Isaiah 38:10-20

10 I said, "I'm enjoying the best years of my life. Must I now go through the gates of death? Will the rest of my years be taken away from me?"
11 I said, "Lord, I'll never see you again while I'm still alive. I'll never see people anymore. I'll never again be with those who live in this world.
12 My body is like a shepherd's tent. It has been pulled down and carried off. My life is like a piece of cloth that I've rolled up. You have cut it off from the loom. In a short period of time you have brought my life to an end.
13 I waited patiently until sunrise. But like a lion you broke all of my bones. In a short period of time you have brought my life to an end.
14 I cried softly like a weak little bird. I groaned like a sad dove. My eyes grew tired as I looked up toward heaven. Lord, I'm in trouble. Please come and help me!
15 "But what can I say? You have promised to heal me. And you yourself have done it. Once I was proud and bitter. But now I will live the rest of my life free of pride.
16 Lord, people find the will to live because you keep your promises. And my spirit also finds life in your promises. You brought me back to health. You let me live.
17 I'm sure it was for my benefit that I suffered such great pain. You love me. You kept me from going down into the pit of death. You have put all of my sins behind your back.
18 People in the grave can't praise you. Dead people can't sing praise to you. Those who go down to the grave can't hope for you to be faithful to them.
19 It is those who are alive who praise you. And that's what I'm doing today. Fathers tell their children about how faithful you are.
20 "You will save me. So we will sing and play music on stringed instruments. We will sing all the days of our lives in your temple."

Isaiah 38:10-20 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 38

This chapter gives an account of Hezekiah's sickness, recovery, and thanksgiving on that account. His sickness, and the nature of it, and his preparation for it, as directed to by the prophet, Isa 38:1, his prayer to God upon it, Isa 38:2,3 the answer returned unto it, by which he is assured of living fifteen years more, and of the deliverance and protection of the city of Jerusalem from the Assyrians, Isa 38:4-6, the token of his recovery, the sun going back ten degrees on the dial of Ahaz, Isa 38:7,8, a writing of Hezekiah's upon his recovery, in commemoration of it, Isa 38:9, in which he represents the deplorable condition he had been in, the terrible apprehensions he had of things, especially of the wrath and fury of the Almighty, and his sorrowful and mournful complaints, Isa 38:10-14, he observes his deliverance according to the word of God; expresses his faith in it; promises to retain a cheerful sense of it; owning that it was by the promises of God that he had lived as other saints did; and ascribes his preservation from the grave to the love of God to him, of which the forgiveness of his sins was an evidence, Isa 38:15-17, the end of which salvation was, that he might praise the Lord, which he determined to do, on stringed instruments, Isa 38:18-20, and the chapter is closed with observing the means of curing him of his boil; and that it was at his request that the sign of his recovery was given him, Isa 38:21,22.

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