Berean Standard Bible

Isaiah 38:2-20

2Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, 3saying, “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before You faithfully and with wholehearted devotion; I have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

4And the word of the LORD came to Isaiah, saying, 5“Go and tell Hezekiah that this is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: ‘I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. 6And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city.1 7This will be a sign to you from the LORD that He will do what He has promised: 8I will make the sun’s shadow that falls on the stairway of Ahaz go back ten steps.’”

So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had descended.

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

10I said, “In the prime2 of my lifeI must go through the gates of Sheoland be deprived of the remainder of my years.”11I said, “I will never again see the LORD,even the LORD, in the land of the living;I will no longer look on mankindwith those who dwell in this world.12My dwelling has been picked up and removed from melike a shepherd’s tent.I have rolled up my life like a weaver;He cuts me off from the loom;from day until night You make an end of me.13I composed myself3 until the morning.Like a lion He breaks all my bones;from day until night You make an end of me.14I chirp like a swallow or crane;I moan like a dove.My eyes grow weak as I look upward.O Lord, I am oppressed; be my security.”

15What can I say?He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done this.I will walk slowly all my yearsbecause of the anguish of my soul.16O Lord, by such things men live,and in all of them my spirit finds life.You have restored me to healthand have let me live.17Surely for my own welfareI had such great anguish;but Your love has delivered me from the pit of oblivion,for You have cast all my sins behind Your back.18For Sheol cannot thank You;Death cannot praise You.Those who descend to the Pitcannot hope for Your faithfulness.19The living, only the living, can thank You,as I do today;fathers will tell their childrenabout Your faithfulness.20The LORD will save me;we will play songs on stringed instrumentsall the days of our livesin the house of the LORD.

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Notes

1. Isaiah 38:6 MT and LXX; DSS includes for My sake and for the sake of My servant David; see 2 Kings 20:6. ↩
2. Isaiah 38:10 Or In the quiet or In the middle ↩
3. Isaiah 38:13 Or I cried out; see Targum Yonaton. ↩

Notes

Commentaries on Isaiah 38