Isaiah 38

1 In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz came unto him and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die and not live.
2 Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall and prayed unto the LORD,
3 And said, Remember now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.
4 Then came the word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying,
5 Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer; I have seen thy tears behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.
6 And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city.
7 And this shall be a sign unto thee from the LORD that the LORD will do this thing that he has spoken:
8 Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down.
9 The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick and was recovered of his sickness:
10 I said in the cutting off of my days; I shall go to the gates of Sheol: I am deprived of the residue of my years.
11 I said, I shall not see JAH, even JAH, in the land of the living; I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world.
12 My dwelling place has been moved and is removed from me as a shepherd’s tent; he has cut off my life like a weaver: he has cut me off with sickness: between the day and the night thou shalt consume me.
13 I reckoned that I had until morning. As a lion, he broke all my bones: from the morning even unto the night thou shalt make an end of me.
14 Like a crane or a swallow, so did I complain; I mourned as a dove; I raised my eyes upward, O LORD, I am suffering violence; comfort me.
15 What shall I say? He has both spoken unto me, and he himself has done it; I shall walk softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul.
16 O Lord, even unto all those that shall live, in these fifteen years I shall proclaim the life of my spirit in them and how thou caused me to sleep, and afterwards hast given me life.
17 Behold, for peace I had great bitterness; but it has pleased thee to deliver my life from the pit of corruption, for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.
18 For the grave shall not confess thee, nor shall death praise thee; nor shall those that go down into the pit wait for thy truth.
19 He who lives, he who lives, even he shall confess thee, as I do this day; the father to the sons shall make known thy truth.
20 The LORD is ready to save me: therefore we will sing our psalms in the house of the LORD all the days of our life.
21 Isaiah then said, Let them take a lump of figs and lay it for a plaster upon the boil and he shall be healed.
22 And Hezekiah had said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?

Isaiah 38 Commentaries

The Jubilee Bible (from the Scriptures of the Reformation), edited by Russell M. Stendal, Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2010