Hezekiah’s sickness, recovery, and song of thanksgiving

Hezekiah’s sickness

38 In those days Hezekiah was seized with a mortal sickness: and the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him and said, ‘The Lord commands you to set your household affairs in order; for you will 2 not recover, you are to die.’ Then, turning his face to the wall, Hezekiah offered this prayer to 3 the Lord: ‘Remember, O Lord, I beseech you, how I have lived in your presence with a faithful and undivided heart, and done the thing that pleased you.’ And Hezekiah wept bitterly. Then 4 there came to Isaiah this message from the Lord, 5 ‘Go and say to Hezekiah: this says the Lord, the God of David your father, ’I will add to your life fifteen 6 years more. you and this city together I will rescue from the grasp of the King of Assyria, and 7 ‘Take this,’ he replied, ‘as a sign from the Lord 8 that he will do what he has promised. Watch the shadow that the descending sun has cast on the step-clock of Ahaz: I will bring that shadow ten steps backward.’ and the sun did indeed go back on the step-clock the ten steps it had gone down.

Hezekiah’s song of thanksgiving

9 A psalm of Hezekiah King of Judah, to celebrate his recovery from the sickness which had overtaken him:

10 me thought I was doomed to depart

when my life was at noon-tide –

consigned to the portals of Sheol

the rest of my years.

11 I had thought to see the Lord nevermore

in the land of the living,

and never again to behold

any man in this world.

12 Like the tent of a shepherd, my home

is plucked up and stripped from me;

he has rolled up my life like a web,

from the thrum he has cut me.

To pain I am doomed night and day,

13 and I cry till the morning,

while all my bones, like a lion

he crushes in pieces.

14 I scream as screams a swift,

like a dove do I moan;

my eyes look tearfully heavenward:

O think on me, Lord, be my surety.

15 What can I utter or say,

since ’tis he has done it.

I toss all the time of my slumber –

my soul is so bitter.

16 O rest you my spirit, refresh me,

and let me recover.

17 "Tis you who have kept my soul

from the pit of destruction.

Behind your back you have cast

my iniquities all.

18 For Sheol can give you no thanks,

nor can Death sing your praises;

and they who go down to the pit

cannot hope for your love.

19 It is the living, the living, who praise you,

as I do this day.

So the father will tell to his sons

of your faithfulness sure.

20 Be pleased, O Lord, to save us:

then all the days of our life

we will play upon instruments stringed

in front of the house of the Lord. 21 this city I will protect.’’

Then Isaiah said, ‘Let them take a cake of figs and press it on the boil, to 22 ensure his recovery.’ And Hezekiah said, ‘What is the sign that I will yet go up to the Temple?’