CHAPTER 38
In those
days
Hezekiah
became mortally
ill.
The prophet
Isaiah
son
of Amoz
came
to him
and said,
“This is what
the LORD
says:
‘Put your house
in order,
for
you
are about to die;
you will not
recover.'"
saying,
“Please,
O LORD,
remember
how
I have walked
before You
faithfully
and with wholehearted
devotion;
I have done
what is good
in Your sight.”
And Hezekiah
wept
bitterly.
“Go
and tell
Hezekiah
that this is what
the LORD,
the God
of your father
David,
says:
I have heard
your prayer;
I have seen
your tears;
behold,
I will add
fifteen
years
to
your life.
And I will deliver you
and this
city
from the hand
of the king
of Assyria;
I will defend
this
city.
I will make the sun’s
shadow
that
falls
on the stairway
of Ahaz
go
ten
steps
backward.”
So the shadow cast by the sun
went back
the ten
steps
it had descended.
“I
said that
in the prime
of my life
I must go
to the gates
of Sheol;
I will be deprived
of the remainder
of my years.
I said that
I will never
see
the LORD,
even the LORD,
in the land
of the living;
I will no
longer
look on
mankind
with
those who dwell
in this world.
My dwelling
has been picked up
and removed
from me
like a shepherd’s
tent.
I have rolled up
my life
like a weaver;
He cuts me off
from the loom.
From day
until
night
You make an end of me.
I composed myself
until
the morning.
Like a lion
He breaks
all
my bones;
from day
until
night
You make an end of me.
I chirp
like a swallow
or crane;
I moan
like a dove.
My eyes
grow weak
as I look upward.
O Lord,
I am oppressed;
be my security.
What
can I say?
He has spoken to me,
and He
Himself has done this.
I will walk slowly
all
my years
because of
the anguish
of my soul.
O Lord,
by such things
men live,
and in all
of them
my spirit
finds life.
You have restored me to health
and let me live.
Surely,
for my welfare
I had such great anguish;
but Your
love
has delivered me
from the pit
of oblivion,
for
You have cast
all
my sins
behind
Your back.
For
Sheol
cannot
thank You;
death
cannot praise You.
Those who go down
to the Pit
cannot
hope
for
Your faithfulness.
The living,
only the living,
can thank You,
as I do today;
fathers
will tell
their children
about
Your faithfulness.
The LORD
will save me;
we will play songs
on stringed instruments
all
the days
of our lives
in
the house
of the LORD.”
Now Isaiah
had said,
“Prepare
a lump
of pressed figs
and apply
it to
the boil,
and he will recover.”