Isaiah 38

Hezekiah’s Sickness and Prayer

1 Around that same time, King Hezekiah got real sick, sick to the point of death. The prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, came to him and said, “This what the Lord says, get your house in order, because you not going to recover from this one.”

2 Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord.

3 He said, “Lord, please remember how I walked before You faithfully and with a loyal heart, I tried to do what is right in Your eyes.” Then Hezekiah broke down crying hard.

God Extends Hezekiah’s Life

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

5 “Go tell Hezekiah this: The Lord, the God of your ancestor David, heard your prayer and saw your tears. I am going to add fifteen more years to your life.”

6 “I will also protect this city from the king of Assyria, I will defend it Myself.”

7 “This will be the sign from the Lord that I will do what I promised.”

8 “I am going to make the shadow move backward ten steps on the stairway of Ahaz.” So the sunlight that had moved down went back up ten steps.

Hezekiah’s Song of Praise

9 This is what King Hezekiah of Judah wrote after he recovered from his sickness:

10 “I thought I was done for, in the prime of my life, I said, ‘I will never see the Lord again in the land of the living. My time with people is over.’”

11 “I said, ‘I will never see the Lord again here on earth, I am being taken away to where no one returns.’”

12 “My life has been rolled up like a tent and carried away. My time got cut short like a weaver snatching his cloth off the loom. Day and night You were ending me.”

13 “I cried all night ‘til morning, like a lion You crushed all my bones. Day and night You kept pressing me.”

14 “I chirped like a swallow, moaned like a dove. My eyes grew tired from looking up to heaven. Lord, I am overwhelmed, come help me.”

15 “What can I even say, He spoke, and it happened. I will walk humbly all my life because of this bitterness in my soul.”

16 “Lord, by these things people live, and in all this You keep me alive. You restored me and let me breathe again.”

17 “See, it was good for me to go through that pain, You kept me from falling into the pit of destruction. You threw all my sins behind Your back.”

18 “The grave cannot praise You. Death cannot sing Your name. People lying in the dirt cannot hope for Your truth.”

19 “The living, yeah, the living, they praise You, just like I am doing today. Fathers tell their children about Your faithfulness.”

20 “The Lord came through for me, and now we are going to play music in His temple all the days of our lives.”

The Healing Sign

21 Isaiah had said, “Take a cake of figs and put it on the boil, he will recover.”

22 And Hezekiah had asked, “What is the sign that I will be able to go back up to the house of the Lord,