Isaiah 38:9–20

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

¹⁰I was the one who said, “I must go in the quiet of my days;

I am summoned through the gates of Sheol for the rest of my years.”

¹¹I said, “I shall not see Yah! Yah in the land of the living!

I shall no more look at humankind among the inhabitants of the world.

¹²My dwelling place is pulled up and removed from me like the tent of my shepherd;

I have rolled up my life like a weaver.

He cuts me off from the thrum;

from day to night you bring me to an end.

¹³I lie down^h until morning;

like a lion, so he breaks all my bones;

from day to night you bring me to an end.

¹⁴Like a horse or a crane, so I chirp;

I moan like a dove.

My eyes are weak toward the height.

Lord, I have oppression; lend me support!

¹⁵What can I say? Forⁱ he has spoken to me,

and he himself has done it.

I will walk slowly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.

¹⁶Lord, they live by them, and the life of my spirit belongs to all among them.

And restore me to health and keep me alive!

¹⁷Look! Bitterness was bitter to me for peace.

And you were the one who loved^j my life from the pit of destruction,

for you have cast all my sins behind your back.

¹⁸For Sheol cannot praise you; death cannot praise you.

Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for your faithfulness.

¹⁹The living, the living one praises you like me today;

a father will make your faithfulness known to children.

²⁰Yahweh, save me, and we will play my music on stringed instruments all the days of our lives at the temple^k of Yahweh.”