I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the rest of my years.
All Commentaries on Isaiah 38:10 Go To Isaiah 38
Jerome
AD 420
“Thus, in desperation I said, ‘I will go to the gates of the netherworld,’ ” referring either to death by the common law of nature or to those gates from which the psalmist was liberated and therefore sings, “You who raise me from the gates of death, that I might declare all your praises in the gates of the daughter of Zion.” I believe that these are the same gates of the netherworld that did not prevail against Peter, who fell asleep in the fullness of his days. The saints complete their days, like Abraham, who “died full of years at an old age.” Sinners and the impious, however, die in the midst of their days, about which the psalmist also speaks: “Men of blood and deception will not complete half of their days.” For they neither perform works of virtue nor strive to amend their faults through penance. Hence, they will be led to the netherworld with their lives half finished and in the darkness of error.
