(1.) That he was raised up from great extremity (v. 17): Behold, for peace I had great bitterness. When, upon the defeat of Sennacherib, he expected nothing but an uninterrupted peace to himself and his government, he was suddenly seized with sickness, which embittered all his comforts to him, and went to such a height that it seemed to be the bitterness of death itself—bitterness, bitterness, nothing but gall and wormwood. This was his condition when God sent him seasonable relief.