Isaiah 38
38
Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery
1In those days Hezekiah became terminally ill. # 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: ‘Put your affairs in order, # Lit Command your house # 2Sm 17:23 for you are about to die; you will not recover.’ ” # 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, # Gn 17:1; 1Kg 2:4; 3:6; 8:23; 2Kg 18:5-6; Ps 26:3 and have done what pleases You.” # Lit what is good in Your eyes # Dt 6:18 And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
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 # Is 37:30 from the Lord that He will do what # Lit this thing He has promised: # Lit said 8I am going to make the sun’s shadow that goes down on Ahaz’s stairway go back by 10 steps.” # Jos 10:12-14 So the sun’s shadow # Lit And the sun went back the 10 steps it had descended.
9A poem by Hezekiah king of Judah after he had been sick and had recovered from his illness:
10I said: In the prime # Lit quiet of my life # Lit days # Ps 102:24
I must go to the gates of Sheol; # Ps 107:18
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; # Ps 27:13; 116:9
I will not look on humanity any longer
with the inhabitants of what is passing away. # Some Hb mss, Tg read of the world
12My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me
like a shepherd’s tent. # 2Co 5:1,4; 2Pt 1:13-14
I have rolled up my life like a weaver; # Jb 7:6; Heb 1:12
He cuts me off from the loom. # Lit thrum # Jb 6:9
You make an end of me from day until night. # Jb 4:20; Ps 73:14
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. # Is 59:11; Ezk 7:16; Nah 2:7
My eyes grow weak looking upward.
Lord, I am oppressed; support me. # Jb 17:3; Ps 119:122
15What can I say?
He has spoken to me,
and He Himself has done it.
I walk along slowly all my years # 1Kg 21:27
because of the bitterness of my soul, # 1Sm 1:10; Ezk 27:31; Jb 3:20; 7:11; 10:1
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 # Ps 39:13
and let me live. # Ps 119:25
17Indeed, it was for my own welfare
that I had such great bitterness; # Heb 12:11
but Your love has delivered me
from the Pit of destruction, # 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. # Is 43:25; Jr 31:34; Mc 7:19
18For Sheol cannot thank You;
Death cannot praise You. # Ps 6:5; 30:9; 88:10-12; 115:17
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. # Dt 6:7; 11:19; Ps 78:5-7
20The Lord will # Lit to save me;
we will play stringed instruments
all the days of our lives
at the house of the Lord. # Ps 23:6; 116:17-19
21Now Isaiah # 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.” 22And Hezekiah had asked, “What is the sign that I will go up to the Lord’s temple? ”
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Isaiah 38: HCSB
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