BSB ISA Chapter 38

Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery

(2 Kings 20:1–11, 2 Chronicles 32:24–31)

38 In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said “This is what the LORD says: ‘Put your house in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.’ ”

2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, 3 saying, “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before You faithfully and with wholehearted devotion; I have done [what is] good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

4 And the word of the LORD came to Isaiah, saying, 5 “Go and tell Hezekiah that this is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: ‘I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. 6 And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city.[fn] 7 This will be a sign to you from the LORD that He will do what He has promised:

8 I will make the sun’s shadow that falls on the stairway of Ahaz go back ten steps.’ ” So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had descended.

Hezekiah’s Song of Thanksgiving

9 [This is] a writing by Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery

10 I said, “In the prime[fn] of my life I must go through the gates of Sheol [and] be deprived of the remainder of my years.”

11 I said, “I will never again see the LORD, [even] the LORD, in the land of the living; I will no longer look on mankind with those who dwell in this world.

12 My dwelling has been picked up and removed from me like a shepherd’s tent. I have rolled up my life like a weaver; He cuts me off from the loom; from day until night You make an end of me.

13 I composed myself[fn] until the morning. Like a lion He breaks all my bones; from day until night You make an end of me.

14 I chirp like a swallow or crane I moan like a dove. My eyes grow weak [as I look] upward. O Lord, I am oppressed be my security.”

15 What can I say? He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done this. I will walk slowly all my years because of the anguish of my soul.

16 O Lord, by [such things] men live, and in all [of them] my spirit [finds] life. You have restored me to health and have let me live.

17 Surely for my own welfare I had such great anguish; but Your love has delivered me from the pit of oblivion, for You have cast all my sins behind Your back.

18 For Sheol cannot thank You; Death cannot praise You. Those who descend to the Pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness.

19 The living, only the living, can thank You, as I do today fathers will tell their children about Your faithfulness.

20 The LORD will save me; we will play songs on stringed instruments all the days of our lives in the house of the LORD.

21 Now Isaiah had said, “Prepare a lump of pressed figs and apply it to the boil, and he will recover.”

22 And Hezekiah had asked, “What will be the sign that I will go up to the house of the LORD?”