◄ Isaiah 38 ►
English Standard Version

Hezekiah’s Sickness and Recovery

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.”a 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: 5“Go 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.b 6I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and will defend this city.

7“This 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.c

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

10I said, In the middled 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 myselfe 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, 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?”

Footnotes:
a 1 Or live; also verses 9, 21
b 5 Hebrew to your days
c 8 The meaning of the Hebrew verse is uncertain
d 10 Or In the quiet
e 13 Or (with Targum) I cried for help
ESV Text Edition® (2016).

The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved.

The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) is adapted from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. All rights reserved.

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