Isaiah 38

¹In those days was Hezekiah sick and near death. Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him, and said to him, “Yahweh says, ‘Set your house in order, for you will die, and not live.’” ²Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to Yahweh, ³and said, “Remember now, Yahweh, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight.” Hezekiah wept bitterly. ⁴Then Yahweh’s word came to Isaiah, saying, ⁵“Go, and tell Hezekiah, ‘Yahweh, the God of David your father, says, “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 I will defend this city. ⁷This shall be the sign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do this thing that he has spoken. ⁸Behold, I will cause the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down on the sundial of Ahaz with the sun, to return backward ten steps. So the sun returned ten steps on the sundial on which it had gone down.”’” ⁹The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and had recovered of his sickness. ¹⁰I said, “In the middle of my life I go into the gates of Sheol. I am deprived of the residue of my years.” ¹¹I said, “I won’t see Yah, Yah in the land of the living. I will see man no more with the inhabitants of the world. ¹²My dwelling is removed, and is carried away from me like a shepherd’s tent. I have rolled up, like a weaver, my life. He will cut me off from the loom. From day even to night you will make an end of me. ¹³I waited patiently until morning. He breaks all my bones like a lion. From day even to night you will make an end of me. ¹⁴I chattered like a swallow or a crane. I moaned like a dove. My eyes weaken looking upward. Lord, I am oppressed. Be my security.” ¹⁵What will I say? He has both spoken to me, and himself has done it. I will walk carefully all my years because of the anguish of my soul. ¹⁶Lord, men live by these things; and my spirit finds life in all of them: you restore me, and cause me to live. ¹⁷Behold, for peace I had great anguish, but you have in love for my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for you have cast all my sins behind your back. ¹⁸For Sheol can’t praise you. Death can’t celebrate you. Those who go down into the pit can’t hope for your truth. ¹⁹The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do today. The father shall make known your truth to the children. ²⁰Yahweh will save me. Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments all the days of our life in Yahweh’s house. ²¹Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a poultice on the boil, and he shall recover.” ²²Hezekiah also had said, “What is the sign that I will go up to Yahweh’s house?”

World English Bible (public domain)