Isaiah 38:1-13 ▼

1 In those days Hezekiah became terminally ill. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came and said to him, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Set your house in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.’ ”

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, and have done what pleases you.” 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.

6 And I will rescue you and this city from the grasp of the king of Assyria; I will defend this city.

7 This is the sign to you 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.’ ” So the sun’s shadow 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 of my life I must go to the gates of Sheol; 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; I will not look on humanity any longer with the inhabitants of what is passing away.

12 My 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. By nightfall you make an end of me.

13 I thought until the morning: He will break all my bones like a lion. By nightfall you make an end of me.