38:1 In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him: 'Thus saith the Lord: Set thy house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.'
38:2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the Lord,
38:3 and said: 'Remember now, O the Lord, I beseech Thee, how I have walked before Thee in truth and with a whole heart, and have done that which is good in Thy sight.' And Hezekiah wept sore.
38:4 Then came the word of the Lord to Isaiah, saying:
38:5 'Go, and say to Hezekiah: Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father: I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears; behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.
38:6 And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city.
38:7 And this shall be the sign unto thee from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that He hath spoken:
38:8 behold, I will cause the shadow of the dial, which is gone down on the sun-dial of Ahaz, to return backward ten degrees.' So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down.
38:9 The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sickness.
38:10 I said: In the noontide of my days I shall go, even to the gates of the nether-world; I am deprived of the residue of my years.
38:11 I said: I shall not see the Lord, even the Lord in the land of the living; I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world.
38:12 My habitation is plucked up and carried away from me as a shepherd's tent; I have rolled up like a weaver my life; He will cut me off from the thrum; from day even to night wilt Thou make an end of me.
38:13 The more I make myself like unto a lion until morning, the more it breaketh all my bones; from day even to night wilt Thou make an end of me.
38:14 Like a swallow or a crane, so do I chatter, I do moan as a dove; mine eyes fail with looking upward. O the Lord, I am oppressed, be Thou my surety.
38:15 What shall I say? He hath both spoken unto me, and Himself hath done it; I shall go softly all my years for the bitterness of my soul.
38:16 O Lord, by these things men live, and altogether therein is the life of my spirit; wherefore recover Thou me, and make me to live.
38:17 Behold, for my peace I had great bitterness; but Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back.
38:18 For the nether-world cannot praise Thee, death cannot celebrate Thee; they that go down into the pit cannot hope for Thy truth.
38:19 The living, the living, he shall praise Thee, as I do this day; the father to the children shall make known Thy truth.
38:20 the Lord is ready to save me; therefore we will sing songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord.
38:21 And Isaiah said: 'Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a plaster upon the boil, and he shall recover.'
38:22 And Hezekiah said. 'What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?'