Isaiah 38

1. In those days Hezekiah was sick to death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’ ”

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

3. And said, “Remember now, O LORD, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart, and have done that which is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept with a great weeping.

4. Then came the Word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying,

5. “Go and say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father, “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will add to your days fifteen years.

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

7. And this shall be the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that He has spoken:

8. Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the sun dial, which has gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward.” ‘ ” So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it had gone down.

9. The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:

10. I said in the cutting off of my days, “I shall go to the gates of the grave; I am deprived of the rest of my years.”

11. I said, “I shall not see the LORD, the LORD in the land of the living; I shall look upon man no longer with the people of the world.

12. My dwelling is plucked up and carried away from me like a shepherd’s tent; I have rolled up my life like a weaver; He will cut me off from the loom; from day even to night You will make an end of me.

13. I waited until morning, but, as a lion, so He breaks all my bones; from day even until night You make an end of me.

14. Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove: my eyes fail with looking upward: O LORD, I am oppressed; be a surety for me.

15. What shall I say? He has spoken to me, and He Himself has acted; I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul.

16. O LORD, by these things men live, and in all these is the life of my spirit; so You will recover me, and make me to live.

17. Behold, I had great bitterness for peace; but You have in love delivered my soul from the pit of corruption. You have cast all my sins behind Your back;

18. For the grave cannot praise You, death cannot rejoice in You; they who go down into the pit cannot hope for Your truth.

19. The living, the living, he shall praise You, as I do this day; the father shall make Your truth known to the children,

20. For the LORD will save me; and we will sing on the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the LORD.”

21. And Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs and apply it as a poultice upon the boil, and he shall recover.”

22. And Hezekiah had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?”