Isaiah 38:9-20

Common English Bible

⁹A composition by Judah’s King Hezekiah when he was sick and then recovered from his sickness:

¹⁰I thought, I must depart in the prime of my life;
    I have been relegated to the gates of the underworld^[a] for the rest of my life.
¹¹I thought, I won’t see the Lord.
    The Lord is in the land of the living.
I won’t look upon humans again
    or be with the inhabitants of the world.
¹²My lifetime is plucked up
    and taken from me like a shepherd’s tent.
My life is shriveled like woven cloth;
    God cuts me off from the loom.
Between daybreak and nightfall
    you carry out your verdict against me.
¹³I cried out^[b] until morning:
    “Like a lion God crushes all my bones.
Between daybreak and nightfall
    you carry out your verdict against me.
¹⁴Like a swallow^[c] I chirp;
    I moan like a dove.
My eyes have grown weary looking to heaven.
    Lord, I’m overwhelmed; support me!”

¹⁵What can I say?
    God has spoken to me;
    he himself has acted.
I will wander^[d] my whole life
    with a bitter spirit.
¹⁶The Lord Most High is the one who gives life to every heart,
    who gives life to the spirit!^[e]
¹⁷Look, he indeed exchanged my bitterness for wholeness.^[f]

You yourself have spared^[g] my whole being
        from the pit of destruction,
    because you have cast all my sins
        behind your back.
¹⁸The underworld^[h] can’t thank you,
        nor can death^[i] praise you;
    those who go down to the pit
        can’t hope for your faithfulness.
¹⁹The living, the living can thank you, as I do today.
    Parents will tell children about your faithfulness.
²⁰The Lord has truly saved me,
    and we will make music^[j] at the Lord’s house all the days of our lives.