Isaiah 38

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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.’”

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Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD,

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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.

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And the word of the LORD came to Isaiah, saying,

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“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.

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And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city.

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

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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.

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This is a writing by Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery:

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

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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.

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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.

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

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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

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

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

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