Isaiah 38

Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery

1In those days Hezekiah became terminally ill. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Put your affairs in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.’ ”[#2Kg 20:1-6,9-11; 2Ch 32:24; #Lit Command your house; #2Sm 17:23; #Lit live]

2Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord .

3He said, “Please, Lord , remember how I have walked before You faithfully and wholeheartedly, and have done what pleases You.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.[#Gn 17:1; 1Kg 2:4; 3:6; 8:23; 2Kg 18:5-6; Ps 26:3; #Lit what is good in Your eyes; #Dt 6:18]

4Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah:

5“Go and tell Hezekiah that this is what the Lord God of your ancestor David says: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I am going to add 15 years to your life.[#Lit days; #2Kg 18:2,13]

6And I will deliver you and this city from the power of the king of Assyria; I will defend this city.[#Is 31:5; 37:35]

7This is the sign to you from the Lord that He will do what He has promised:[#Is 37:30; #Lit this thing; #Lit said]

8I am going to make the sun’s shadow that goes down on Ahaz’s stairway go back by 10 steps.” So the sun’s shadow went back the 10 steps it had descended.[#Jos 10:12-14; #Lit And the sun]

9A poem by Hezekiah king of Judah after he had been sick and had recovered from his illness:

10I said: In the prime of my life[#Lit quiet; #Lit days; #Ps 102:24]

I must go to the gates of Sheol;

I am deprived of the rest of my years.

11I said: I will never see the Lord ,

the Lord in the land of the living;

I will not look on humanity any longer

with the inhabitants of what is passing away.

12My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me

like a shepherd’s tent.

I have rolled up my life like a weaver;

He cuts me off from the loom.

You make an end of me from day until night.

13I thought until the morning:

He will break all my bones like a lion;

You make an end of me day and night.

14I chirp like a swallow or a crane;

I moan like a dove.

My eyes grow weak looking upward.

Lord, I am oppressed; support me.

15What can I say?

He has spoken to me,

and He Himself has done it.

I walk along slowly all my years

because of the bitterness of my soul,

16Lord, because of these promises people live,[#Ps 119:71,75]

and in all of them is the life of my spirit as well;

You have restored me to health

and let me live.

17Indeed, it was for my own welfare

that I had such great bitterness;

but Your love has delivered me

from the Pit of destruction,

for You have thrown all my sins behind Your back.

18For Sheol cannot thank You;

Death cannot praise You.

Those who go down to the Pit

cannot hope for Your faithfulness.

19The living, only the living can thank You,

as I do today;

a father will make Your faithfulness known to children.

20The Lord will save me;[#Lit to]

we will play stringed instruments

all the days of our lives

at the house of the Lord .

21Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a lump of pressed figs and apply it to his infected skin, so that he may recover.”[#2Kg 20:7-8]

22And Hezekiah had asked, “What is the sign that I will go up to the Lord ’s temple? ”

© 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee. All rights reserved.
Published by: LifeWay Christian Resources