< Isaiah 38 >
1 In those days was Hezekiah sick with a mortal disease. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thy house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live.
2 Then Hezekiah turned his face towards the wall, and prayed to 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 bitterly.
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 to thy days fifteen years.
6 And I will deliver thee and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria: and I will defend this city.
7 And this [shall be] a sign to thee from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he hath spoken;
8 Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which hath gone down on the sun-dial of Ahaz ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it had gone down.
9 The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and had recovered from his sickness:
10 I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years. (Sheol )
11 I said, I shall not see the LORD, [even] the LORD, in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world.
12 My age hath departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd's tent: I have cut off like a weaver my life: he will cut me off with pining sickness: from day [even] to night wilt thou make an end of me.
13 I reckoned till morning, [that], as a lion, so will he break all my bones: from day [even] to night wilt thou make an end of me.
14 Like a crane [or] a swallow, so I chattered: I mourned as a dove: my eyes fail [with looking] upward: O LORD, I am oppressed; undertake for me.
15 What shall I say? he hath both spoken to me, and himself hath done [it]: I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul.
16 O LORD, by these [things men] live, and in all these [things is] the life of my spirit: so wilt thou recover me, and make me to live.
17 Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul [delivered it] from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.
18 For the grave cannot praise thee, death can [not] celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. (Sheol )
19 The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I [do] this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth.
20 The LORD [was ready] to save me: therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the LORD.
21 For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay [it] for a plaster upon the boil, and he will recover.
22 Hezekiah also had said, What [is] the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?
