Isaiah 38

¹ In those days Hezekiah fell ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came and said to him, ‘Yahweh says this, “Put your affairs in order, for you are going to die, you will not live”‘.

² Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and addressed this prayer to Yahweh,

³ ‘Ah, Yahweh, remember, I beg you, how I have behaved faithfully and with sincerity of heart in your presence and done what is right in your eyes’. And Hezekiah shed many tears.

⁴ Then the word of Yahweh came to Isaiah,

⁵ ‘Go and say to Hezekiah, “Yahweh, the God of David your ancestor, says this: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will cure you: in three days’ time you shall go up to the Temple of Yahweh. I will add fifteen years to your life.

⁶ I will save you from the hands of the king of Assyria, I will protect this city.”‘

²¹ ‘Bring a fig poultice,’ Isaiah said ‘apply it to the ulcer and he will recover.’

²² Hezekiah said, ‘What is the sign to tell me that I shall be going up to the Temple of Yahweh?’

⁷ ‘Here’ Isaiah replied ‘is the sign from Yahweh that he will do what he has said.

⁸ Look, I shall make the shadow cast by the declining sun go back ten steps on the steps of Ahaz.’ And the sun went back the ten steps by which it had declined.

⁹ Canticle of Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery.

¹⁰ I said: In the noon of my life I have to depart for the gates of Sheol, I am deprived of the rest of my years.

¹¹ I said: I shall never see Yahweh again in the land of the living, never again look on any man of those who inhabit the earth.

¹² My tent is pulled up, and thrown away like the tent of a shepherd; like a weaver you roll up my life to cut it from the loom. From dawn to night you are compassing my end,

¹³ I cry aloud until the morning; like a lion he crushes all my bones, from dawn to night you are compassing my end.

¹⁴ I am twittering like a swallow, I am moaning like a dove, my eyes turn to the heights, take care of me, be my safeguard.

¹⁵ What can I say? Of what can I speak to him? It is he who is at work; I will give glory to you all the years of my life for my sufferings.

¹⁶ Lord, my heart will live for you, my spirit will live for you alone. You will cure me and give me life,

¹⁷ my suffering will turn to health. It is you who have kept my soul from the pit of nothingness, you have thrust all my sins behind your back.

¹⁸ For Sheol does not praise you, Death does not extol you; those who go down to the pit do not go on trusting in your faithfulness.

¹⁹ The living, the living are the ones who praise you, as I do today. Fathers tell their sons about your faithfulness.

²⁰ Yahweh, come to my help and we will make our harps resound all the days of our life in front of the Temple of Yahweh.