Chapter 38

In those days hath Hezekiah been sick unto death, and come in unto him doth Isaiah son of Amoz, the prophet, and saith unto him, `Thus said Yehovah: Give a charge to thy house, for thou art dying, and dost not live.`

And Hezekiah turneth round his face unto the wall, and prayeth unto Yehovah,

and saith, `I pray thee, O Yehovah, remember, I pray Thee, how I have walked habitually before Thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and that which is good in thine eyes I have done;` and Hezekiah weepeth -- a great weeping.

And a word of Yehovah is unto Isaiah, saying,

Go, and thou hast said to Hezekiah, Thus said Yehovah, God of David thy father, `I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tear, lo, I am adding to thy days fifteen years,

and out of the hand of the king of Asshur I deliver thee and this city, and have covered over this city.

And this is to thee the sign from Yehovah, that Yehovah doth this thing that He hath spoken.

Lo, I am bringing back the shadow of the degrees that it hath gone down on the degrees of Ahaz, by the sun, backward ten degrees:` and the sun turneth back ten degrees in the degrees that it had gone down.

A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah concerning his being sick, when he reviveth from his sickness:

`I -- I said in the cutting off of my days, I go in to the gates of Sheol, I have numbered the remnant of mine years.

I said, I do not see Jah -- Jah! In the land of the living, I do not behold man any more, With the inhabitants of the world.

My sojourning hath departed, And been removed from me as a shepherd`s tent, I have drawn together, as a weaver, my life, By weakness it cutteth me off, From day unto night Thou dost end me.

I have set Him till morning as a lion, So doth He break all my bones, From day unto night Thou dost end me.

As a crane -- a swallow -- so I chatter, I mourn as a dove, Drawn up have been mine eyes on high, O Yehovah, oppression is on me, be my surety.

-- What do I say? seeing He said to me, And He Himself hath wrought, I go softly all my years for the bitterness of my soul.

Lord, by these do men live, And by all in them is the life of my spirit, And Thou savest me, make me also to live,

Lo, to peace He changed for me bitterness, And Thou hast delighted in my soul without corruption, For Thou hast cast behind Thy back all my sins.

For Sheol doth not confess Thee, Death doth not praise Thee, Those going down to the pit hope not for Thy truth.

The living, the living, he doth confess Thee.

Like myself to-day -- a father to sons Doth make known of Thy faithfulness, O Yehovah -- to save me: And my songs we sing all days of our lives In the house of Yehovah.`

And Isaiah saith, `Let them take a bunch of figs, and plaster over the ulcer, and he liveth.`

And Hezekiah saith, `What is the sign that I go up to the house of Yehovah!`