XXXVIII. * aIn those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And bIsaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, * Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live. 2 Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and cprayed unto the Lord, 3 and said, Remember now, O Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept * sore. 4 Then came the word of the Lord to Isaiah, saying, 5 Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years. 6 And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria: and dI will defend this city. 7 And this shall be a sign unto thee from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that he hath spoken; 8 ebehold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the * sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down.

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

10  fI said, in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to gthe gates of the grave:

I am deprived of the residue of my years.

11  I said, I shall not see hthe Lord, even hthe Lord, iin the land of the living:

I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world.

12  Mine age is departed, and is removed from me kas a shepherd’s tent:

I have cut off llike a weaver my life: mhe will cut me off * with pining sickness:

nFrom day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.

13  I reckoned ntill morning, that, oas a lion, so will he break all my bones:

nFrom day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.

14  Like pa crane or pa swallow, so did I qchatter:

I did qrmourn as a dove:

sMine eyes fail with looking upward:

O Lord, I am oppressed; * tundertake for me.

15  What shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it:

I shall ugo softly all my years vin the bitterness of my soul.

16  O Lord, wby these things men live,

And in all these things is the life of my spirit:

So wilt thou recover me, and wmake me to live.

17  Behold, * for peace I had great bitterness:

But * thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption:

For xthou hast cast all my sins ybehind thy back.

18  For zthe grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee:

aThey that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.

19  bThe living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day:

cThe father to the children shall make known thy truth.

20  The Lord was ready to save me:

Therefore we will sing my songs to dthe stringed instruments

All the days of our life in the house of the Lord.

21 For eIsaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaister upon the boil, and he shall recover. 22 fHezekiah also had said, What is the sign gthat I shall go up to the house of the Lord?