Isaiah 38:9-22

9A writing of King Hezekiah of Judah, after his illness, when he recovered from his illness:

10I said: “In the prime of my life, I am to enter the gates of Sheol. I am deprived of the rest of my years.”

11I said: “I will not see Adonai, Adonai, in the land of the living. I will look on humanity no longer among the inhabitants of the world.

12Like a shepherd’s tent, my dwelling is pulled up and carried away from me. Like a weaver I rolled up my life. He cuts me off from the loom. From day until night You make my end.

13I stilled my soul till morning. Like a lion, He will break all my bones. From day till night You make my end.

14Like a swallow or a crane, I whisper, I moan like a dove. My eyes are weary, looking upward. Adonai, I am oppressed, be my security!

15What should I say? For He has spoken to me— He Himself has done it! I will wander about all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.

16Adonai, by such things men live, and my spirit has life in them too. Restore me to health, and let me live!

17Behold, it was for my own shalom that I had great bitterness. You have loved my soul out of the Pit of destruction! For You have flung all my sins behind Your back.

18For Sheol cannot thank You, death cannot praise You. Those who go down to the Pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness.

19The living, the living—they praise You— as I do today. A father makes Your faithfulness known to his children.

20Adonai will save me. So we will play my songs on stringed instruments all the days of our life in the House of Adonai.”

21Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs, and apply it to the boil, and he will live.”

22Hezekiah had said, “What is the sign that I will go up to the House of Adonai?”