Isaiah 38

In those days Hezekiah became sick and was close to death. The prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, came to him and said, "This is what the LORD says: Put your household in order, because you are going to die. You will not get well."

1In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live.

Note"In those days" links this to the Assyrian crisis of chapters 36–37, though the illness probably began before that siege ended; ancient writers often grouped material by subject rather than strict order. "Put your household in order" is a standard idiom for a dying man settling his affairs, naming an heir, dividing property, giving final instructions. Hezekiah was king of Judah around 700 BC, and at this point he had no recorded son old enough to succeed him.

2Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall and prayed to the LORD.

2Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the LORD,

3He said, "Please, LORD, remember how I have lived before you faithfully and with my whole heart, and how I have done what is good in your sight." And Hezekiah cried bitterly.

3And said, Remember now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.

Note"Lived before you" translates a Hebrew idiom, literally "walked before you", the whole conduct of a life lived in someone's sight and service. "Whole heart" means undivided loyalty rather than moral perfection.

4Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah. God said:

4Then came the word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying,

5"Go and say to Hezekiah, 'This is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer, and I have seen your tears. Look, I will add fifteen years to your life.

5Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.

NoteDavid had been dead for roughly 250 years; "your father David" means ancestor and founder of the royal line Hezekiah belonged to.

6I will rescue you and this city from the power of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city.

6And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria: and I will defend this city.

NoteAssyria was the dominant empire of the age, based in what is now northern Iraq. Its army had already destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel and was pressing on Jerusalem, so a promise about the city's survival was a promise about Hezekiah's whole political situation.

7This will be a sign to you from the LORD that the LORD will do what he has promised:

7And this shall be a sign unto thee from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he hath spoken;

8Look, I will bring the shadow back ten steps on the stairway of Ahaz, down which the sun has already moved it.'" So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had gone down.

8Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down.

NoteAhaz was Hezekiah's father and predecessor as king. The Hebrew word used here means "steps" or "degrees" and is the ordinary word for stairs; it seems to describe a staircase built so that a shadow crossing its steps marked the passing hours, functioning as a clock. Older translations call it a sundial, but no dial in the modern sense is described.

9This is the writing of Hezekiah, king of Judah, made after he had been sick and had gotten well:

9The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sickness:

NoteVerses 9–20 are a poem, marked off from the surrounding narrative, a thanksgiving song of the kind collected in the Psalms, written after recovery and looking back on the illness.

10I said, "In the middle of my life I must go through the gates of the grave. I am robbed of the rest of my years."

10I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years.

NoteThe Hebrew phrase behind "in the middle of my life" is uncertain; it may mean the noon or quiet of his days, that is, the prime of life rather than old age. "The grave" here is Sheol, the shadowy underworld where the Hebrew Bible pictures all the dead going, pictured as a walled city with gates.

11I said, "I will never again see the LORD, the LORD himself, in the land of the living. I will never again look on people, among those who live in this world."

11I said, I shall not see the LORD, even the LORD, in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world.

Note"The land of the living" means the world of those still alive, as opposed to Sheol. "Seeing the LORD" was ordinary language for going up to worship at the temple, so the loss he names is exclusion from both worship and human company.

12My home has been pulled up and carried away from me, like a shepherd's tent. I have rolled up my life the way a weaver rolls up cloth; he cuts me loose from the loom. From day until night you bring me to an end.

12Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd’s tent: I have cut off like a weaver my life: he will cut me off with pining sickness: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.

NoteTwo pictures of something taken down fast. A shepherd's tent was pulled up, folded and carried off in minutes when the flock moved on. A weaver, when the cloth was finished, cut the finished piece free of the threads holding it to the loom, the work ends abruptly, at someone else's decision.

13I kept myself calm until morning, but like a lion he breaks all my bones. From day until night you bring me to an end.

13I reckoned till morning, that, as a lion, so will he break all my bones: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.

NoteThe Hebrew of the opening phrase is obscure. It has been read as "I composed myself," "I waited patiently," and "I cried out", the sense of enduring a night of pain is clear even where the wording is not.

14I chirped like a crane or a swallow. I moaned like a dove. My eyes grew weak from looking upward. LORD, I am crushed. Stand up for me and take my side.

14Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove: mine eyes fail with looking upward: O LORD, I am oppressed; undertake for me.

NoteThe birds are named for their sounds: thin, broken, repeated cries, not song. "Stand up for me and take my side" translates a legal and commercial term, to go surety, to put up security for someone who cannot cover their own debt.

15What can I say? He spoke to me, and he himself did this. I will walk slowly all my years because of the pain in my soul.

15What shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it: I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul.

NoteThe Hebrew phrase rendered "walk slowly" is uncertain. It may mean to go about subdued or in solemn procession, or to move as one who has been humbled; older translations render it "go softly."

16LORD, people live by such things as these, and my spirit finds its life in all of them. So bring me back to health and let me live.

16O LORD, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit: so wilt thou recover me, and make me to live.

NoteThis verse is one of the most difficult in the book; the Hebrew is broken, and translations differ widely on what "such things as these" refers to.

17Look, it was for my own good that I went through such bitter pain. In your love you kept my life back from the pit of destruction, for you have thrown all my sins behind your back.

17Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.

NoteTo throw something behind your back is an idiom for putting it deliberately out of sight and refusing to look at it again. "The pit" is another name for the realm of the dead.

18The grave cannot thank you. Death cannot praise you. Those who go down into the pit cannot hope for you to keep your word.

18For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.

NoteThis states the older Israelite picture of death plainly: the dead in Sheol are cut off from the worship of the living, unable to join in the praise offered in the temple. The point being made is about the value of the present life, not a settled doctrine of the afterlife.

19The living, only the living, can thank you, as I am doing today. A father tells his children that you keep your word.

19The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth.

20The LORD will save me. So we will play my songs on stringed instruments all the days of our life, in the house of the LORD.

20The LORD was ready to save me: therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the LORD.

Note"The house of the LORD" is the temple in Jerusalem. Stringed instruments accompanied the singing there, so Hezekiah is promising public thanksgiving in the national place of worship, not private music.

21Now Isaiah had said, "Have them take a lump of pressed figs and spread it on the boil, and he will get well."

21For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaister upon the boil, and he shall recover.

NoteA poultice of mashed dried figs was a known remedy in the ancient Near East, used to draw and soften an inflamed swelling. A "boil" here translates a general word for a severe skin ulcer or inflamed sore.

22And Hezekiah had asked, "What is the sign that I will go up to the house of the LORD?"

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

NoteVerses 21 and 22 return to the narrative and fill in details out of sequence; the parallel account in 2 Kings 20 places them earlier in the story. "Go up" is the standard expression for going to the temple, which stood on the higher ground of the city.