Isaiah 38
New Living Translation
Hezekiah’s Sickness and Recovery
38 About that time Hezekiah became deathly ill, and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to visit him. He gave the king this message: “This is what the Lord says: ‘Set your affairs in order, for you are going to die. You will not recover from this illness.’”
2 When Hezekiah heard this, he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, 3 “Remember, O Lord, how I have always been faithful to you and have served you single-mindedly, always doing what pleases you.” Then he broke down and wept bitterly.
4 Then this message came to Isaiah from the Lord: 5 “Go back to Hezekiah and tell him, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your ancestor David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will add fifteen years to your life, 6 and I will rescue you and this city from the king of Assyria. Yes, I will defend this city.
7 “‘And this is the sign from the Lord to prove that he will do as he promised: 8 I will cause the sun’s shadow to move ten steps backward on the sundial[a] of Ahaz!’” So the shadow on the sundial moved backward ten steps.
Hezekiah’s Poem of Praise
9 When King Hezekiah was well again, he wrote this poem:
10 I said, “In the prime of my life,
must I now enter the place of the dead?[b]
Am I to be robbed of the rest of my years?”
11 I said, “Never again will I see the Lord God
while still in the land of the living.
Never again will I see my friends
or be with those who live in this world.
12 My life has been blown away
like a shepherd’s tent in a storm.
It has been cut short,
as when a weaver cuts cloth from a loom.
Suddenly, my life was over.
13 I waited patiently all night,
but I was torn apart as though by lions.
Suddenly, my life was over.
14 Delirious, I chattered like a swallow or a crane,
and then I moaned like a mourning dove.
My eyes grew tired of looking to heaven for help.
I am in trouble, Lord. Help me!”
15 But what could I say?
For he himself sent this sickness.
Now I will walk humbly throughout my years
because of this anguish I have felt.
16 Lord, your discipline is good,
for it leads to life and health.
You restore my health
and allow me to live!
17 Yes, this anguish was good for me,
for you have rescued me from death
and forgiven all my sins.
18 For the dead[c] cannot praise you;
they cannot raise their voices in praise.
Those who go down to the grave
can no longer hope in your faithfulness.
19 Only the living can praise you as I do today.
Each generation tells of your faithfulness to the next.
20 Think of it—the Lord is ready to heal me!
I will sing his praises with instruments
every day of my life
in the Temple of the Lord.
21 Isaiah had said to Hezekiah’s servants, “Make an ointment from figs and spread it over the boil, and Hezekiah will recover.”
22 And Hezekiah had asked, “What sign will prove that I will go to the Temple of the Lord?”
Isaiah 38
New English Translation
The Lord Hears Hezekiah’s Prayer
38 In those days Hezekiah was stricken with a terminal illness.[a] The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz visited him and told him, “This is what the Lord says, ‘Give instructions to your household, for you are about to die; you will not get well.’” 2 Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, 3 “Please, Lord. Remember how I have served you[b] faithfully and with wholehearted devotion,[c] and how I have carried out your will.”[d] Then Hezekiah wept bitterly.[e]
4 The Lord’s message came to Isaiah, 5 “Go and tell Hezekiah: ‘This is what the Lord God of your ancestor[f] David says: “I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I will add fifteen years to your life. 6 I will also rescue you and this city from the king of Assyria. I will shield this city.”’” 7 Isaiah replied,[g] “This is your sign from the Lord confirming that the Lord will do what he has said: 8 Look, I will make the shadow go back ten steps on the stairs of Ahaz.”[h] And then the shadow went back ten steps.[i]
Hezekiah’s Song of Thanks
9 This is the prayer of King Hezekiah of Judah when he was sick and then recovered from his illness:
10 “I thought,[j]
‘In the middle of my life[k] I must walk through the gates of Sheol,
I am deprived[l] of the rest of my years.’
11 “I thought,
‘I will no longer see the Lord[m] in the land of the living,
I will no longer look on humankind with the inhabitants of the world.[n]
12 My dwelling place[o] is removed and taken away[p] from me
as a shepherd’s tent.
I rolled up my life like a weaver rolls cloth;[q]
from the loom he cuts me off.[r]
You turn day into night and end my life.[s]
13 I cry out[t] until morning;
like a lion he shatters all my bones;
you turn day into night and end my life.[u]
14 Like a swallow or a thrush I chirp,
I coo[v] like a dove;
my eyes grow tired from looking up to the sky.[w]
O Lord,[x] I am oppressed;
help me![y]
15 What can I say?
He has decreed and acted.[z]
I will walk slowly all my years because I am overcome with grief.[aa]
16 O Lord, your decrees can give men life;
may years of life be restored to me.[ab]
Restore my health[ac] and preserve my life.’
17 “Look, the grief I experienced was for my benefit.[ad]
You delivered me[ae] from the Pit of oblivion.[af]
For you removed all my sins from your sight.[ag]
18 Indeed[ah] Sheol does not give you thanks;
death does not[ai] praise you.
Those who descend into the Pit do not anticipate your faithfulness.
19 The living person, the living person, he gives you thanks,
as I do today.
A father tells his sons about your faithfulness.
20 The Lord is about to deliver me,[aj]
and we will celebrate with music[ak]
for the rest of our lives in the Lord’s temple.”[al]
21 [am] (Isaiah ordered, “Let them take a fig cake and apply it to the ulcerated sore and he will get well.” 22 Hezekiah said, “What is the confirming sign that I will go up to the Lord’s temple?”)
Footnotes
- Isaiah 38:1 tn Heb “was sick to the point of dying”; NRSV “became sick and was at the point of death.”
- Isaiah 38:3 tn Heb “walked before you.” For a helpful discussion of the background and meaning of this Hebrew idiom, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 254.
- Isaiah 38:3 tn Heb “and with a complete heart”; KJV, ASV “with a perfect heart.”
- Isaiah 38:3 tn Heb “and that which is good in your eyes I have done.”
- Isaiah 38:3 tn Heb “wept with great weeping”; NCV “cried loudly”; TEV “began to cry bitterly.”
- Isaiah 38:5 tn Heb “father” (so KJV, NAB, NIV).
- Isaiah 38:7 tn The words “Isaiah replied” are supplied in the translation for clarification. In the present form of the Hebrew text v. 7 is joined directly to v. 6, but vv. 21-22, if original to Isaiah 38, must be inserted here. See 2 Kgs 20:7-8.
- Isaiah 38:8 tn Heb “the shadow on the steps which it [the sun] had gone down, on the steps of Ahaz, with the sun, back ten steps.”sn These steps probably functioned as a type of sundial. See HALOT 614 s.v. מַעֲלָה and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 256.
- Isaiah 38:8 tn Heb “and the sun returned ten steps on the steps which it had gone down.”
- Isaiah 38:10 tn Or “I said” (KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
- Isaiah 38:10 tn The precise meaning of the phrase בִּדְמִי יָמַי (bidmi yamay, “in the [?] of my days”) is uncertain. According to HALOT 226 s.v. דְּמִי this word is a hapax legomenon meaning “half.” Others derive the form from דַּמִי (dami, “quiet, rest, peacefulness”).
- Isaiah 38:10 tn The precise meaning of the verb is uncertain. The Pual of of פָּקַד (paqad) occurs only here and in Exod 38:21, where it appears to mean “passed in review” or “mustered.” Perhaps the idea is, “I have been called away for the remainder of my years.” To bring out the sense more clearly, one can translate, “I am deprived of the rest of my years.”
- Isaiah 38:11 tn The Hebrew text has יָהּ יָהּ (yah yah, the abbreviated form of יְהוָה [yehvah] repeated), but this probably should be emended to יְהוָה.
- Isaiah 38:11 tc The Hebrew text has חָדֶל (khadel), which appears to be derived from a verbal root meaning “to cease, refrain.” But the form has probably suffered an error of transmission; the original form (attested in a few medieval Hebrew mss) was likely חֶלֶד (kheled, “world”).
- Isaiah 38:12 tn According to HALOT 217 s.v. דּוֹר this noun is a hapax legomenon meaning “dwelling place,” derived from a verbal root meaning “live” (see Ps 84:10). For an interpretation that understands the form as the well-attested noun meaning “generation,” see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:679, n. 4.
- Isaiah 38:12 tn The verb form appears to be a Niphal from גָּלָה (galah), which normally means “uncovered, revealed” in the Niphal. Because of the following reference to a shepherd’s tent, some prefer to emend the form to וְנָגַל, a Niphal from גָלָל (galal, “roll”) and translate “is rolled [or “folded”] up.”
- Isaiah 38:12 tn Heb “I rolled up, like a weaver, my life” (so ASV).
- Isaiah 38:12 sn For a discussion of the imagery employed here, see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:684.
- Isaiah 38:12 tn Heb “from day to night you bring me to an end.”
- Isaiah 38:13 tn The verb form in the Hebrew text is a Piel from שָׁוַה (shavah). There are two homonyms שָׁוַה, one meaning in the Piel “level, smooth out,” the other “set, place.” Neither fits in v. 13. It is likely that the original reading was שִׁוַּעְתִּי (shivvaʿti, “I cry out”) from the verbal root שָׁוַע (shavaʿ), which occurs exclusively in the Piel.
- Isaiah 38:13 tn Heb “from day to night you bring me to an end.”
- Isaiah 38:14 tn Or “moan” (ASV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); KJV, CEV “mourn.”
- Isaiah 38:14 tn Heb “my eyes become weak, toward the height.”
- Isaiah 38:14 tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here and in v. 16 is אֲדֹנָי (ʾadonay).
- Isaiah 38:14 tn Heb “stand surety for me.” Hezekiah seems to be picturing himself as a debtor who is being exploited; he asks that the Lord might relieve his debt and deliver him from the oppressive creditor.
- Isaiah 38:15 tn Heb “and he has spoken and he has acted.”
- Isaiah 38:15 tn Heb “because of the bitterness of my soul.”
- Isaiah 38:16 tn The translation offered here is purely speculative. The text as it stands is difficult and obscure. It reads literally, “O Lord, on account of them [the suffix is masculine plural], they live, and to all in them [the suffix is feminine plural], life of my spirit.”
- Isaiah 38:16 tn The prefixed verbal form could be taken as indicative, “you restore my health,” but the following imperatival form suggests it be understood as an imperfect of request.
- Isaiah 38:17 tn Heb “Look, for peace bitterness was to me bitter”; NAB “thus is my bitterness transformed into peace.”
- Isaiah 38:17 tc The Hebrew text reads, “you loved my soul,” but this does not fit syntactically with the following prepositional phrase. חָשַׁקְתָּ (khashaqta, “you loved”), may reflect an aural error; most emend the form to חָשַׂכְת, (khasakht, “you held back”).
- Isaiah 38:17 tn בְּלִי (beli) most often appears as a negation, meaning “without,” suggesting the meaning “nothingness, oblivion,” here. Some translate “decay” or “destruction.”
- Isaiah 38:17 tn Heb “for you threw behind your back all my sins.”
- Isaiah 38:18 tn Or “For” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
- Isaiah 38:18 tn The negative particle is understood by ellipsis in this line. See GKC 483 §152.z.
- Isaiah 38:20 tn The infinitive construct is used here to indicate that an action is imminent. See GKC 348-49 §114.i, and IBHS 610 §36.2.3g.
- Isaiah 38:20 tn Heb “and music [or perhaps, “stringed instruments”] we will play.”
- Isaiah 38:20 tn Heb “all the days of our lives in the house of the Lord.”sn Note that vv. 21-22 have been placed between vv. 6-7, where they logically belong. See 2 Kgs 20:7-8.
- Isaiah 38:21 tc If original to Isaiah 38, vv. 21-22 have obviously been misplaced in the course of the text’s transmission, and would most naturally be placed here, between Isa 38:6 and 38:7. See 2 Kgs 20:7-8, where these verses are placed at this point in the narrative, not at the end. Another possibility is that these verses were not in the original account, and a scribe, familiar with the 2 Kgs version of the story, appended vv. 21-22 to the end of the account in Isaiah 38.
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