Isaiah 38:3

38:3 “Please, Lord. Remember how I have served you ¹  faithfully and with wholehearted devotion, ²  and how I have carried out your will.” ³  Then Hezekiah wept bitterly. ⁴ 

Isaiah 40:2

40:2 “Speak kindly to ⁵  Jerusalem, ⁶  and tell her

that her time of warfare is over, ⁷ 

that her punishment is completed. ⁸ 

For the Lord has made her pay double ⁹  for all her sins.”

[38:3]  ¹ tn Heb “walked before you.” For a helpful discussion of the background and meaning of this Hebrew idiom, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 254.

[38:3]  ² tn Heb “and with a complete heart”; KJV, ASV “with a perfect heart.”

[38:3]  ³ tn Heb “and that which is good in your eyes I have done.”

[38:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “wept with great weeping”; NCV “cried loudly”; TEV “began to cry bitterly.”

[40:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “speak to the heart of Jerusalem.” Jerusalem is personified as a woman.

[40:2]  ⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[40:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “that she is filled [with] her warfare.” Some understand צָבָא (tsavah, “warfare”) as meaning “hard service” or “compulsory labor” in this context.

[40:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “that her punishment is accepted [as satisfactory].”

[40:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “for she has received from the hand of the Lord double.” The principle of the double portion in punishment is also seen in Jer 16:18; 17:18 and Rev 18:6. For examples of the double portion in Israelite law, see Exod 22:4, 7, 9 (double restitution by a thief) and Deut 21:17 (double inheritance portion for the firstborn).