Isaiah 38:17

Behold for peace, it is bitter for me, yea it is bitter When I was notified of the tidings of peace, even that was bitter for me, for my recovery was dependent upon the merit of others (v. 5): “So has the Lord God of your father David said...”; (supra 37:35) “For My sake and for the sake of David your father.” Here You let me know that I am a sinner (See Ber. 10b). (So did the Sages explain it, but in order to reconcile the verse, it appears to mean: Behold for peace, it was bitter for me, yea it was bitter - When I was given the news by You that You would save me from the hand of Sennacherib, it was bitter for me, yea it was bitter because of my illness, that I was close to death, and I did not rejoice with the news.) But You desired my soul, that it descend not to the grave.

Behold, to them that obey the law, peace shall be multiplied before Thee; but Thou wilt bring bitterness to the wicked: therefore, when I knew the day of my death, I poured out my tears in prayer before Thee; my bitterness was great, but Thou hast had pleasure in my life, not to destroy it; for Thou hast cast all my sins far away from Thy presence.

Behold when I hoped for peace, etc., when I was in the middle of my years, (Hezekiah was 39 years old, when he was taken ill); for when the choler is predominant in man, he is ailing in his youth, but healthy in his old age; the reverse takes place, if the phlegm is predominant; but the middle years are generally expected to be peaceful.

מר לי מר I had great bitterness. The repetition indicates emphasis. Some derive מר from תמורה

the reverse. בלי Some compare it with בלתי I am waxed old (Gen. 18:12), and consider it as a noun like פרי fruit meaning corruption. Others say that בלי means in this verse not, and that the sentence is inverted. The first explanation is preferable: And thou hast desired my soul, and brought me up from the pit of corruption.

For thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. A figure taken from man, that does not see, what is behind his back; for we know, that God, the Creator of all bodies, has no body. This verse proves the assertion of some authorities, that in consequence of a sin committed by him, Hezekiah should have died earlier; and since, as they otherwise stated, he who dies before his fifty-second year suffers the punishment כָּרְת to be cut off,: He who dies in the fiftieth year of his life, dies by the punishment of כָּרֵת; he who dies in the fifty-second year enjoys a death like that of the prophet Samuel. he was grieved, that he should be punished with כָּרְת, not being conscious of having committed a sin deserving it; he says therefore: Remember now, how I have walked before Thee, and have done what is good in Thine eyes (ver. 3); he mentions two things, the thought and the practice. Tradition says, that he had not yet obeyed the commandment to marry..