When Jesus heard that,.... That his friend Lazarus was sick,he said; either to his disciples, or to the messenger or messengers that brought the account to him, and that on purpose to yield some relief to the afflicted family when it should be reported to them:this sickness is not unto death; it was to issue in death, but not in death which was to continue, or under which Lazarus was to continue till the general resurrection; for though he should die, yet he should be so quickly restored again to life, that it scarcely deserved the name of death.
The Jews distinguish between sickness and sickness; there are some that are sick, the greater part of whom are, Myyxl, "for life"; and there are others that are "sick", the greater part of whom are, htyml, "for death" , or are sick unto death, whose sickness issues in death; but this of Lazarus's was not to be unto death, at least not finally:but for the glory of God; of his power and goodness in raising him again:that the Son of God might be glorified thereby; that is, that his glory, as the Son of God, might be made manifest in the resurrection of him from the dead; see Joh 2:11.
T. Bab. Kiddushin, fol. 71.