Isaiah 38:9-22

⁹This is a writing of Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery:

10I said, “In the middle of my life

I am to enter the gates of Sheol;

I have been deprived of the rest of my years.”

11I said, “I will not see the Lord,

The Lord in the land of the living;

I will no longer look on mankind among the inhabitants of the world.

12“Like a shepherd’s tent my dwelling is pulled up and removed from me;

As a weaver I rolled up my life.

He cuts me off from the loom;

From day until night You make an end of me.

13“I composed my soul until morning.

Like a lion—so He breaks all my bones,

From day until night You make an end of me.

14“Like a swallow, like a crane, so I twitter;

I moan like a dove;

My eyes look wistfully to the heights;

Lord, I am oppressed, be my security.

15“What shall I say?

For He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done it;

I will walk quietly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.

16“Lord, by these things people live,

And in all these is the life of my spirit;

Restore me to health and let me live!

17“Behold, for my own welfare I had great bitterness;

But You have kept my soul from the pit of nothingness,

For You have hurled all my sins behind Your back.

18“For Sheol cannot thank You,

Death cannot praise You;

Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness.

19“It is the living who give thanks to You, as I do today;

A father tells his sons about Your faithfulness.

20“The Lord is certain to save me;

So we will play my songs on stringed instruments

All the days of our life at the house of the Lord.”

²¹Now Isaiah had said, “Have them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, so that he may recover.” ²²Then Hezekiah had said, “What is the sign that I will go up to the house of the Lord?”