Isaiah 38 · a question people ask

"For Sheol can’t praise you" (38:18). Is Hezekiah teaching what happens after death?

In the text

The writing gives these words as the reason Hezekiah praises now: "For Sheol can’t praise you. Death can’t celebrate you. Those who go down into the pit can’t hope for your truth" (38:18), and then, "The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do today" (38:19) (tap praise). He wrote them "when he had been sick, and had recovered of his sickness" (38:9), and the verses set Sheol, death and the pit against the living who praise. The chapter doesn't set out what the dead know or do, and these notes build no teaching about life after death on it. Other passages speak of Sheol and of the dead in their own words, among them Psalm 88 and Ecclesiastes 9, and the notes on those chapters look at them.

The verses

“The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and had recovered of his sickness:”
Isaiah 38:9 · World English Bible
“For Sheol can’t praise you. Death can’t celebrate you. Those who go down into the pit can’t hope for your truth. The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do today. The father shall make known your truth to the children.”
Isaiah 38:18-19 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Isaiah 38

Isaiah 38: The living, the living

The LORD's first word said Hezekiah would "not live" (38:1), and the same Hebrew verb comes back four more times in the chapter, for his recovery and his song: "You restore me, and cause me to live" (38:16). And the verb of Rabshakeh's "make a pledge" (36:8) is in Hezekiah's plea to the Lord: "Be my security" (38:14).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions