Isaiah

38 ¹In those days Hezekiah became sick to the point of death. Isaiah, the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him and said to him, “Thus says the LORD,

The Lord

‘Set your house in order, because you are about die; and you will not live.’”

Isaiah

²Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD. ³And he said,

Hezekiah

“Please, O  Lord, remember now how I have walked before you in truth and with a whole heart, and I have done what is good in your sight.”

Isaiah

And Hezekiah wept bitterly. ⁴And the word of the LORD came to Isaiah, saying,

The Lord

⁵“Go and say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father, I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your days. ⁶And I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city.’”

Isaiah

²¹Isaiah said, “Let them take a cake of figs and apply to the boil that he may recover.” Also, Hezekiah said,

Hezekiah

²²“What is the sign that I will go up to the House of the LORD?”

Isaiah

⁷And this is the sign to you from the LORD that the LORD will do this thing concerning which He has spoken:

The Lord

⁸‘Behold, I will turn back the shadow cast by the sun, which had descended on the steps of Ahaz, by ten steps.’”

Isaiah

Then the sun turned back the ten steps it had descended.

Isaiah

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

Hezekiah

¹⁰I said in the half of my days, “I will go into the gates of Sheol.
I am deprived of the rest of my years.”

¹¹I said, “I will not see the LORD in the land of the living;
I will not look upon a human again, or the inhabitants of the world.

¹²My dwelling is pulled up
and is removed from me like a tent of a shepherd.

I have rolled up my life like a weaver;
from the loom He has cut me away.

From day to night, You have finished me.
¹³I cried out until morning; like a lion He broke all my bones.
From day to night, You have finished me.

¹⁴I chirp, like a swallow, a crane;
I moan like a dove.

My eyes grow weary from looking upward. O Lord, I am in distress; be my pledge of surety. ¹⁵What can I say? Since He has responded to me, and He has [healed me][1]. All of my years I move slowly [that I may not walk] in the bitterness of my soul.

¹⁶O Lord, [You who are] the life of my spirit, [in whom I live],
may You restore me to health and cause me to live;

[and in all these things I will praise you]. ¹⁷Behold, it was bitterness for me, bitterness [instead of peace]. But You in love have saved me from the pit of destruction, for You have cast all my sins behind Your back.

¹⁸For Sheol does not thank You,
death does not praise You,

those who go down to the pit do not hope for Your truth. ¹⁹The living, the living, he will thank You, like me on this day. A father makes known Your truth to the children. ²⁰O  Lord, save me, and we will play music on stringed instruments, all the days of our lives in the House of the LORD.”