Isaiah 38:9–20

⁹The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness: ¹⁰I said, In the meridian of my days I shall go to the gates of Sheol: I am deprived of the rest of my years. ¹¹I said, I shall not see Jah, Jah in the land of the living. With those who dwell where all has ceased to be, I shall behold man no more. ¹²Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd’s tent. I have cut off like a weaver my life. He separateth me from the thrum: —from day to night thou wilt make an end of me. ¹³I kept still until the morning; …as a lion, so doth he break all my bones. From day to night thou wilt make an end of me. ¹⁴Like a swallow or a crane, so did I chatter; I mourned as a dove; mine eyes failed with looking upward: Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me. ¹⁵What shall I say? He hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it. I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul. ¹⁶Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit; and thou hast recovered me, and made me to live. ¹⁷Behold, instead of peace I had bitterness upon bitterness; but thou hast in love delivered my soul from the pit of destruction; for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. ¹⁸For not Sheol shall praise thee, nor death celebrate thee; they that go down into the pit do not hope for thy truth. ¹⁹The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth. ²⁰Jehovah was purposed to save me. —And we will play upon my stringed instruments all the days of our life, in the house of Jehovah.