await Your truth. 19. The living, the living, he shall confess to You, as I also do today: the father shall make known Your truth to his children. 20. O Lord, save me, and we will sing our psalms all the days of our life in the house of the Lord. 21. And Isaiah commanded that they take a lump of figs, and apply it as a poultice upon the wound, and he would be healed. 22. And Hezekiah said: What shall be the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?

Verse 1: IN THOSE DAYS — namely in the 14th year of Hezekiah's reign, when Sennacherib departed ...

1. IN THOSE DAYS — namely in the 14th year of Hezekiah's reign, when Sennacherib departed from Jerusalem against Tirhakah king of the Ethiopians. That this is so is clear from the fact that afterward Hezekiah lived and reigned 15 years, as is promised to him in verse 5; and it is established from IV Kings XVIII, 2 that he reigned 29 years: now subtract 15 from 29, and 14 remain. Therefore in his 14th year, these things occurred before the full liberation of Jerusalem, and the destruction of the Assyrians: for this is promised to Hezekiah in verse 6. Therefore Josephus errs, X Antiquities III, who writes that these things happened after this destruction. For God, by the sign of the sun's regression, equally promises liberation from the Assyrians to Hezekiah, verse 5; therefore he had not yet been freed from them.

HEZEKIAH WAS SICK. — That this illness was sent upon Hezekiah lest he become insolent over so great a victory against Sennacherib — not yet obtained, but to be obtained, since it had been promised by God in the preceding chapter — is taught by St. Jerome, Cyril, and Theodoret; for indeed Hezekiah became puffed up as soon as he recovered from the illness, as is clear from the following chapter, and is expressly stated in II Chronicles XXXII. The Author of De Mirabilibus S. Scripturae, found in St. Augustine, volume III, book II, chapter XXVIII, adds a second cause of the illness: Because perhaps, he says, the king had not been sufficiently grateful to God for this promise and prophecy, nor had he given God worthy thanks. Add that God wished to purge, test, and perfect the pious king by this affliction, so that he might more ardently unite himself to God and invoke Him, as he did; and thus God, by new miracles, might illustrate both His own glory and that of Isaiah and Hezekiah, as we shall see in the course of the text.

For you shall die, and not live — namely if you consider nature and natural causes, as if to say: Your illness is lethal; there is no medicine that can cure you; unless God heals you by a miracle, you will die from it. So St. Augustine, book VI of De Genesi ad Litteram, chapter XVII, volume III: "According to," he says, "certain lower causes, the king had already ended his life; but according to those causes which are in the will and foreknowledge of God, who from eternity knew what He was going to do at that time, and this was truly going to happen, he was to end his life when he actually ended it." For there is a twofold period of life: one established by nature, the other by God. The latter is always certain and fixed, and can neither be increased nor diminished; the former can be shortened or extended by God.

First: "That whatever things there are, they perish and are torn apart." Second: "Yet in the smith there is more strength." Third: "But fever subdues even him." Just as, therefore, three Hebrew youths before Darius debated what was the strongest, and the first said: "Wine is strong;" the second: "The king is stronger;" the third, namely Zerubbabel: "Women are stronger: but truth conquers above all things," III Esdras III, 10; so let us also say here: Iron is strong, hard, and indomitable; but stronger is the smith who forges and subdues it; and strongest is fever, which subdues and destroys the smith and all men and kings; and therefore compels them, however proud, to weep and beseech.

King Antigonus, after he had recovered from a serious illness: "This illness," he said, "has warned us not to be carried away in spirit, since we are mortal." So Plutarch in the Apophthegms. Thus often a lighter illness of the body drives out a greater one of the soul, namely pride and insolence. Anaxarchus used to mock Alexander for making himself a god: but when Alexander had fallen ill and his physician ordered that a broth be prepared for him, Anaxarchus laughed and said: "So all our god's hope rests in the sipping of a dish." Indeed illness taught Alexander that he was not a god, but mortal and destined to die. So Aelian, book VIII.

So Blesilla, touched by fever, learned to despise the world and its pomps. Hear St. Jerome to Marcella, epistle 19: "Hezekiah," he says, "is terrified by approaching death, and pouring forth tears, his life is extended by a space of fifteen years. So also now, my Marcella, we have seen our Blesilla burning continually with the heat of fevers for nearly thirty days, so that she might know that the delights of the body, which would soon be plowed by worms, must be rejected. The Lord Jesus came also to her, and touched her hand; and behold, rising she ministered to Him. She had smelled somewhat of negligence, and bound in the wrappings of riches, she lay in the sepulcher of the world: but Jesus groaned, and troubled in spirit, He cried out saying: Blesilla, come forth. She, being called, arose and having come out, she dined with the Lord, etc. Our widow previously used to adorn herself too carefully, and all day long she would search at her mirror for what she might be lacking: now she rises hastily to pray, and seizing the Alleluia before the others in a ringing voice, she is the first to begin praising her Lord. Her knees are bent upon the bare ground, her dark tunic is hardly soiled even when she has lain upon the ground," etc.

Theodoric, Archbishop of Cologne, illustrious for his prudence and holiness, when Emperor Sigismund asked what road leads straight to heaven, replied: "If you so order your life as you promised you would when kidney stones, or gout, or some other more serious illness oppressed you." Indeed illness warns, and nearly compels one to take up a better life. So Aeneas Silvius, book II of Commentary on the Deeds of Alfonso. But in many people that popular saying is true: The devil was sick, a monk he would be; But when he got well, he stayed as before.

Verse 2: TOWARD THE WALL. — Because he could not go to the temple, he turned his face toward the...

2. TOWARD THE WALL. — Because he could not go to the temple, he turned his face toward the wall of the temple, next to which Solomon had built his palace: or simply "toward the wall," so that he would not seem to be displaying his tears to those sitting nearby, says St. Jerome. Add a third reason: so that he might pour forth his prayers to God more attentively and freely. For nature is so arranged that if someone hears our prayers to God, we feel shame by an inborn modesty; and this shame distracts the mind of the one praying, depresses it, and blunts its force and fervor.

Verse 3: I beseech You, O Lord, remember, I pray, how I HAVE WALKED BEFORE YOU IN TRUTH, AND WIT...

3. I beseech You, O Lord, remember, I pray, how I HAVE WALKED BEFORE YOU IN TRUTH, AND WITH A PERFECT HEART. — A great confidence for praying and obtaining is given by a conscience that is clear to itself: "If our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God; and whatever we ask, we shall receive from Him," says St. John, epistle I, chapter III, verse 21. Similar things are found in Tobit, chapter IV, verse 12; Ezra, book II, chapter XV, verse 19; Esther, chapter XIV, verse 6. Hence St. Jerome here: "Happy," he says, "is the conscience that in the time of affliction remembers its good works," and St. Augustine, Preface to Psalm XXXI: "He placed," he says, "conscience in place of hope: for he hopes who carries a good conscience. For just as a bad conscience is wholly in despair, so a good conscience is wholly in hope;" and St. Cyprian, sermon On Work and Almsgiving: "Illustrious," he says, "and divine is the work of salvation; a great consolation of believers, a salutary safeguard of our security, a bulwark of hope, a protection of faith, a remedy for sin."

With a perfect heart — destroying idols, opening the doors of the temple, crushing the bronze serpent, etc. For in this worship of the one God he was distinguished and perfect; yet in certain other matters he sinned, which he mourns in verse 15.

AND HEZEKIAH WEPT — both because he was a young man of 39 years (for death is more bitter to the young), and because he did not have a son whom he could leave as heir. We gather this from the fact that Manasseh, his firstborn and successor in the kingdom, began to reign at the death of his father at the age of 12. But Hezekiah reigned for 15 more years after this illness; therefore he had not yet begotten Manasseh, but he was begotten in the third year from then: for thus at the death of his father he was 12 years old. So St. Jerome, Josephus, Abulensis, Cajetan, and others. Hence the Author of De Mirabilibus S. Scripturae, book II, chapter XXVIII: "The king wept," he says, "not because, being perfect, he was uncertain of his own merit before his Creator; but because in the generation of the coming Christ he had not left the lineage of his family as a lamp on the throne of David." He wept, therefore, because he did not have offspring from whom Christ, promised to Abraham and David, might be born.

See here how illness tames and humbles even the powerful and kings. There exists a riddle of Diphilus about three most powerful things: iron, the smith, and fever:

Verse 5: BEHOLD, I WILL ADD TO YOUR DAYS FIFTEEN YEARS. — From this it is clear that Hezekiah kn...

5. BEHOLD, I WILL ADD TO YOUR DAYS FIFTEEN YEARS. — From this it is clear that Hezekiah knew the years of his life, and consequently the year of his death, namely that he would die 16 years from then. How diligently, then, he prepared himself for death in that year! If this year were to be our final one, and we knew it, how would we prepare ourselves for it? Now it is uncertain whether it will be our final year: why then do we not prepare for it with equal diligence? Why, in so great a matter on which our eternal salvation depends, do we not choose the safer course when in doubt? Thus a Pope, if he reaches the 24th year of his pontificate, is virtually certain that this year will be his last. For the experience of 1600 years teaches that what is said to the Pope is true: "You will not see the years of St. Peter" — for St. Peter held the See of Rome for 25 years.

Verse 8: BEHOLD, I WILL CAUSE THE SHADOW TO RETURN, etc., ON THE SUNDIAL OF AHAZ — that is, cons...

8. BEHOLD, I WILL CAUSE THE SHADOW TO RETURN, etc., ON THE SUNDIAL OF AHAZ — that is, constructed by order of Ahaz, the father of Hezekiah. This is the first shadow-clock, or sundial demonstrating hours by shadow, that we read of in either sacred or profane histories. Therefore Pliny errs, book II, chapter LXXVI, when he says: The science of shadows, and what they call Gnomonics, was discovered by Anaximenes of Miletus, the disciple of Anaximander, and he first displayed the timepiece they call a sundial at Sparta. For Ahaz long preceded Anaximenes: for Ahaz lived under the first Olympiad; but Anaximenes, like the other sages of Greece, around the fiftieth; therefore Ahaz preceded Anaximenes by nearly two hundred years. Wherefore I would believe that this science of sundials drew its origin from those earliest patriarchs (which Josephus also affirms of other sciences), and that it gradually passed to the Egyptians, from them to the Greeks, and finally from the Greeks to the Romans. So our Clavius, book I of Gnomonics, page 7. For Pliny teaches that the Romans began to use sundials rather late, book VII, chapter LX: "The first," he says, "to set up a sundial for the Romans, twelve years before the war with Pyrrhus, at the temple of Quirinus, was L. Papirius Cursor, when he was dedicating the same temple which had been vowed by his father, as is attested by Fabius the Vestal." This was under the first Punic War. Hence again from the Hebrew אור or, meaning light and shining sun, the Egyptians called the year and the sun Horus. Thence the Greeks called the four primary parts of the year, and finally the day, and at last the noted part of the day which we call an hour, ωρα. So from Fr. Clavius our Voellus, book I On the Sundial, chapter I, in the scholia. And thence the Egyptian Horus, who wrote Hieroglyphics, was called Horus Apollo. For Horus is the same as Apollo, that is, the Sun.

It is asked, first, whether only the shadow went backward on the sundial of Ahaz, or whether the sun itself also went back, and consequently its shadow throughout the whole world? Vatablus, Burgensis, Arias Montanus, and certain others think that only the shadow went backward on the sundial of Ahaz. For this alone is what Isaiah proposes, and this alone could the dying king observe from his bed, and Sanchez proves this at length. Now God could have caused the shadow of the sun to go backward without the sun itself doing so. For He could easily have blocked the solar rays so that they would not spread light on the gnomon of the sundial except from that part only from which the shadow would be cast in the opposite direction onto the lines designated by Isaiah: which being done, the shadow necessarily would be cast onto those lines and not others, and thus would seem to go backward. But the contrary, namely that not only the shadow but the sun itself was driven and led backward by God, is commonly taught by the Fathers and interpreters, such as St. Jerome, Cyril, Procopius, Haymo, Lyranus, Hugo, Adam, and others, and specifically St. Dionysius to Polycarp, and Fr. Clavius at the passage soon to be cited.

This opinion is proved first from II Chronicles XXXII, 31, where it is said that the Babylonians came to Hezekiah to inquire about the portent that had occurred upon the earth ("This portent can be nothing other than the regression of the sun, as interpreters commonly teach: for the slaughter of Sennacherib's army happened later," namely two years hence, "as I said at chapter XX, 2"); therefore the regression of the shadow, proceeding from the regression of the sun, was also seen in Babylon: and when the Babylonians had perceived by rumor that the cause of this miracle was in Judea, they sent envoys to learn about it. Second, because Isaiah himself says this clearly here, saying in verse 8: "And the sun returned ten lines," etc. The same thing is expressly asserted by Ecclesiasticus, chapter XLVIII, verse 26. Third, because such sundials, on which the shadow alone goes backward, can naturally be constructed in any location "namely, if the flat surfaces are erected so as to have a polar altitude of less than 23 1/2 degrees. Hence where such is the altitude, that is between the Equator and either of the Tropics, of Cancer or Capricorn, this naturally occurs." The demonstration of this fact is found in our Fr. Clavius in the Construction of the Sundial Instrument, chapter XXI (where he also rightly refutes Petrus Nonius who asserted that the regression of the shadow on this sundial of Ahaz was of this kind and therefore natural, whereas it is established that it was miraculous). Nor is this surprising: for just as by reason of location, some regions have shadows to the right, others to the left — hence that passage of Lucan: "You came, O Arabs, into a world unknown to you, marveling that the shadows of the groves did not go to the left." (Where he asserts that for the Arabs who came to the aid of Pompey against Caesar, the southern shadows had suddenly changed to northern ones. For before these Arabs had left the torrid zone, the shadows followed them, but after leaving they preceded them. For the poets call the entire hemisphere from the Equator to the North the right side, and the other and opposite side the left; although geographers and astronomers name these things differently, indeed in the completely opposite way.) So too, in a certain position of a place and a certain orientation of the sun, it can happen that the shadow now seems to advance as the sun advances, now to go backward as the sun revolves. This, then, is natural. But here what was given to Hezekiah as a sign was not something natural, but a stupendous miracle. Finally, from this history the poets took the fable of the sun's chariot driven backward. Hence one of them sings: "While we were driving back the reversed horses of the sun."

It is asked, second, whether these ten degrees by which the shadow went backward are ten hours? Cajetan and Abulensis deny this, and Cajetan thinks they were only half hours. "The reason is that if ten degrees were ten hours, the shadow could not have advanced ten hours and also retreated ten hours, as Isaiah proposes:" for if either one occurred, namely either the advance or the retreat of the shadow for ten hours, there would have been deep night, when there is no shadow. On the other hand, St. Dionysius teaches that the sun retreated ten hours, in his epistle to Polycarp; the Author of Mirabilibus S. Scripturae, book II, chapter XXVIII; the Chaldean, Bede, Angelomus, and Eucherius on IV Kings chapter XX, 7. The reason is that 10 degrees or lines in sundials ordinarily signify full hours. To Cajetan's argument they respond that shadow is taken metonymically for the sun, as if to say: Do you wish that the sun advance ten hours, and deep night fall; or that it return from the place where it now is, namely near sunset, to the place where it was in the morning ten hours ago? But Cajetan's opinion is more conformable to the words of Scripture, which says in IV Kings XX: "Do you wish that the shadow return?" — not the sun — and this on the sundial: but this could not have happened at night. Therefore ten lines are five hours, during which the shadow could both ascend and retreat in a day; and this is what Isaiah says: "And the sun returned (that is, through its shadow) ten lines by the degrees which it had descended" (on the sundial). Add that this descent through ten lines was given to Hezekiah as a sign; therefore it could be fully and completely noted and observed by him: but this could only have happened according to Cajetan's opinion. Finally, in Joshua X, it is said that at Joshua's command the sun stood still, "and one day was made as two; there was not before or after so long a day." But this will be false if this day of Hezekiah was 32 hours: for thus this day would have been nearly as long as three days. To the argument of St. Dionysius I respond that on the sundial of Ahaz, as also on some of ours, the hours were marked in halves, that is, divided in two.

It is asked, third, whether the regression of the sun happened suddenly, or by successive ordinary motion of the sun? St. Dionysius at the passage cited thinks the sun gradually went backward, spending ten hours in this retreat, and an equal number of hours again in advancing to the same point, so that this day was increased to twenty hours, and was altogether 32 hours long. Others, and perhaps more probably, think the sun went backward in a moment; or at least more quickly than usual, for example spending five hours in the regression; so that together with the other ten hours, during which according to them it again descended, there would be fifteen hours, by which this day was longer than other days; so that as many hours were added to the day as years of life to Hezekiah: "The reason is that if the sun had been moved with its ordinary motion, Isaiah would not fittingly have proposed whether he wanted the sun to go backward or forward ten hours, as though either were a miraculous sign; because in the ordinary forward motion of the sun there is no miracle, but only in an instantaneous or sudden one." Therefore this day according to them was either 22 or 27 hours long. Moreover, Torniellus, at the year of the world 3322, number 6, judges that this day was ten hours longer than the others.

You will say: Hezekiah seems to acknowledge no miracle in the advance of the shadow; for he says: "It is easy for the shadow to grow." I respond: Perhaps he did not sufficiently grasp Isaiah's meaning. Second, I respond that "easy" means it is easier for the shadow to grow, namely in a moment, than to go backward in a moment: because the former is a miracle only in its manner, while the latter is a miracle in both its manner and its substance. So Cajetan, Procopius, and others.

It seems truer that in the briefest time Isaiah, by raising his hand and as if drawing it back, caused that shadow to return, so that thus the miracle might be visible and clear to Hezekiah, watching this sudden reduction of the shadow: for the phrase "I will cause to return" can be referred both to Isaiah and to the Lord. Thus this day was only greater than other days by ten lines, that is five hours: to which add the ten natural hours of that day, and there will be 15 hours, as many as the years added to Hezekiah. This may be conjectured with probability: for nothing here is certain.

It is asked, fourth, what hour of the day it was when this miracle began, and therefore at what point the sun was when it began to go backward? I respond: It seems to have been midday when the sun went backward; for the shadow had been descending up to that point, as is clear from verse 8; but afterward the ascent remained, as is clear from the same verse. Therefore the shadow was at the midpoint between its ascent and descent at the time when Isaiah offered the miracle to Hezekiah: and no point of the day except midday seems able to produce this difference of the shadow, especially on a sundial marking at least ten hours, such as was that of Ahaz in every opinion; and in a place at approximately the 33rd degree of polar elevation — as is Palestine (where the shortest day is a little less than 10 hours, the longest a little more than 14); therefore, etc. For whatever other point of the day you assign, from which the shadow begins to ascend, either it must be concluded that it did not always descend before, or that the sundial does not contain ten hours. Add that at midday alone could the shadow have ascended or descended ten degrees, that is five hours.

From these same considerations, namely first, that there was an ascent and descent of the shadow; second, that at least ten hours were marked; add third, that the shadow grew as it ascended; it seems to be concluded that this sundial was a vertical south-facing dial, or certainly a concave hemispherical dial likewise south-facing, erected at the elevation of the pole; for only in these two types can those three features be conveniently accommodated; and it is more probable that it was a vertical dial, first, because this is more conspicuous and more suitable for the common use of Hezekiah's palace; second, because it is rarer to find an open and elevated place, such as the hemispherical type requires, on which hours from sunrise to sunset would be marked: but a vertical dial is most conveniently inscribed on any wall; third, because there is not as properly an ascent, nor as properly a growth of the shadow on a concave dial as on a vertical one; fourth, because Procopius makes the steps of the house of Hezekiah's father to be those steps of the sundial, which suits a vertical dial, not a concave one: for there is no ordinary part of a house suitable for inscribing concave sundials.

Hence note: Isaiah does not say: Do you wish it to ascend or to descend? But: "Do you wish the shadow to ascend or to return?" For it was midday: therefore the shadow was at its greatest descent, so that from lunch it would have to ascend again until evening, just as in returning likewise toward morning it had to ascend. Hence Hezekiah says: "It is easy for the shadow to grow" (to ascend, therefore, is to advance, and thus to grow: the opposite is to go back and return), because naturally from midday the shadow always grows as it ascends until evening, when it is greatest and longest. Just as, therefore, in the morning the shadow is greatest, gradually diminishing so that at midday it is smallest: so again from midday it gradually grows toward sunset, when it is equally as great as in the morning. There exists an elegant riddle about the shadow by Theodectes, in Hermippus, book On the Disciples of Isocrates: "There is," he says, "a certain thing which at its rising and setting is greatest, but at its fullness and vigor is smallest." Indeed this shadow is a symbol of our brief and soon vanishing life. Wherefore God willed that in the shadow of the human body, and even of the nose and fingers, there should exist a perpetual and natural sundial, which would always remind man of his fleeting life and time. To pass over other things, this is well known: If your nose is set toward the sun, with gaping mouth, you will learn from your teeth what hour it is.

It is asked, fifth, whether the sun alone went backward? Abulensis responds, and St. Dionysius indicates, that all the celestial orbs went backward together with the sun, just as when the sun stood still under Joshua, the moon also stood still, as is said in Joshua X, 12; and consequently all the celestial orbs stood still. The reason is that otherwise the entire order and harmony of the heavens would have been disturbed, and a greater miracle would have been needed.

Note these three miracles: namely first, the sun standing still under Joshua; second, the sun going backward under Hezekiah; third, the sun being eclipsed at the full moon when it is opposite the moon, as happened at the Passion of Christ; these three, I say, occurred in the heavens themselves and among the stars: but the star that led the Magi to the manger of Christ, and the fire descending from heaven at the prayers of Elijah, occurred not in the sidereal heaven, but in the aerial one, that is, in the air itself.

It is asked, sixth, why God used this sign? The Jews fable that ten hours were taken from that day on which Ahaz was buried, lest royal funeral rites be duly paid to so impious a king: therefore, lest the series of times remain disturbed, the same number of hours were added to the day on which the pious Hezekiah, son of Ahaz, was healed. But these are the usual trifles of the Jews. I respond, therefore, that God used this sign to show both the Jews and the Babylonians and other nations that He was the true God, the Lord of heaven and earth, and to call them by this means to faith in Him and worship of Him, just as He called the three Magi to Christ by a star. Second, He wished to declare how greatly He values His "elect," His worshipers "and friends," inasmuch as for them He reverses the entire course of nature. So St. Dionysius, who says: "This miracle indeed rightly terrified the Babylonians at that time, and without a battle subjected them to Hezekiah (who was thought to be equal to God and to surpass other mortals in virtue)." Perhaps the Babylonians, then emerging and raising their crests, were thinking of subjugating Judea, as they did not much later; but they were restrained by God through this sign. Dionysius adds that hence the Persians celebrate a triple feast of the "miter," that is, of the sun, namely of its advancing, retreating, and advancing again; or rather because this day was, as it were, triple, as he himself supposes.

"But God used this sign of the shadow and the sun rather than another: because, as Angelomus and the Author in St. Augustine, book II of Mirabilibus Scripturae XXVIII, teach, this sign was a type of the present time and the future; so that just as the sun returned to its beginning, so Hezekiah's life would return to the re-woven years (as the king here hints, verse 12), and for us living in the week and the eighth day (for fifteen is divided into seven and eight, each of which signifies eternity, or the eternal sabbath, and the eighth day of rest), the span of life would be extended through the resurrection of Christ." Therefore this sign literally signified, as it were, that the web of Hezekiah's life would be re-woven, and that our life is not true life, but only a shadow of true life and eternity, say Angelomus and the Author of Mirabilibus S. Scripturae.

Lyranus adds on IV Kings chapter XVI, 15, where Ahaz ordered the altar of God to be taken away, and said of it: "But the bronze altar shall be prepared at my pleasure," which Lyranus explains thus: "Commentators commonly say," he says, "that from this altar Ahaz made that famous sundial, of which chapter XX speaks." If this is true, God rightly wished to give this sign to Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, on this sundial of his, as being made from His own property, namely from His altar; and at the same time He silently admonished him to restore the sacred object sacrilegiously appropriated by his father, and return it to the temple.

Finally, just as God added 15 years of life to Hezekiah for his piety, so He has taken and takes the same from impious kings. Thus the Emperor Anastasius, says Zonaras, saw a terrible man with a book, who said to him: "Behold, because of the perversity of your faith, I blot out fourteen years of your life." And when he had learned by this oracle that he was to perish by fire, he opened many passages in the palace leading to the cistern called the Cold One, so that it might extinguish fire if it should break out, but in vain: for he was struck by celestial fire, namely lightning. So also Cedrenus.

Morally, this sign indicated how greatly God esteems His own, how powerful, how loving He is, and consequently how much He should be loved and worshiped. Tropologically, it signified that to those who turn to God with Hezekiah through repentance, their former merits and perfection are restored. Anagogically, that in eternity fifteen years of life are to be restored to us, that is, eternal ones: for fifteen is made up of seven and eight; the seventh day is the Sabbath, the eighth is the Lord's Day; each of which is a symbol of the resurrection and eternal rest. So Angelomus and the Author of Mirabilibus S. Scripturae already cited. Allegorically, it represented Christ about to descend ten lines, that is, to the very lowest point below all the choirs of Angels and men in His Passion; and thence to ascend again to the Father. So Angelomus, Eucherius, and Bede, whom hear: "The first step of (Christ's) descent from God was in the Angel; because He was the Angel of great counsel (and the Angel had acted in the place of God Christ in the Old Testament). The second was from the Angel in the Patriarchs: because in all things, as the Apostle says, I Corinthians XII, He Himself was at work. The third was in the giving of the Law. The fourth in Joshua, to lead the people into the promised land. The fifth in the Judges; because in them He Himself reigned. The seventh in the Prophets; because through them He was announced. The eighth in the High Priests; because through them He Himself the supreme High Priest was represented. The ninth was in the man whom He assumed. The tenth in the Passion which He endured. By the same steps He Himself ascended again into heaven."

Verse 9: THE WRITING OF HEZEKIAH THE KING — that is, this is the thanksgiving hymn which the pio...

9. THE WRITING OF HEZEKIAH THE KING — that is, this is the thanksgiving hymn which the pious Hezekiah composed by himself, or rather through Isaiah, in gratitude to God for his restored health, and which he ordered to be written, or engraved in bronze, and publicly displayed, as a perpetual proclamation and memorial of divine clemency. So also the Gentiles, by hanging painted tablets in the temples of the gods, testified that they had received from the gods the benefits depicted in them, as Mercurialis teaches at length in De Re Gymnastica.

Note: The style and polish of the canticle seem to indicate that Isaiah was its author, who converted what the king had said in plain and unadorned speech into an elegant hymn. Many, however, hold that Hezekiah composed all of it word for word: indeed there are those who think the book of Judges was written by Hezekiah, as Sixtus of Siena attests, book II, under the entry Hezekiah. Hugo moreover thinks that the Proverbs of Solomon and the books of Kings were collected and arranged by him into one work. For this is implied in Proverbs XXV, 4. But there it is said that this was done not by Hezekiah, but by men appointed by him for this purpose.

Verse 10: I SAID — both with his mouth and his heart, as if to say: I thought it was completely o...

10. I SAID — both with his mouth and his heart, as if to say: I thought it was completely over with my life; that I had to die an untimely death in the flower of my age. On this canticle of Hezekiah, St. Bernard wrote a sermon, which is extant on page 91, in which he explains the whole thing mystically. Moreover, in this canticle the king first describes his pains in illness, his despair of life, his groans and repentance; second, in verse 17, he recounts how he was wonderfully healed by God; hence he celebrates His clemency, and promises to celebrate it throughout his entire life.

IN THE MIDST — For Hezekiah was already thirty-nine years old, which age is roughly half of human life; for the complete span is that which is noted in Psalm LXXXIX, 10: "The days of our years in them are seventy years; but in the powerful, eighty." Second, it can be translated with Forerius as in silence, or in rest; for death is called "sleep" and silence, and the dead are called "the silent ones." Hence Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, says St. Jerome, reading דומי dumi instead of דמי demi, translate: in my infirmity and silence; others reading דמי dami translate: in my blood; so that the meaning is, says St. Jerome: "in the blood of my days, when my gore and my destruction shall be awaited." Pagninus translates: in the cutting off of my days; Clarius: in the cutting down; the Zurich version: in the excision; Arias: in the subtraction and cessation; Marcerus: in the silence and cessation; Brixianus: in the imagination; Agellius: in my stupor, as if to say: While I was terrified by the unexpected event, and fixed in amazement, I was thinking that I had to die. The Hebrew word דמי dami is found nowhere except here: hence such varied interpretations of it; but above all we should believe St. Jerome, who translates "in the midst." For many Hebrew words and their meanings have now become obsolete and are hidden from us, which among the ancients were common and familiar. Our Augustinus de Quiros conjectures here that demi is translated by our Vulgate as "the midst" because it properly signifies "rest, cessation, silence": but Hezekiah was 39 years old, which is the age of rest and cessation, that is, full, mature, vigorous, and flourishing, and therefore is the same as the midpoint of human life, which is circumscribed by 80 years; and for this reason he thinks our translator rendered it "in the midst." But what I said is clearer; and perhaps from the Hebrew demi the Latin dimidium ("half") and medium ("middle") are derived, which consequently passed into many other languages by common usage: just as the Hebrew sac, meaning sack; and keran, meaning horn; and certain similar words. For the Hebrews seem to have called demi, that is, "cut off," the "half," because a half is the halving of a whole by cutting; and because many things, when they are divided, are usually cut in the middle. Finally, a whole, when it is cut, is by that very act halved, and is divided into two halves (whether equal or unequal). For thus we commonly speak. For the root דמה dama signifies to cut down, to cut into, to cut apart, and thence to halve.

Morally, St. Jerome teaches that the Saints are granted a long life by God, so that like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob they may die in a good old age, full and satisfied with days: but that the lives of sinners are cut off in mid-course, and as it were halved. St. Gregory teaches the same, XXXIII Moralia, chapter XXIV. The Septuagint translates: in the height. For taking the similar letter ר resh instead of ד daleth, instead of בדמי bidmi, meaning "in the midst," they read ברמי beromi, meaning "in the height." The meaning comes to the same thing: for at the middle of life there is vigor, that is, the vigor of age; and then one is as if at the summit, at which one takes one's stand and remains for some years, after which one gradually declines and fails. So Leo Castrius. But Cyril explains "in the height" thus, as if to say: Having been raised to the pinnacle of kingdom, glory, and happiness, behold I fall. But Theodoret thus, as if to say: When I swelled up and proudly exalted myself on high, then I was humbled by God and struck with a fatal illness.

I SHALL GO TO THE GATES OF THE UNDERWORLD — I shall go to the tomb in body, and in soul to the underworld; for since heaven was closed before Christ, all, even the Saints, descended to the underworld, namely to the Limbo of the Fathers. To go to the underworld was therefore at that time the same as to die and go to the tomb.

I SOUGHT THE REMAINDER OF MY YEARS. — The Translator read pacadti, meaning "I sought, I searched for," that is, I saw that years were being taken from me and were lacking. It is a metalepsis; for the things that are missing or lost, we usually search for. So Forerius. Thus we commonly say: I miss or require diligence in you, meaning I see that diligence is lacking in you. Now they read it passively, פקדתי puckadti, that is, as Vatablus translates: I have been deprived of the remainder of my years. Hence the Septuagint translates: I shall leave the remaining years. For pakad, meaning to review, to require, in the passive conjugation Niphal (and the same applies to Pual, which is puckadti) signifies to be taken away, subtracted, or withdrawn from a total or place, so that something is lacking, as Forerius demonstrates with many examples in his Lexicon. Hence also Pagninus in his Lexicon asserts that pakad in Niphal signifies to fail, to be lacking.

Verse 11: I SHALL NOT SEE THE LORD GOD IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING — namely in this mortal life, th...

11. I SHALL NOT SEE THE LORD GOD IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING — namely in this mortal life, that is, I shall not live among the living, nor shall I see the Lord, that is, the Lord's temple, or the Lord residing in His temple, speaking and showing Himself through the cloud, as if to say: I shall no longer act, I shall no longer dwell with the Lord in the temple, as I am accustomed to do. Hence the Chaldean translates: I shall no longer appear before the ark of the Lord, in the land of His tabernacle. This is the genuine meaning. So Lyranus, Adam, Forerius, and Jansenius, on this canticle. Second, Vatablus and Hugo: "I shall not see God," that is, God's illustrious works which He does day by day and will do for His people, especially the victory over Sennacherib and the slaughter of the Assyrians, which He promised in chapter XXXVII; for the works of God are, as it were, His garment and veil, through which He shows Himself and is seen. Third, more precisely and more piously, Leo Castrius understands the Lord to mean Christ; for the Septuagint translate Lord God as the salvation of God, as they commonly call Christ; and in Hebrew it is אי יי ia ia, which can be translated: the God of God, or God from God, as if to say: Now I am about to die; hence I shall not see Christ made man from my lineage and blood, whom I hoped would be born shortly and would be seen by me. Hence St. Jerome says: The king fears that Christ will not be born from his seed: Theodoret and Hugo also incline to this view. Fourth, Haymo (and St. Jerome indicates the same) believes the king feared because of his sins that he would not see God after death in the land of the living, that is, in heaven. But this is hardly probable; for Hezekiah had lived piously, and therefore he himself says in verse 3 that he had walked before God in truth and with a perfect heart.

I SHALL NOT LOOK UPON, etc., THE INHABITANT OF REST — as if to say: Henceforth my nation and my Jerusalem, liberated from the Assyrians, will enjoy rest: but this I shall not see, for behold I am dying. Second, Forerius and Vatablus translate for "rest": of the world; others, of the globe, as if חדל chadel, meaning rest, is put by metathesis for חלד chaled, meaning world. Third, Leo Castrius, as if to say: I shall not see the Messiah, or Christ, as I hoped, who will be the inhabitant of rest, that is, will be a peaceful and glorious king; for He will be at once blessed and a wayfarer, and will be an inhabitant of the world, namely of the earth, made man. But in Hebrew it reads: I shall not see man anymore among the inhabitants of rest, or of the world; therefore the first meaning is the literal one. The Septuagint translates: I shall not see man anymore, I have failed (for thus St. Jerome reads, and the Complutensian reads "has not failed," as Caraffa reads) from my kindred; but St. Cyril from the Septuagint reads thus: I shall no longer see a man from my kindred. The Septuagint adds: I have left the remainder of my life.

Verse 12: My generation (that is, my life, or age and time of life; for in Hebrew this is דור dor...

12. My generation (that is, my life, or age and time of life; for in Hebrew this is דור dor) HAS BEEN TAKEN AWAY (for "generation" often means each person's era, or the time of each person's life): AND AS IF ROLLED UP FROM ME. — He says the same thing: for he alludes to the tents of shepherds or soldiers that are spread out, which when departing they usually roll up to carry with them and transfer from one place to another. So St. Cyril, Theodoret, Forerius, Adam. Note: Age or time of life is rightly compared to a tent; because just as a tent surrounds us as a place, so age or the span of life surrounds and measures us as time; second, because like a tent it is small, movable, uncertain, and perishable; third, because like a tent it is turned and rolled up; for our whole life is carried on in continual revolutions and vicissitudes, says Forerius. Fourth, because in this life we live as guests and pilgrims in a tent; for we are heading toward our heavenly home and fatherland, in which we are enrolled as fellow citizens of the saints and members of the household of God, Ephesians II. Second, "my generation," that is, my lineage and hope of posterity has been taken away — I lack offspring from whom Christ, promised to David and consequently to my seed, might be born: therefore I shall not build a house, that is, a stable family, for myself, but it, like a tent, will soon be rolled up and taken away. So St. Jerome, Lyranus, St. Thomas, Haymo, and others.

MY LIFE HAS BEEN CUT OFF AS BY A WEAVER — as if to say: Just as a weaver constantly weaves a web, and a spider its net, so a man weaves the years, works, and pursuits of his life. But just as maidservants cut and carry off the web of a spider, and soldiers the web of a weaver, not allowing it to be completed, so God too will cut my life so that I do not weave it out to a proper age and old age. Thus the poets imagine the Fates spinning and breaking the threads of our life. Second, and more genuinely, as if to say: Just as a weaver, when a soldier comes or another necessity presses, hurriedly cuts the web already begun, so I too, like a weaver pressed by illness, am compelled to cut short and break off the web of my life already begun. Hence in Hebrew it reads: I have been cut off like a weaver of my life. So Vatablus and Forerius. Morally, Theodoret says: "The saint weaves a robe, placing around himself the adornment of his soul through his righteous deeds." But the impious, like spiders, disembowel themselves to weave for themselves a most foul garment of vices in which they will burn in hell.

WHILE I WAS STILL BEGINNING THE WEB. — In Hebrew: in my thinness, that is, in the thin and first threads He cut my web; which our Translator rendered: "While I was still beginning the web," namely, an established, manly, and perfect life; for this begins around the age of 39 that Hezekiah had; or: "While I was still beginning the web," namely the great works which I had planned in my mind, and especially the begetting and through it the propagation of my lineage and posterity; for the king was endeavoring to weave this web; but in the very midst of his endeavor he was struck down by illness unto death.

WHILE I WAS STILL BEGINNING THE WEB — In Hebrew: in my thinness, that is, in the thin and first threads He cut my web; which our Translator rendered: "While I was still beginning the web," namely, an established, manly, and perfect life; for this begins around the age of 39 that Hezekiah had.

FROM MORNING UNTIL EVENING YOU WILL FINISH ME — that is, within the space of a single day You will end my life, as if to say: My life was so brief that it seems to have been only one day. Second, St. Jerome, Adam, and Vatablus say: The illness was so severe that I thought I would live only that one day and die in the evening. Aristotle relates (as Cicero says in Tusculan Disputations I) that near the river Hypanis, which flows into the sea near Thrace, certain animals are born that live for only a single day. Physicians also write that there are herbs that grow in the morning and wither in the evening, lasting only one day. This is a type of human life, which even if it reaches the eightieth or hundredth year, is like a single day if compared with eternity: when the course of this life is completed, the Blessed await salvation; but eternal punishment awaits the wicked. This is what Hezekiah says here: "From morning until evening You will finish me;" and the Psalmist, Psalm LXXXIX: "A thousand years before Your eyes are as yesterday which has passed. In the morning let it pass like grass, in the morning let it flower and pass away: in the evening let it fall, harden, and wither. Our years shall be considered like a spider's web." What does a spider meditate? That with the utmost diligence it should continually spin threads from its bowels, weaving them one upon another, to complete its web. For what purpose? To catch flies. And what does the greater part of humanity meditate upon their whole life? What do they labor at? That they may exhaust themselves with toil — one in sewing, another in building, another in writing, another in teaching — to complete their work. For what purpose? To catch flies. For what else are the honors and riches of this life? Is not therefore, like the spider's, our meditation vain, our labor vain, our life vain? And Psalm CI: "My days have declined like a shadow; and I have withered like grass." And Psalm CXLIII: "Man has become like vanity: his days pass like a shadow." And Psalm CII: "He has remembered that we are dust: as for man, his days are like grass; like a flower of the field so shall he bloom." And Job chapter XIV: "He comes forth like a flower," etc. This is what Horace says, book IV, ode 7: "We are dust and shadow." Theophrastus, the successor of Aristotle, is said to have accused nature on his deathbed for having given a long life to crows and ravens, to whom it mattered nothing, but so short a life to men, to whom it mattered most: for if their lifespan could have been longer, it would have been possible for human life to be educated in all perfected arts and all learning, and to reap more abundant fruits of the labors of its youth. So Cicero, Tusculan Disputations book III; Diogenes Laertius, book V, in his Life; St. Jerome, epistle 2 to Nepotian, volume I, who ascribes this to Themistocles (unless it is the error of copyists). But Sallust answers this philosopher's complaint in the Jugurthine War: "Falsely," he says, "does the human race complain about its nature, that being weak and of brief span, it is governed by chance rather than by virtue; for on the contrary, upon reflection, you would find nothing greater or more excellent; and that it is rather the industry of men, not strength or time, that nature lacks."

Verse 13: I HOPED UNTIL MORNING. — First, Vatablus explains, as if to say: When I saw that I had ...

13. I HOPED UNTIL MORNING. — First, Vatablus explains, as if to say: When I saw that I had survived that day, of which I said: "From morning until evening You will finish me," and that I had reached the evening, I hoped, or as it is in Hebrew, שויתי sciuviti, that is, I calculated and determined that I would live until morning. The context, says Vatablus, teaches that Hezekiah suffered from this plague for two days, one natural and one artificial. On the second day, Isaiah came to him announcing death; immediately the king wept and obtained life, and on the same day was healed by Isaiah, as is stated in IV Kings XX, 5. The meaning therefore is, as if to say: When in the evening and night I was in good hope of recovering my health, in the morning I began to despair; for then the illness plainly cast me down and conquered me, like a lion devouring all my strength. So Adam, and genuinely. Second, and conversely, Sanchez says: When at night I was severely tormented by the illness, I did not promise myself life beyond the dawn of the following day.

LIKE A LION SO HE HAS CRUSHED ALL MY BONES. — "He crushed," namely the illness, and God through the illness: this is what those feel, says Adam, who burn with great fevers; for the internal fire of these fevers, like a lion, consumes all the body's strength, sap, and bones, so that from the magnitude of the pain and the weakness of their strength they think they will not survive. Therefore illness raging fiercely is compared to a lion, crushing and tearing a man with its claws: for like a lion it strips a man of his bones and consumes him. Hence Isaiah too announced the king's imminent death in verse 1, so that the miracle would be all the more clear: for the king was healed on the same day, as I have already said. FROM MORNING UNTIL EVENING YOU WILL FINISH ME — as if to say: When on the second morning I saw the illness thus growing worse again and raging like a lion, then I said again: From morning to evening, that is, in this space that runs from morning to evening, You will cut me down, as if to say: On this second day of my illness, before evening, You will end my years. So Vatablus. For "You will finish me," in Hebrew it is תשלימני taslimeni; which can be translated: You will establish me in peace, that is, in death; for death is called peace, just as rest and silence, especially if it is the death of the pious. Hence we pray for the dead: "May he rest in peace." So Sanchez.

Verse 14: LIKE A YOUNG SWALLOW — as if to say: I said: Then I shall moan as a young swallow, feat...

14. LIKE A YOUNG SWALLOW — as if to say: I said: Then I shall moan as a young swallow, featherless in its nest, moans shivering and hungry; and as a dove that meditates, that is, moans from the depths not only of its throat but also of its breast. For this reason Varro calls the young of swallows, chattering and querulous, "twittering." For thus it stands in Nonius: "And she brought forth twittering chicks."

Mystically, St. Bernard, explaining this canticle, offers three meanings: The first, as if to say: "When the morning of grace has smiled, exulting and crying out like a swallow, I will give thanks for the visitation: and when evening comes, the evening sacrifice will not be lacking, when like a dove I pour forth tears in tribulation: Mourning I shall mourn in the evening, that joyful I may enjoy the morning. Both please God — the sinner stricken with compunction and the just man devoted; while conversely He is displeased with the ungrateful just man as much as with the secure sinner." The second, as if to say: "Like a young swallow running here and there, I will devote myself to the offices of Martha, showing myself a cheerful giver to everyone suffering need;" and again, "I will meditate like a dove," that is, with Magdalene I will return to the leisure of contemplation. The third: "It is possible," he says, "that the chattering bird represents the songs of those chanting together in church; and the moaning dove represents the private sighs of prayers." So also St. Cyril and Eusebius refer these to thanksgiving, not to groaning. But literally it is clear that these are the plaintive voices and groans of the afflicted king; not the psalmody of one exulting, or the hymn of one rejoicing or giving thanks. It is therefore surprising that Cyril says the swallow and dove are here a type of those who sing psalms and always praise God.

Note: For "young" the Hebrew is סוס sus; which Leo Castrius, Vatablus, Pagninus, and modern scholars translate as crane, as if the king compares his groaning to the mournful voice of a crane, a swallow, and a dove. But the Septuagint, Theodoret, Symmachus, the Chaldean, and St. Jerome consistently translate it as swallow, or young swallow, both here and in Jeremiah chapter VIII, verse 7. See what was said there. It is an onomatopoeia. For the sound of young swallows is sus, or as Marinus and others read, sis sis; just as that of a sparrow is tsaphtsaph; hence the swallow is called sis, and the sparrow tsaphtsaph in Hebrew. Hence some derive the name Isis from the Hebrew sis, and also the sistrum; for the sistrum rattles like sis, that is, a swallow: and by striking the sistrum the Egyptians worshiped Isis, because Isis was believed to be the inventor of the sistrum.

MY EYES HAVE GROWN WEAK — both from the force of the illness, and more from the fatigue of praying and looking upward to God; for there follows: "Looking upward," as if to say: Continually, intently, and with groaning I looked to the Lord, so that my eyes, weary and weakened by illness, grew dim. So Adam. Second, Sanchez says: See, O Lord, how my eyes, which I lift to You, have grown weak; he stirs pity by displaying his appearance and emaciation, especially of his eyes, which in the dying tend to grow dim and to recede inward.

O Lord, I suffer violence — because undeservedly and without fault on my part I suffer such things, as if to say: My sins did not merit such great pains; therefore I suffer these things innocently, and violence is done to me. So St. Jerome, Haymo, and St. Thomas. Second, and better, by violence he means the vehemence of the illness, as if to say: I am so severely tormented by this illness that I cannot bear it. Answer for me — as if to say: Since I am unequal to the pain and suffer violence, take up my defense, and like a patron protect me; avert and drive away this evil, this force of illness. Second, the Hebrew ערבני arbeni can be translated: be surety, or stand as guarantor for me, and thus read Jansenius, Vatablus, Forerius, Montanus, and others, which St. Thomas, Hugo, and Haymo explain as if Hezekiah here invokes the Messiah, or Christ to come; for it is His office, as mediator and guarantor, to take up the cause of those who suffer. Third, arbeni can be translated with Vatablus and Leo Castrius: give me rest, make me glad, be sweet to me, give me such great joy, namely life, and through it offspring and Christ; for this is what I beg.

Verse 15: WHAT SHALL I SAY? (Hezekiah, here returning to himself from the force of his pain, corr...

15. WHAT SHALL I SAY? (Hezekiah, here returning to himself from the force of his pain, corrects himself, as if to say: What shall I complain against God my maker?) OR WHAT SHALL HE ANSWER ME, SINCE HE HIMSELF HAS DONE IT? — Thus it should be read with the Roman edition, not "since I have done it," as if to say: Since God Himself has done what He willed, when He sent this illness upon me by His just and secret counsel, why do I complain? What answer do I expect from Him, except this: "O clay, in the hand of the potter, be silent and endure." From the Hebrew, otherwise obscure, taking the vav causally, Sanchez thus clearly translates and explains: "What shall I say? Because God will say — whom I invoke as patron against the one striking me — because He Himself has done it." In a similar way Job corrects his complaint and dispute with God, in chapter XIII, verses 2 and following.

I WILL RECONSIDER FOR YOU ALL MY YEARS IN BITTERNESS, etc. — First, St. Jerome and Adam remove the word "for You," and explain: As if to say: While dying, I reconsider the prosperity and delights of past years, and my soul grows bitter and grieves; for it sees that they have slipped away and have now been turned to mourning, and that therefore I must die, according to Ecclesiasticus XI, 29: "The evil of an hour makes one forget great luxury," as if to say: When the time of tribulation has come, it surpasses and extinguishes all past happiness.

Second, and genuinely — especially since the Roman edition reads "for You" — as if to say: Since I cannot contend with You in lawsuit and by right, I turn as a suppliant to repentance and tears, so that through them I may obtain from Your mercy not what is owed, but grace; for all these are the words and groans of Hezekiah suffering in illness and invoking God's clemency: "I will therefore reconsider for You all my years," that is, I will recall to memory all the sins I committed in each year, I will grieve over them, and groaning I will pray for pardon. St. Bernard, in his Sermon on Virgins, emphasizes the word "I will reconsider," that is, "I will think again," he says, "lest perhaps I have forgotten something, and lest anything remain unavenged and unexamined." Hence D. Soto supposed, in IV, distinction XVII, Question II, article 3, that for true contrition which deletes sin, it is necessary that the penitent recall each sin to memory and then be contrite for all of them. But other theologians commonly refute this, teaching that it suffices to grieve for all of them in a general way. See Suarez, De Poenitentia, disputation IV, section VI, number 9. I respond therefore that Hezekiah reconsidered all his years not from obligation but from devotion (and this indeed befits a truly penitent person), so that he might the more win God's grace and favor for himself, and thus escape the illness and imminent death predicted to him by Isaiah. Therefore all these years are elapsed years and years of guilt: although Leo Castrius takes these as referring to future years of penance, as if to say: Throughout all my future years, and throughout my entire life henceforth, I will reconsider my past sins and do penance; for this is the spirit of holy penitents, to mourn and weep over a sin once committed throughout their entire life, as St. Peter, Paul, Magdalene, and very many others did, and St. Chrysostom teaches that this must be done, in homily 3 on the saying of St. Paul: "Would that you had borne with me a little!" See also St. Gregory on I Kings, book IV, chapter IV, shortly before those words: "When they have greeted you, they will give you three loaves of bread." Hence therefore it is clear against Luther that penance is not merely repentance, but sorrow and detestation of sins: "For no one can begin a new life unless he repents of his former life," says St. Augustine, book On Penance.

Morally, note that upright and just men, such as Hezekiah was, who in verse 1 says that he walked perfectly before God, do from time to time slip and sin. Again, they often do not recognize their own fall, especially if they have made a habit of it, until they are warned by illness or some other affliction to return to their heart and pray to God and invoke Him. For in prayer the soul is especially illumined to see offenses, even the smallest ones, committed against so great a Majesty as the one it invokes. This is what St. Augustine says: "Woe even to the praiseworthy life of men, if You should judge it with mercy set aside!" Hence St. Augustine, when dying, continually read the penitential psalms, and used to say that "no one, however rightly he may have lived, ought to leave this life without penance." St. Fulgentius did the same.

Verse 16: O LORD, IF THUS ONE LIVES. — The word "if" is not in the Hebrew, nor in St. Jerome if c...

16. O LORD, IF THUS ONE LIVES. — The word "if" is not in the Hebrew, nor in St. Jerome if correctly published, as Jansenius rightly observed. The Roman edition, however, reads "if thus," and the meaning comes to the same. Various authors translate this variously and obscurely. More clearly and weightily: first, the Septuagint translates thus: O Lord, concerning it, it has been declared to You, and You have raised up my spirit, and consoled I have lived. Second, the Chaldean: O Lord, concerning all the dead You have said that You would give them life, and before all You have given life to my spirit; for You will heal me and sustain me — as if these are the words of Hezekiah already healed, or after he had received from Isaiah the news of his recovery. Third, Forerius and Vatablus: O Lord, beyond these years they shall live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit: You will cause me to sleep and will give me life, as if to say: Those who shall live after these years and shall trust in You and invoke You, will experience the same benefit as I, and such will be their life — healthy and vigorous — as I now live, healthy and cheerful. Fourth, more plainly, and more fitted to the Vulgate, Sanchez translates: O Lord, over these things and the evils I have recounted, yet the life of my spirit shall live and flourish: You will cause me to sleep and will give me life, as if to say: In so many and such effective causes of dying, I shall live alive, that is, my life will be vital and desirable. He adapts the Vulgate version to this thus, as if to say: O Lord, if thus one lives — a life so extraordinarily vital, after so many dangers, anguishes, and troubles — supply: what may not be hoped from Your clemency?

Fifth, most plainly from the Hebrew you may translate thus: O Lord, upon these things one lives, and in all these things is the life of my spirit: with heavy sleep You will weigh me down, and give me life, which our Translator clearly renders: "O Lord, if thus one lives, and in such things is the life of my spirit, You will chastise me and give me life," as if to say: If such and so miserable is the condition of human life, "You will chastise" — that is, I submit myself to You; indeed I pray and beseech You to chastise and punish me for my sins, and as it were oppress me with heavy sleep, provided that You give me life, that is, preserve me in life. So St. Jerome and Adam. For these words still belong to the time of pain and the amplification of the illness, and conclude that section.

In the Hebrew the Prophet uses first the masculine gender, then the feminine, saying first בהן bahen, "in those" (masculine); second, בהם bahem, that is "in those" (feminine), so to speak, as if to say: In all those miseries and troubles of this life one lives. For the Hebrews, when they wish to signify all things of every kind, join the feminine gender with the masculine. See Canon LXI.

YOU WILL CHASTISE ME AND GIVE ME LIFE. — For "You will chastise me" the Hebrew is תחלימני tachalimeni, that is, You will cause me to dream, meaning You will chastise me with this illness briefly as if through a dream; You will cause the sickness and this chastisement to pass and vanish like a dream, and I will soon be restored to health. So Forerius. For the Hebrew הלם chalam means to thicken, to condense what is liquid and thin: hence חלמות chalamut is called the coagulated part of an egg, or the yolk, just as ריר rir is called the liquid part of an egg, namely the white: and חלום chalum is called a dream, thick like a yolk. So Forster. He therefore alludes to a heavy and distressing sleep, which in Latin is called Incubus, in Greek Ephialtes (and perhaps Hezekiah was suffering from this or a similar soporific illness, as lethargic and dying people do from an abundance or thickness of humors), which arises from thick blood and a melancholic humor filling the organs of the brain and exciting sad and heavy phantasms in the imagination; so that the dreamer thinks he is being suffocated, strangled, oppressed, in danger of collapse, drowning, or a similar death, from which he seems unable to escape; hence he groans, gasps, even cries out: but upon waking he sees it was a dream; hence he lives and rejoices, this fear and anguish of the dream being dispelled, as if to say: In like manner I, Hezekiah, in my illness thought that my life was desperate: but this illness soon passed, and from it I awoke as from a nightmare, and was restored to myself: healed, therefore, I now live once more cheerfully and rejoice, all fear of death and illness being dispelled. So Sanchez.

Second, as for tachalimeni, he says, some translate: You will cause me to sleep, that is, You will lead me to death; for death, especially a brief one from which one soon rises, is called sleep, as if to say: You have led me, O Lord, to the threshold of death; but from it You soon brought me back and gave me life. You will say: Then he should have said, "You have chastised me," namely by illness and the danger of death, not "You will chastise me." I respond: The Hebrews frequently interchange tenses, and take the future for the past, especially when the conversive vav is prefixed. For this was invented precisely to turn the past into the future: and this conversive vav is here, if you read it with a different vowel point, namely vattachalimeni instead of vetachalimeni. Third, Vatablus and Forerius also translate: You will cause me to sleep and will heal me; for the king could not sleep at night. God therefore restored sleep to him, and through sleep strength and life: for this is the power of sleep. Hence the disciples said to Jesus about Lazarus, who was dead, whom Jesus said was sleeping: "Lord, if he sleeps, he will be saved," John XI, 12. Fourth, perhaps our Translator read the similar letter he instead of chet, that is, instead of tachalimeni, he read tahalimeni, meaning You will strike, beat, shake me, that is, You will chastise me: this indeed seems the most expedient way to reconcile our Latin version with the Hebrew text.

Verse 17: BEHOLD, IN PEACE MY BITTERNESS IS MOST BITTER — as if to say: In the midst of peace, in...

17. BEHOLD, IN PEACE MY BITTERNESS IS MOST BITTER — as if to say: In the midst of peace, in the flower of my age and reign, when men are usually healthy, safe, and vigorous, I suffer the most bitter things, namely the agonies of death, and I die. So St. Jerome and Vatablus.

Second, Sanchez says: This affliction which I suffered is now in peace: for it has been turned to joy for me, because I have been healed. For he refers these words to the time when the king was cured of his illness, and this is plausible enough: for in the preceding verse the king's complaint during illness was concluded; but here, in verse 17, his joy at restored health begins. Hence in Hebrew it is לשלום leschalom, that is, to peace, namely this bitterness has been turned: our Translator, however, rendered "in peace," because often lamed is taken for beth, that is, "in."

But You (moved by my repentance, prayer, and tears) HAVE DELIVERED MY SOUL (from present and future death: for, as follows), YOU HAVE CAST BEHIND YOUR BACK (that is, You have pardoned, removed from Your sight, forgotten) ALL MY SINS. — It is a catachresis: for the things we forget and obliterate, we cast behind our back. The king, here enlightened by God in prayer and reconsidering his past years, seems to acknowledge that he had at some time committed graver sins, for which he was deserving of death; whereas before his prayer and this examination of conscience he had said, almost confidently, in verse 3, that he had walked before God in truth and with a perfect heart. See what was said at verse 15. But all these sins were wiped away by his contrition and prayer, as he says here.

Verse 18: FOR THE UNDERWORLD WILL NOT CONFESS TO YOU — as if to say: For this reason You have res...

18. FOR THE UNDERWORLD WILL NOT CONFESS TO YOU — as if to say: For this reason You have restored my life and strength, that I may praise and celebrate Your clemency toward those who serve You and invoke You in this life; for those who dwell in the underworld and in death cannot praise You, that is, cannot celebrate Your name among men, especially in the temple, concerning which the king says in verse 20: "We will sing our psalms in the house of the Lord." See what was said at Baruch II, 17.

Morally note: This life is desirable for the pious for two reasons: first, to praise God, as Hezekiah says here; second, to mourn their sins: for which reason Job wished his life to be prolonged, chapter X, verse 20. The first arises from the knowledge of God, the second from the knowledge of self. So Sanchez.

THOSE WHO DESCEND INTO THE PIT (into the tomb and the underworld) WILL NOT AWAIT YOUR TRUTH — that is, Your faithfulness, namely by which: first, You have partly granted the safety of Jerusalem from the Assyrians, and promised health to me through Isaiah in Your name; second, "truth," namely that which pertains to the promised Messiah, whom we expect to be begotten from my seed and David's, that we may see Him born and hear Him teaching: for which reason You have preserved me in life; for this only the living can do, not the dead. Hence he says:

Verse 19: THE LIVING, HE HIMSELF SHALL CONFESS TO YOU — for example, a father while he lives will...

19. THE LIVING, HE HIMSELF SHALL CONFESS TO YOU — for example, a father while he lives will recount to his children God's benefits, so that he may celebrate God and invite them to God's praise: but a dead man cannot do this.

Verse 20: Save me — preserve me in the health I have received; for he had already been healed fro...

20. Save me — preserve me in the health I have received; for he had already been healed from his illness. Second, "save me" perfectly from the Assyrians, by destroying their camp, as You have promised.

Verse 21: AND HE COMMANDED. — This is a hysteron proteron: for these things happened before Hezek...

21. AND HE COMMANDED. — This is a hysteron proteron: for these things happened before Hezekiah's canticle, since he sang it after he had been healed by this poultice, as is clear from verse 9; therefore "he commanded" means he had commanded. THAT THEY APPLY A POULTICE — that is, that they prepare a cataplasm, or plaster of figs, which they would place on the wound, by which the king would be healed, as in fact he was. In Hebrew it reads: let them pound upon the ulcer, that is, let them place the pounded mixture upon the ulcer. Therefore this wound of the king was an ulcer, as Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion translate, and our Translator in IV Kings chapter XX, 7. For the Hebrew שחין sechin means ulcer.

Note: Figs by themselves are more harmful than helpful to an ulcer; for although Galen, book II of De Arte Curativa, chapter VII, for those tumors that neither easily come to suppuration nor can easily be dispersed, orders the use of a poultice of dried figs, nevertheless the case is different with ulcers: for these require cleansing and drying, not dispersal, softening, or suppuration — these being treatments for tumors, not ulcers. Incidentally, however, if swelling and inflammation accompany the ulcer (as could have happened in Hezekiah's illness), figs are effective for either resolving or bringing it to suppuration. Some think this ulcer was not a formed and properly-called ulcer, but an abscess, in which the swollen body is filled with pus from internal putrefaction: if this is true, the pus or discharge could have been drawn to the surface of the skin by drier and pounded figs, and there excreted: and thus naturally the figs benefited the king's illness. But our Translator judged that it was a formed and open ulcer; hence he translated it as "wound," so that figs were not needed to draw the discharge to the skin. Whatever the case may be, it is certain that figs did not have such great power as to restore a dying man to life and health, and that so quickly — namely, so that on the third day he could go to the temple, as is stated in IV Kings XX, 5. Therefore this cure should be attributed rather to a miracle than to the figs. So Valesius, Sacred Philosophy chapter XXXIX; Vatablus, Adam, and others. Thus Christ, applying mud to the eyes of the blind man, gave him sight. Thus the Saints of old in the desert used to cure all manner of illnesses with oil blessed by them. So here too the figs healed the king suddenly, not so much by their own power, but because they were applied by St. Isaiah, as if blessed by him and as an instrument of God, by whose command Isaiah applied them. Add what St. Jerome says here: Aquila, he says, Symmachus, and Theodotion interpreted sechin as frankincense, by which they wish the royal disease to be understood, for which "anything sweet" is considered harmful, whether taken as food or applied to the body — such as figs. But שחין signifies ulcer, not a boil and swelling, not the royal disease.

Verse 22: AND HE SAID. — That is, Hezekiah had said to Isaiah, who was promising his cure, in ver...

22. AND HE SAID. — That is, Hezekiah had said to Isaiah, who was promising his cure, in verse 5; therefore these words belong to that context: for it is a hysteron proteron, as I said; and it is clear from IV Kings XX, 8-9. Say therefore that this verse should be placed before verse 7, where Isaiah responds and gives the sign that the king here requests.

Morally, learn from Isaiah in this chapter how pious and useful it is to visit the sick, and for the sick to be visited by holy people, and how sincerely we ought to warn the sick about death and eternity, that they may prepare themselves for it: for thus Isaiah here freely admonished King Hezekiah, saying: "Set your house in order, for you shall die, and not live;" and thereby he obtained both health and 15 years of life; indeed, he actually healed him through the poultice of figs, in verse 21.

Thus Gallicanus the Martyr, a man of consular rank, adorned with triumphal insignia and dear to the Emperor Constantine, having been converted to the faith of Christ by Saints John and Paul, withdrew with St. Hilarinus to the mouth of the Tiber and devoted himself entirely to hospitality and the service of the sick. When the fame of this spread throughout the whole world, many coming from everywhere saw the man, formerly a patrician and consul, washing the feet of the poor, setting the table, pouring water on their hands, carefully ministering to the sick, and performing all other offices of piety: and by these acts he merited martyrdom, and prepared himself for it. For he was martyred by Julian the Apostate. So Baronius in the Martyrology for June 25, from Usuard and Ado.

A certain man named Apollonius, having renounced the world and settled on Mount Nitria, and being unable to learn any trade or letters because he was advanced in age, during the twenty years he lived on the mountain had this occupation: with his own money and by his own labors he would buy in Alexandria medicinal supplies of every kind, and would provide them to the whole community for their illnesses. He could be seen until the ninth hour running about visiting the monasteries, entering doors and seeing whether anyone was bedridden. He would carry raisins, pomegranates, eggs, fine wheat bread, and whatever the sick needed. This servant of Christ found this manner of life profitable for himself until his old age. So Palladius in the Lausiac History, chapter IV, and Nicephorus, book XI, chapter XXXV.

Placilla, the wife of Emperor Theodosius, showed a wonderful care for the sick and the disabled, and served them with marvelous charity. For she would regularly visit their dwellings, and whatever each one needed, she would provide it. Going around the hospitals of the churches, she would tend to those confined to bed with serious illnesses. For she not only touched their pots and tasted their broths; but she also brought dishes, set out bread, carried away scraps of food, washed cups, and diligently and cheerfully performed all other tasks that are the duties of servants and maids. To those who tried to prevent her from the ministry she performed with her own hands, she was accustomed to say: "It is fitting indeed for imperial power to bestow gold; but I offer the work of my own hands in place of imperial power itself, to Him who once bestowed it upon me." So Nicephorus, book XII, chapter XIII, and John Nauclerus, volume II of Generations, chapter XIII.

St. Radegund, queen of France, had established this law for herself: that every Lord's Day, having gathered the poor together, she would offer them drink with her own hand. When lepers came and identified themselves by a signal, she would kiss their faces. Then having set the table, carrying warm water, she would wash their faces, anoint their hands and ulcers, and again she herself would serve them, feeding each one individually. To those departing she would offer small gifts of gold or clothing. When her servant said: My lady, who will kiss you, who so embrace lepers? she kindly replied: "Truly, if you will not kiss me, I have no care about it," says Fortunatus in her Life, book I, chapter XXXIX.

With what care and kindness Eustochium served her mother St. Paula when she was ill, St. Jerome recounts in the Epitaph of Paula. Similar things about St. Mary of Oignies are related by Cardinal Jacques de Vitry, book II of her Life, chapter III; about St. Catherine of Siena, by Raymund in her Life. The ardor of St. Bernardino shone out above other saints in this regard: for when in the year of the Lord 1400, which was a Jubilee year, a great plague was raging in Siena with terrible horror and the death of very many, he persuaded twelve young men by his fiery speech to devote themselves entirely to this work under his leadership, which they did, with him leading the way most zealously. What is related of this matter in his Life is worthy of reading, chapters X, XI, XII, under May 20, in Surius. Similar was the charity toward the sick of our Holy Father Ignatius, as is clear from his Life in Maffei, book II, chapter III; and of Xavier, and very many others, as is clear from the Annals of our Society.