Isaiah 38:1-19 ▼

1 In those days Hezekiah was stricken with a terminal illness. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz visited him and told him, |This is what the LORD says, 'Give instructions to your household, for you are about to die; you will not get well.'|

2 Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD,

3 Please, LORD. Remember how I have served you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion, and how I have carried out your will.| Then Hezekiah wept bitterly.

4 The LORD told 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 will add fifteen years to your life,

6 and rescue you and this city from the king of Assyria. I will shield this city.|'|

7 Isaiah replied, |This is your sign from the LORD confirming that the LORD will do what he has said:

8 Look, I will make the shadow go back ten steps on the stairs of Ahaz.| And then the shadow went back ten steps.

9 This is the prayer of King Hezekiah of Judah when he was sick and then recovered from his illness:

10 I thought, 'In the middle of my life I must walk through the gates of Sheol, I am deprived of the rest of my years.'

11 I thought, 'I will no longer see the LORD in the land of the living, I will no longer look on humankind with the inhabitants of the world.

12 My dwelling place is removed and taken away from me like a shepherd's tent. I rolled up my life like a weaver rolls cloth; from the loom he cuts me off. You turn day into night and end my life.

13 I cry out until morning; like a lion he shatters all my bones; you turn day into night and end my life.

14 Like a swallow or a thrush I chirp, I coo like a dove; my eyes grow tired from looking up to the sky. O sovereign master, I am oppressed; help me!

15 What can I say? He has decreed and acted. I will walk slowly all my years because I am overcome with grief.

16 O sovereign master, your decrees can give men life; may years of life be restored to me. Restore my health and preserve my life.'

17 Look, the grief I experienced was for my benefit. You delivered me from the pit of oblivion. For you removed all my sins from your sight.

18 Indeed Sheol does not give you thanks; death does not praise you. Those who descend into the pit do not anticipate your faithfulness.

19 The living person, the living person, he gives you thanks, as I do today. A father tells his sons about your faithfulness.