Isaiah Chapter[BR] 38

1 In those days Hezekiah became terminally ill. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came and said to him, "This is what the LORD says: 'Put your affairs in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.'"

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

3 He said, "Please, LORD, remember how I have walked before You faithfully and wholeheartedly, and have done what is good in Your sight." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

Isaiah Chapter[BR] 38

4 Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah:

5 "Go and tell Hezekiah that this is what the LORD God of your ancestor David says: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I am going to add 15 years to your life.

6 And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; I will defend this city.

Isaiah Chapter[BR] 38

7 This is the sign to you from the LORD that the LORD will do what He has promised:

8 I am going to make the sun's shadow that goes down on Ahaz's stairway return by 10 steps." So the sun's shadow went back the 10 steps it had descended.

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

Isaiah Chapter[BR] 38

10 I said: In the prime of my life I must go to the gates of Sheol; I am deprived of the rest of my years.

11 I said: I will never see the LORD, the LORD in the land of the living; I will not look on humanity any longer with the inhabitants of what is passing away.

12 My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me like a shepherd's tent. I have rolled up my life like a weaver; He cuts me off from the loom. You make an end of me from day until night.

Isaiah Chapter[BR] 38

13 I thought until the morning: He will break all my bones like a lion; You make an end of me day and night.

14 I chirp like a swallow *or a crane; I moan like a dove. My eyes grow weak looking upward. Lord, I am oppressed; support me.

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

Isaiah Chapter[BR] 38

16 Lord, because of these *promises people live, and in all of them is the life of my spirit as well; You have restored me to health and let me live.

17 Indeed, it was for *my own welfare that I had such great bitterness; but Your love has delivered me from the Pit of destruction, for You have thrown all my sins behind Your back.

Isaiah Chapter[BR] 38

18 For Sheol cannot thank You; Death cannot praise You. Those who go down to the Pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness.

19 The living, only the living can thank You, as I do today; a father will make Your faithfulness known to children

20 The LORD will save me; we will play stringed instruments all the days of our lives at the house of the LORD.

Isaiah Chapter[BR] 38

21 Now Isaiah had said, "Let them take a lump of figs and apply it to his infected skin, so that he may recover."

22 And Hezekiah had asked, "What is the sign that I will go up to the LORD's temple?"