< Isaiah 38 >
1 In those days has Hezekiah been sick to death, and Isaiah son of Amoz, the prophet, comes to him and says to him, “Thus said YHWH: Give a charge to your house, for you [are] dying, and do not live.”
2 And Hezekiah turns around his face to the wall, and prays to YHWH,
3 and says, “Ah, now, O YHWH, please remember how I have habitually walked before You in truth, and with a perfect heart, and I have done that which [is] good in your eyes”; and Hezekiah weeps [with] a great weeping.
4 And a word of YHWH is to Isaiah, saying,
5 “Go, and you have said to Hezekiah, Thus said YHWH, God of your father David: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tear, behold, I am adding fifteen years to your days,
6 and out of the hand of the king of Asshur I deliver you and this city, and have covered over this city.
7 And this [is] to you the sign from YHWH, that YHWH does this thing that He has spoken.
8 Behold, I am bringing back the shadow of the degrees that it has gone down on the degrees of Ahaz, by the sun, backward ten degrees”; and the sun turns back ten degrees in the degrees that it had gone down.
9 A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah concerning his being sick when he revives from his sickness:
10 “I said in the cutting off of my days, I go to the gates of Sheol, I have numbered the remnant of my years. (Sheol )
11 I said, I do not see YAH—YAH! In the land of the living, I do not behold man anymore, With the inhabitants of the world.
12 My sojourning has departed, And been removed from me as a shepherd’s tent, I have drawn together, as a weaver, my life, By weakness it cuts me off, From day to night You end me.
13 I have set [Him] as a lion until morning, So He breaks all my bones, From day to night You end me.
14 As a crane—a swallow—so I chatter, I mourn as a dove, My eyes have been drawn up on high, O YHWH, oppression [is] on me, be my guarantor.
15 What do I say? Seeing He spoke to me, And He Himself has worked, I go softly all my years for the bitterness of my soul.
16 Lord, [men] live by these, And by all in them [is] the life of my spirit, And You save me, make me to also live,
17 Behold, He changed bitterness to peace for me, And You have delighted in my soul without corruption, For You have cast all my sins behind Your back.
18 For Sheol does not confess You, Death does not praise You, Those going down to the pit do not hope for Your truth. (Sheol )
19 The living, the living, he confesses You,
20 Like myself today; A father makes known to [his] sons of Your faithfulness, O YHWH—to save me: And we sing my songs all [the] days of our lives In the house of YHWH.”
21 And Isaiah says, “Let them take a bunch of figs, and plaster over the ulcer, and he lives.”
22 And Hezekiah says, “What [is] the sign that I go up to the house of YHWH?”
