Isaiah 38 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

Hezekiah’s Sickness and Recovery

(2Ki 20:1–11; 2Ch 32:24–26 )

Isa 38:1In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of 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, you shall not recover.”[fn]

Isa 38:2

Isa 38:2Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD,

Isa 38:3

Isa 38:3and said, “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

Isa 38:4

Isa 38:4Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah:

Isa 38:5

Isa 38:5“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 fifteen years to your life.[fn]

Isa 38:6

Isa 38:6I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and will defend this city.

Isa 38:7

Isa 38:7“This shall be the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he has promised:

Isa 38:8

Isa 38:8Behold, I will make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the dial of Ahaz turn back ten steps.” So the sun turned back on the dial the ten steps by which it had declined.[fn]

Isa 38:9

Isa 38:9A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, after he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:

Isa 38:10

Isa 38:10I said, In the middle[fn] of my days
I must depart;
I am consigned to the gates of Sheol
for the rest of my years.

Isa 38:11

Isa 38:11I said, I shall not see the LORD,
the LORD in the land of the living;
I shall look on man no more
among the inhabitants of the world.

Isa 38:12

Isa 38:12My dwelling is plucked up and removed 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;

Isa 38:13

Isa 38:13I calmed myself[fn] until morning;
like a lion he breaks all my bones;
from day to night you bring me to an end.

Isa 38:14

Isa 38:14Like a swallow or a crane I chirp;
I moan like a dove.
My eyes are weary with looking upward.
O Lord, I am oppressed; be my pledge of safety!

Isa 38:15

Isa 38:15What shall I say? For he has spoken to me,
and he himself has done it.
I walk slowly all my years
because of the bitterness of my soul.

Isa 38:16

Isa 38:16O Lord, by these things men live,
and in all these is the life of my spirit.
Oh restore me to health and make me live!

Isa 38:17

Isa 38:17Behold, it was for my welfare
that I had great bitterness;
but in love you have delivered my life
from the pit of destruction,
for you have cast all my sins
behind your back.

Isa 38:18

Isa 38:18For Sheol does not thank you;
death does not praise you;
those who go down to the pit do not hope
for your faithfulness.

Isa 38:19

Isa 38:19The living, the living, he thanks you,
as I do this day;
the father makes known to the children
your faithfulness.

Isa 38:20

Isa 38:20The LORD will save me,
and we will play my music on stringed instruments
all the days of our lives,
at the house of the LORD.

Isa 38:21

Isa 38:21Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may recover.”

Isa 38:22

Isa 38:22Hezekiah also had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?”

See the ESV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

ESV Footnotes

(38:1)

Or live; also verses 9, 21

(38:5)

Hebrew to your days

(38:8)

The meaning of the Hebrew verse is uncertain

(38:10)

Or In the quiet

(38:13)

Or (with Targum) I cried for help

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