Isaiah 38:9–20

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

¹⁰I said, In the noontide of my days

I must depart;

I am consigned to the gates of Sheol

for the rest of my years.

¹¹I said, I shall not see the Lord

in the land of the living;

I shall look upon man no more

among the inhabitants of the world.

¹²My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me

like a shepherd’s tent;

like a weaver I have rolled up my life;

he cuts me off from the loom;

from day to night thou dost bring me to an end;^g

¹³I cry for help^h until morning;

like a lion he breaks all my bones;

from day to night thou dost bring me to an end.^g

¹⁴Like a swallow or a craneⁱ I clamor,

I moan like a dove.

My eyes are weary with looking upward.

O Lord, I am oppressed; be thou my security!

¹⁵But what can I say? For he has spoken to me,

and he himself has done it.

All my sleep has fled^j

because of the bitterness of my soul.

¹⁶O Lord, by these things men live,

and in all these is the life of my spirit.^k

Oh, restore me to health and make me live!

¹⁷Lo, it was for my welfare

that I had great bitterness;

but thou hast held back^l my life

from the pit of destruction,

for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.

¹⁸For Sheol cannot thank thee,

death cannot praise thee;

those who go down to the pit cannot hope

for thy faithfulness.

¹⁹The living, the living, he thanks thee,

as I do this day;

the father makes known to the children

thy faithfulness.

²⁰The Lord will save me,

and we will sing to stringed instruments

all the days of our life,

at the house of the Lord.