Isaiah 38–39

¹In those days hath Hezekiah been sick unto death, and come in unto him doth Isaiah son of Amoz, the prophet, and saith unto him, ‘Thus said Jehovah: Give a charge to thy house, for thou art dying, and dost not live.’ ²And Hezekiah turneth round his face unto the wall, and prayeth unto Jehovah, ³and saith, ‘I pray thee, O Jehovah, remember, I pray Thee, how I have walked habitually before Thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and that which is good in thine eyes I have done;’ and Hezekiah weepeth—a great weeping. ⁴And a word of Jehovah is unto Isaiah, saying, ⁵Go, and thou hast said to Hezekiah, Thus said Jehovah, God of David thy father, ‘I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tear, lo, I am adding to thy days fifteen years, ⁶and out of the hand of the king of Asshur I deliver thee and this city, and have covered over this city. ⁷And this is to thee the sign from Jehovah, that Jehovah doth this thing that He hath spoken. ⁸Lo, I am bringing back the shadow of the degrees that it hath gone down on the degrees of Ahaz, by the sun, backward ten degrees:’ and the sun turneth back ten degrees in the degrees that it had gone down.

⁹A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah concerning his being sick, when he reviveth from his sickness: ¹⁰‘I—I said in the cutting off of my days, I go in to the gates of Sheol, I have numbered the remnant of mine years. ¹¹I said, I do not see Jah—Jah! In the land of the living, I do not behold man any more, With the inhabitants of the world. ¹²My sojourning hath departed, And been removed from me as a shepherd’s tent, I have drawn together, as a weaver, my life, By weakness it cutteth me off, From day unto night Thou dost end me. ¹³I have set Him till morning as a lion, So doth He break all my bones, From day unto night Thou dost end me. ¹⁴As a crane—a swallow—so I chatter, I mourn as a dove, Drawn up have been mine eyes on high, O Jehovah, oppression is on me, be my surety. ¹⁵ —What do I say? seeing He said to me, And He Himself hath wrought, I go softly all my years for the bitterness of my soul. ¹⁶Lord, by these do men live, And by all in them is the life of my spirit, And Thou savest me, make me also to live, ¹⁷Lo, to peace He changed for me bitterness, And Thou hast delighted in my soul without corruption, For Thou hast cast behind Thy back all my sins. ¹⁸For Sheol doth not confess Thee, Death doth not praise Thee, Those going down to the pit hope not for Thy truth. ¹⁹The living, the living, he doth confess Thee. ²⁰Like myself to-day—a father to sons Doth make known of Thy faithfulness, O Jehovah—to save me: And my songs we sing all days of our lives In the house of Jehovah.’ ²¹And Isaiah saith, ‘Let them take a bunch of figs, and plaster over the ulcer, and he liveth.’ ²²And Hezekiah saith, ‘What is the sign that I go up to the house of Jehovah!’

Chapter 39

¹At that time hath Merodach-Baladan, son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present unto Hezekiah, when he heareth that he hath been sick, and is become strong. ²And Hezekiah rejoiceth over them, and sheweth them the house of his spices, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the good ointment, and all the house of his vessels, and all that hath been found in his treasures; there hath not been a thing in his house, and in all his dominion, that Hezekiah hath not shewed them. ³And Isaiah the prophet cometh in unto king Hezekiah, and saith unto him, ‘What said these men? and whence come they unto thee?’ And Hezekiah saith, ‘From a land afar off they have come unto me—from Babylon.’ ⁴And he saith, ‘What saw they in thy house?’ and Hezekiah saith, ‘All that is in my house they saw; there hath not been a thing that I have not shewed them among my treasures.’

⁵And Isaiah saith unto Hezekiah, ‘Hear a word of Jehovah of Hosts: ⁶Lo, days are coming, and borne hath been all that is in thy house, and that thy fathers have treasured up till this day, to Babylon; there is not left a thing, said Jehovah; ⁷and of thy sons who come forth from thee, whom thou begettest, they take, and they have been eunuchs in a palace of the king of Babylon.’ ⁸And Hezekiah saith unto Isaiah, ‘Good is the word of Jehovah that thou hast spoken;’ and he saith, ‘Because there is peace and truth in my days.’

Chapter 40