Isaiah 38
1In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus says the LORD,
Set your house in order: for you shall die, and not live.
2Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the LORD,
3And said, Remember now, O LORD, I beseech you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight. And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
4Then came the word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying,
5Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father, I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears: behold, I will add unto your days fifteen years.
6And I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria: and I will defend this city.
7And this shall be a sign unto you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he has spoken;
8Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which has gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward.
So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it had gone down.
9The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sickness:
10I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the rest of my years.
11I 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.
12My age is 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 from the loom: from day even to night will you make an end of me.
13I considered till morning, that, as a lion, so will he break all my bones: from day even to night will you make an end of me.
14Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove: my eyes fail with looking upward: O LORD, I am oppressed; undertake for me.
15What shall I say? he has both spoken unto me, and he himself has done it: I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul.
16O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit: so will you restore me, and make me to live.
17Behold, for my peace I had great bitterness: but you have in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for you have cast all my sins behind your back.
18For the grave cannot praise you, death can not celebrate you: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for your truth.
19The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known your truth.
20The LORD was ready to save me: therefore we will sing my songs to stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the LORD.
21For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaster upon the boil, and he shall recover.
22Hezekiah also had said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?
Commentaries for Isaiah 38:0