Isaiah 38

CHAPTER 38

Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery

^1aIn those days Hezekiah became ill to the point of death. And ^bIsaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says Yahweh, ‘^cSet your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’”

²Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to Yahweh

³and said, “^aRemember now, O Yahweh, I beseech You, how I have ^bwalked before You in truth and with a ^cwhole heart and ^dhave done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah ^ewept ¹greatly.

⁴Then the word of Yahweh came to Isaiah, saying,

⁵“Go and say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says Yahweh, the God of your father David, “I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears; behold, I will add ^afifteen years to your ¹life.

⁶“And I will ^adeliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city.” ’

⁷“Now this shall be the ^asign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do this word that He has spoken:

⁸“Behold, I will ^acause the shadow on the stairway, which has gone down with the sun on the stairway of Ahaz, to go back ten steps.” So the ^bsun’s shadow went back ten steps on the stairway on which it had gone down.

⁹A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and ¹recovery:

¹⁰I said, “^aIn the middle of my ¹life

I am to enter the ^bgates of Sheol;

I am to be ^cdeprived of the rest of my years.”

¹¹I said, “I will not see Yah,

Yah ^ain the land of the living;

I will look on man no more among the inhabitants of the world.

¹²“Like a shepherd’s ^atent my dwelling is pulled up and removed from me;

As a ^bweaver I ^crolled up my life.

He ^dcuts me off from the loom;

From ^eday until night You make an end of me.

¹³“I soothed my soul until morning.

^aLike a lion—so He ^bshatters all my bones;

From ^cday until night You make an end of me.

¹⁴“^aLike a swallow, like a crane, so I chirped;

I ^bmoan like a dove;

My ^ceyes look wistfully to the heights;

O Lord, I am oppressed, be my ^dsecurity.

¹⁵“^aWhat shall I say?

¹Indeed, He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done it;

I will ^bwander about all my years because of the ^cbitterness of my soul.

¹⁶“O Lord, ^aby these things men live,

And in all these is the life of my spirit;

^1bO restore me to health and ^clet me live!

¹⁷“Behold, for my own well-being I had great bitterness;

But it is You who has ^1aheld back my soul from the pit of ²nothingness,

For You have ^bcast all my sins behind Your back.

¹⁸“For ^aSheol cannot thank You;

Death cannot praise You;

Those who go down ^bto the pit cannot keep watch for Your truth.

¹⁹“It is the ^aliving, the living who give thanks to You, as I do today;

A ^bfather makes known to his sons about Your truth.

²⁰“Yahweh is here to save me;

So we will ^aplay my songs on stringed instruments

^bAll the days of our life ^cat the house of Yahweh.”

²¹Now ^aIsaiah had said, “Let them take up a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may live.”

²²Then Hezekiah had said, “What is the ^asign that I shall go up to the house of Yahweh?”