Isa 38:21 | KD | STEP | The text of Isaiah is not only curtailed here in a very forced manner, but it has got into confusion; for and are removed entirely from their proper place, although even the Septuagint has them at the close of Hezekiah’s psalm. They have been omitted from their place at the close of through an oversight, and then added in the margin, where they now stand (probably with a sign, to indicate that they were supplied). We therefore insert them here, where they properly belong. “Then Isaiah said they were to bring (K. take ) a fig-cake; and they plaistered (K. brought and covered ) the boil, and he recovered. And Hizkiyahu said (K. to Isaiah ) , What sign is there that (K. Jehovah will heal me, so that I go up ) I shall go up into the house of Jehovah?” As shechı̄n never signifies a plague-spot, but an abscess (indicated by heightened temperature), more especially that of leprosy (cf., ; ), there is no satisfactory ground, as some suppose, for connecting Hezekiah’s illness (taken along with ) with the pestilence which broke out in the Assyrian army. The use of the figs does not help us to decide whether we are to assume that it was a boil ( bubon ) or a carbuncle ( charbon ). Figs were a well-known emmoliens or maturans , and were used to accelerate the rising of the swelling and the subsequent discharge. Isaiah did not show any special medical skill by ordering a softened cake of pressed figs to be laid upon the boil, nor did he expect it to act as a specific, and effect a cure: it was merely intended to promote what had already been declared to be the will of God. על ויּמרהוּ is probably more original than the simpler but less definite על ויּשׂימוּ. Hitzig is wrong in rendering ויּהי, “that it (the boil) may get well;” and Knobel in rendering it, “that he may recover.” It is merely the anticipation of the result so common in the historical writings of Scripture (see at and ), after which the historian goes back a step or two.

‏ Isaiah 38:21

The text of Isaiah is not only curtailed here in a very forced manner, but it has got into confusion; for Isa 38:21 and Isa 38:22 are removed entirely from their proper place, although even the Septuagint has them at the close of Hezekiah’s psalm. They have been omitted from their place at the close of Isa 38:6 through an oversight, and then added in the margin, where they now stand (probably with a sign, to indicate that they were supplied). We therefore insert them here, where they properly belong. “Then Isaiah said they were to bring (K.take)a fig-cake; and they plaistered (K. brought and covered)the boil, and he recovered. And Hizkiyahu said (K.to Isaiah), What sign is there that (K.Jehovah will heal me, so that I go up)I shall go up into the house of Jehovah?” As shechı̄n never signifies a plague-spot, but an abscess (indicated by heightened temperature), more especially that of leprosy (cf., Exo 9:9; Lev 13:18), there is no satisfactory ground, as some suppose, for connecting Hezekiah’s illness (taken along with Isa 33:24) with the pestilence which broke out in the Assyrian army. The use of the figs does not help us to decide whether we are to assume that it was a boil (bubon) or a carbuncle (charbon). Figs were a well-known emmoliens or maturans, and were used to accelerate the rising of the swelling and the subsequent discharge. Isaiah did not show any special medical skill by ordering a softened cake of pressed figs to be laid upon the boil, nor did he expect it to act as a specific, and effect a cure: it was merely intended to promote what had already been declared to be the will of God. על ויּמרהוּ is probably more original than the simpler but less definite על ויּשׂימוּ. Hitzig is wrong in rendering ויּהי, “that it (the boil) may get well;” and Knobel in rendering it, “that he may recover.” It is merely the anticipation of the result so common in the historical writings of Scripture (see at Isa 7:1 and Isa 20:1), after which the historian goes back a step or two.