Isaiah 38

Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery

¹In those days Hezekiah became ill to the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says Yahweh, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’ ”

²Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to Yahweh

³and said, “Remember now, O Yahweh, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart and have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept greatly.[#38:3 Lit great weeping]

⁴Then the word of Yahweh came to Isaiah, saying,

⁵“Go and say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says Yahweh, the God of your father David, “I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears; behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.[#38:5 Lit days]

⁶And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city.” ’

⁷“Now this shall be the sign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do this word that He has spoken:

⁸Behold, I will cause the shadow on the stairway, which has gone down with the sun on the stairway of Ahaz, to go back ten steps.” So the sun’s shadow went back ten steps on the stairway on which it had gone down.

⁹A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery:[#38:9 Lit he lived after his illness]

¹⁰I said, “In the middle of my life[#38:10 Lit days]

I am to enter the gates of Sheol;

I am to be deprived of the rest of my years.”

¹¹I said, “I will not see Yah,

Yah in the land of the living;

I will look on man no more among the inhabitants of the world.

¹²“Like a shepherd’s tent my dwelling is pulled up and removed from me;

As a weaver I rolled up my life.

He cuts me off from the loom;

From day until night You make an end of me.

¹³“I soothed my soul until morning.

Like a lion—so He shatters all my bones;

From day until night You make an end of me.

¹⁴“Like a swallow, like a crane, so I chirped;

I moan like a dove;

My eyes look wistfully to the heights;

O Lord, I am oppressed, be my security.

¹⁵¶“What shall I say?

Indeed, He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done it;

I will wander about all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.

¹⁶“O Lord, by these things men live,

And in all these is the life of my spirit;

O restore me to health and let me live!

¹⁷¶“Behold, for my own well-being I had great bitterness;

But it is You who has held back my soul from the pit of nothingness,

For You have cast all my sins behind Your back.

¹⁸“For Sheol cannot thank You;

Death cannot praise You;

Those who go down to the pit cannot keep watch for Your truth.

¹⁹“It is the living, the living who give thanks to You, as I do today;

A father makes known to his sons about Your truth.

²⁰“Yahweh is here to save me;

So we will play my songs on stringed instruments

All the days of our life at the house of Yahweh.”

²¹Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take up a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may live.”

²²Then Hezekiah had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of Yahweh?”