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38
Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery
(2 Kings 20:1–11; 2 Chronicles 32:24–31)
1 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.’ ”
2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, 3 saying, “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before You faithfully and with wholehearted devotion; I have done what was good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
4 And the word of the LORD came to Isaiah, saying, 5 “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. 6 And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city.*MT and LXX; DSS includes for My sake and for the sake of My servant David; see 2 Kings 20:6. 7 This will be a sign to you from the LORD that He will do what He has promised: 8 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.
Hezekiah’s Song of Thanksgiving
9 This is a writing by Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery:
10 I said, “In the prime †Or In the quiet or In the middle of my life
I must go through the gates of Sheol
and be deprived of the remainder of my years.”
11 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.
12 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.
13 I composed myself ‡Or I cried out; see Targum Yonaton. until the morning.
Like a lion He breaks all my bones;
from day until night You make an end of me.
14 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.”
15 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.
16 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.
17 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.
18 For Sheol cannot thank You;
Death cannot praise You.
Those who descend to the Pit
cannot hope for Your faithfulness.
19 The living, only the living, can thank You,
as I do today;
fathers will tell their children
about Your faithfulness.
20 The LORD will save me;
we will play songs on stringed instruments
all the days of our lives
in the house of the LORD.
21 Now Isaiah had said, “Prepare a lump of pressed figs and apply it to the boil, and he will recover.”
22 And Hezekiah had asked, “What will be the sign that I will go up to the house of the LORD?”

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*38:6 MT and LXX; DSS includes for My sake and for the sake of My servant David; see 2 Kings 20:6.

†38:10 Or In the quiet or In the middle

‡38:13 Or I cried out; see Targum Yonaton.

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