Isaiah 38

¹In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death . And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, Thus says the Lord: Set your house in order , for you shall die , you shall not recover .

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

³and said , Please , O Lord, remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart , and have done what is good in your sight . And Hezekiah wept bitterly .

⁴Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah :

⁵Go and say to Hezekiah , Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father : I have heard your prayer ; I have seen your tears . Behold , I will add fifteen years to your life .

⁶I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria , and will defend this city .

⁷This shall be the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that he has promised :

⁸Behold , I will make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the dial of Ahaz turn back ten steps . So the sun turned back on the dial the ten steps by which it had declined .

⁹A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah , after he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness :

¹⁰I said , In the middle of my days I must depart ; I am consigned to the gates of Sheol for the rest of my years .

¹¹I said , I shall not see the Lord, the Lord in the land of the living ; I shall look on man no more among the inhabitants of the world .

¹²My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me like a shepherd’s tent ; like a weaver I have rolled up my life ; he cuts me off from the loom ; from day to night you bring me to an end ;

¹³I calmed myself until morning ; like a lion he breaks all my bones ; from day to night you bring me to an end .

¹⁴Like a swallow or a crane I chirp ; I moan like a dove . My eyes are weary with looking upward . O Lord Lord, I am oppressed ; be my pledge of safety !

¹⁵What shall I say ? For he has spoken to me, and he himself has done it. I walk slowly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul .

¹⁶O Lord , by these things men live , and in all these is the life of my spirit . Oh restore me to health and make me live !

¹⁷Behold , it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness ; but in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction , for you have cast all my sins behind your back .

¹⁸For Sheol does not thank you; death does not praise you; those who go down to the pit do not hope for your faithfulness .

¹⁹The living , the living , he thanks you, as I do this day ; the father makes known to the children your faithfulness .

²⁰The Lord will save me, and we will play my music on stringed instruments all the days of our lives , at the house of the Lord.

²¹Now Isaiah had said , Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil , that he may recover .

²²Hezekiah also had said , What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?