Isaiah 38

1 In those days hath Hezekiah been sick unto death, and come in unto him doth Isaiah son of Amoz, the prophet, and saith unto him, 'Thus said Jehovah: Give a charge to thy house, for thou art dying, and dost not live.'⋮

2 And Hezekiah turneth round his face unto the wall, and prayeth unto Jehovah,⋮

3 and saith, 'I pray thee, O Jehovah, remember, I pray Thee, how I have walked habitually before Thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and that which is good in thine eyes I have done;' and Hezekiah weepeth — a great weeping.⋮

4 And a word of Jehovah is unto Isaiah, saying,⋮

5 Go, and thou hast said to Hezekiah, Thus said Jehovah, God of David thy father, 'I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tear, lo, I am adding to thy days fifteen years,⋮

6 and out of the hand of the king of Asshur I deliver thee and this city, and have covered over this city.⋮

7 And this is to thee the sign from Jehovah, that Jehovah doth this thing that He hath spoken.⋮

8 Lo, I am bringing back the shadow of the degrees that it hath gone down on the degrees of Ahaz, by the sun, backward ten degrees:' and the sun turneth 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 reviveth from his sickness:⋮

10 'I — I said in the cutting off of my days, I go in to the gates of Sheol, I have numbered the remnant of mine years.⋮

11 I said, I do not see Jah — Jah! In the land of the living, I do not behold man any more, With the inhabitants of the world.⋮

12 My sojourning hath departed, And been removed from me as a shepherd's tent, I have drawn together, as a weaver, my life, By weakness it cutteth me off, From day unto night Thou dost end me.⋮

13 I have set Him till morning as a lion, So doth He break all my bones, From day unto night Thou dost end me.⋮

14 As a crane — a swallow — so I chatter, I mourn as a dove, Drawn up have been mine eyes on high, O Jehovah, oppression is on me, be my surety.⋮

15 — What do I say? seeing He said to me, And He Himself hath wrought, I go softly all my years for the bitterness of my soul.⋮

16 Lord, by these do men live, And by all in them is the life of my spirit, And Thou savest me, make me also to live,⋮

17 Lo, to peace He changed for me bitterness, And Thou hast delighted in my soul without corruption, For Thou hast cast behind Thy back all my sins.⋮

18 For Sheol doth not confess Thee, Death doth not praise Thee, Those going down to the pit hope not for Thy truth.⋮

19 The living, the living, he doth confess Thee.⋮

20 Like myself to-day — a father to sons Doth make known of Thy faithfulness, O Jehovah — to save me: And my songs we sing all days of our lives In the house of Jehovah.'⋮

21 And Isaiah saith, 'Let them take a bunch of figs, and plaster over the ulcer, and he liveth.'⋮

22 And Hezekiah saith, 'What is the sign that I go up to the house of Jehovah!'⋮