Isaiah 38

Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery

1 In those days Hezekiah became terminally ill.  * 38:1–8 2Kg 20:1–6,9–11; 2Ch 32:24 The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came and said to him, "This is what the Lord says: ‘Set your house in order,  * 38:1 2Sm 17:23 for you are about to die; you will not recover.’ "  * 38:1 Lit live

2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord. 3 He said, "Please, Lord, remember how I have walked before you faithfully and wholeheartedly,  * 38:3 Gn 17:1; 1Kg 2:4; 3:6; 8:23; 2Kg 18:5–6; Ps 26:3 and have done what pleases you."  * 38:3 Dt 6:18 And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

4 Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah: 5 "Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘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 fifteen years to your life.  * 38:5 Lit days, also in v. 10,* 38:5 2Kg 18:2,136 And I will rescue you and this city from the grasp of the king of Assyria; I will defend this city.  * 38:6 Is 31:5; 37:357 This is the sign to you  * 38:7 Is 37:30 from the Lord that he will do what he has promised: 8 I am going to make the sun’s shadow that goes down on the stairway of Ahaz go back by ten steps.’ "  * 38:8 Jos 10:12–14 So the sun’s shadow  * 38:8 Lit And the sun went back the ten steps it had descended.

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

10 I said: In the prime  * 38:10 Lit quiet of my life  * 38:10 Ps 102:24

I must go to the gates of Sheol;  * 38:10 Ps 107:18

I am deprived of the rest of my years.

11 I said: I will never see the  Lord,

the Lord in the land of the living;  * 38:11 Ps 27:13; 116:9

I will not look on humanity any longer

with the inhabitants of what is passing away.  * 38:11 Some Hb mss, Tg read of the world

12 My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me

like a shepherd’s tent.  * 38:12 2Co 5:1,4; 2Pt 1:13–14

I have rolled up my life like a weaver;  * 38:12 Jb 7:6; Heb 1:12

he cuts me off from the loom.  * 38:12 Jb 6:9

By nightfall  * 38:12 Lit From day until night, also in v. 13 you make an end of me.  * 38:12 Jb 4:20; Ps 73:14

13 I thought until the morning:

He will break all my bones like a lion.

By nightfall you make an end of me.

14 I chirp like a swallow or a crane;

I moan like a dove.  * 38:14 Is 59:11; Ezk 7:16; Nah 2:7

My eyes grow weak looking upward.

Lord, I am oppressed; support me.  * 38:14 Jb 17:3; Ps 119:122

15 What can I say?

He has spoken to me,

and he himself has done it.

I walk along slowly all my years  * 38:15 1Kg 21:27

because of the bitterness of my soul.  * 38:15 1Sm 1:10; Ezk 27:31; Jb 3:20; 7:11; 10:1

16 Lord, by such things people live,  * 38:16 Ps 119:71,75

and in every one of them my spirit finds life;

you have restored me to health  * 38:16 Ps 39:13

and let me live.  * 38:16 Ps 119:25

17 Indeed, it was for my own well-being

that I had such intense bitterness;  * 38:17 Heb 12:11

but your love has delivered me

from the Pit of destruction,  * 38:17 Jb 33:18,30; Ps 103:4; 106:23; Ezk 20:17; Jnh 2:6

for you have thrown all my sins behind your back.  * 38:17 Is 43:25; Jr 31:34; Mc 7:19

18 For Sheol cannot thank you;

Death cannot praise you.  * 38:18 Ps 6:5; 30:9; 88:10–12; 115:17

Those who go down to the Pit

cannot hope for your faithfulness.

19 The living, only the living can thank you,

as I do today;

a father will make your faithfulness known to children.  * 38:19 Dt 6:7; 11:19; Ps 78:5–7

20 The Lord is ready to save me;

we will play stringed instruments

all the days of our lives

at the house of the  Lord.  * 38:20 Ps 23:6; 116:17–19

21 Now Isaiah  * 38:21–22 2Kg 20:7–8 had said, "Let them take a lump of pressed figs and apply it to his infected skin, so that he may recover." 22 And Hezekiah had asked, "What is the sign that I will go up to the Lord’s temple? "