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