Isaiah 38

1In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said, “This is what Yahweh says: Put your house in order, for you are going to die; you will not recover.”

2Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to Yahweh.

3He said, “Please, Yahweh, remember how I have walked before you faithfully and with a whole heart and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

4Then the word of Yahweh came to Isaiah:

5“Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what Yahweh, the God of your ancestor David, says: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I am adding fifteen years to your life.

6I will rescue you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city.

7This is the sign for you from Yahweh that Yahweh will do what he has promised:

8Look, I will make the shadow cast by the sun on the stairway of Ahaz go back the ten steps it has gone down.’” So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had gone down on the stairway.

9A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah after he had been sick and had recovered from his illness:

10I said: In the middle of my days I must depart; I am consigned to the gates of Sheol for the rest of my years.

11I said: I will not see Yah, Yah in the land of the living; I will no longer look on any human being among those who dwell where life has ceased.

12My dwelling is pulled up and taken away from me like a shepherd’s tent; like a weaver I have rolled up my life; he cuts me off from the loom. From day to night you bring me to an end.

13I waited calmly until morning, but like a lion he breaks all my bones. From day to night you bring me to an end.

14Like a swift or a crane I chirp; I moan like a dove. My eyes grow weary looking upward. Lord, I am oppressed; be my security!

15What can I say? He has spoken to me, and he himself has done it. I will walk slowly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.

16Lord, by such things people live, and in all of them is the life of my spirit. Restore me to health and let me live!

17Surely it was for my well-being that I had such bitterness; but in your love you have kept my life from the pit of destruction, for you have thrown all my sins behind your back.

18For Sheol cannot thank you; death cannot praise you; those who go down to the pit cannot hope for your faithfulness.

19The living, only the living can thank you, as I do today; fathers make known your faithfulness to their children.

20Yahweh will save me, and we will play my songs on stringed instruments all the days of our lives at the house of Yahweh.

21Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, so that he may recover.”

22And Hezekiah had asked, “What is the sign that I will go up to the house of Yahweh?”