Isaiah 38:9–20

⁹After Hezekiah king of Judah got well, he wrote this song:

¹⁰I said, “I am in the middle of my life.

Do I have to go through the gates of death?

Will I have the rest of my life taken away from me?”

¹¹I said, “I will not see the Lord

in the land of the living again.

I will not again see the people

who live on the earth.

¹²Like a shepherd’s tent,

my home has been pulled down and taken from me.

I am finished

like the cloth a weaver rolls up and cuts from the loom. ⁿ

In one day you brought me to this end.

¹³All night I cried loudly.

Like a lion, he crushed all my bones.

In one day you brought me to this end.

¹⁴I cried like a bird

and moaned like a dove.

My eyes became tired as I looked to the heavens.

Lord, I have troubles. Please help me.”

¹⁵What can I say?

The Lord told me what would happen and then made it happen.

I have had these troubles in my soul,

so now I will be humble all my life.

¹⁶Lord, because of you, people live.

Because of you, my spirit also lives;

you made me well and let me live.

¹⁷It was for my own good

that I had such troubles.

Because you love me very much,

you did not let me die

but threw my sins

far away.

¹⁸People in the place of the dead cannot praise you;

those who have died cannot sing praises to you;

those who die don’t trust you

to help them.

¹⁹The people who are alive are the ones who praise you.

They praise you as I praise you today.

A father should tell his children

that you provide help.

²⁰The Lord saved me,

so we will play songs on stringed instruments

in the Temple of the Lord

all the days of our lives.