Isaiah 38

38^*aIn those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And ^bIsaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, ^†Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live. ²Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and ^cprayed unto the Lord, ³And said, Remember now, O Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept ^†sore. ⁴Then came the word of the Lord to Isaiah, saying, ⁵Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years. ⁶And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria: and ^dI will defend this city. ⁷And this shall be a sign unto thee from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that he hath spoken; ^8eBehold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the ^†sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down.

⁹The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sickness:

^10fI said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to ^gthe gates of the grave:

I am deprived of the residue of my years.

¹¹I said, I shall not see ^hthe Lord, even ^hthe Lord, ⁱin the land of the living:

I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world.

¹²Mine age is departed, and is removed from me ^kas a shepherd’s tent:

I have cut off ^llike a weaver my life: ^mhe will cut me off ^||with pining sickness:

ⁿFrom day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.

¹³I reckoned ⁿtill morning, that, ^oas a lion, so will he break all my bones:

ⁿFrom day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.

¹⁴Like ^pa crane or ^pa swallow, so did I ^qchatter:

I did ^qrmourn as a dove:

^sMine eyes fail with looking upward:

O Lord, I am oppressed; ^||tundertake for me.

¹⁵What shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it:

I shall ^ugo softly all my years ^vin the bitterness of my soul.

¹⁶O Lord, ^wby these things men live,

And in all these things is the life of my spirit:

So wilt thou recover me, and ^wmake me to live.

¹⁷Behold, ^||for peace I had great bitterness:

But ^†thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption:

For ^xthou hast cast all my sins ^ybehind thy back.

¹⁸For ^zthe grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee:

^aThey that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.

^19bThe living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day:

^cThe father to the children shall make known thy truth.

²⁰The Lord was ready to save me:

Therefore we will sing my songs to ^dthe stringed instruments

All the days of our life in the house of the Lord.

²¹For ^eIsaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaister upon the boil, and he shall recover. ^22fHezekiah also had said, What is the sign ^gthat I shall go up to the house of the Lord?