Isaiah Chapter 38 verse 18 Holy Bible

ASV Isaiah 38:18

For Sheol cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee: They that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.
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BBE Isaiah 38:18

For the underworld is not able to give you praise, death gives you no honour: for those who go down into the underworld there is no hope in your mercy.
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DARBY Isaiah 38:18

For not Sheol shall praise thee, nor death celebrate thee; they that go down into the pit do not hope for thy truth.
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KJV Isaiah 38:18

For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.
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WBT Isaiah 38:18


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WEB Isaiah 38:18

For Sheol can't praise you, death can't celebrate you: Those who go down into the pit can't hope for your truth.
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YLT Isaiah 38:18

For Sheol doth not confess Thee, Death doth not praise Thee, Those going down to the pit hope not for Thy truth.
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Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 18. The grave cannot praise thee (cormpare the comment on ver. 11). It is avoiding the plain force of these passages to say that Hezekiah only means that those who go to Hades in a state of condemnation cannot be expected there to praise God (Kay). He speaks broadly and generally of all: "The living, the living, shall praise thee; Sheol cannot praise thee; Death cannot celebrate thee." Manifestly, though he believes in a future state, it is one in which there is either no energy at all, or at any rate no devotional energy. He may think, with Isaiah. that "the righteous man," when he is "taken away," will "enter into peace" (Isaiah 57:1, 2); but absolute "peace" precludes energy (see Arist., 'Eth. Nit.,' 1. 10. ยง 2). Hezekiah shrinks from losing all his activities, including his sense of personal communion with God. He does not, perhaps, "look on the condition of the faithful departed as one of comfortless gloom;" but he views it as one of deprivation, and is unwilling to enter into it. It was by the coming of Christ and the preaching of his gospel that "life and immortality" were first truly "brought to light" (2 Timothy 1:10).

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(18) For the grave . . .--i.e., Sheol, or Hades. We return to the king's thoughts of the dim shadow-world, Death and Sheol (joined together, as in Isaiah 28:15; Psalm 6:5). In that region of dimness there are no psalms of thanksgiving, no loud hallelujahs. The thought of spiritual energies developed and intensified after death is essentially one which belongs to the "illuminated" immortality (2Timothy 1:10), of Christian thought. (Comp. Psalm 6:5; Psalm 30:9; Psalm 88:11-12; Psalm 115:17; Ecclesiastes 9:4-5; Ecclesiastes 9:10). . . .