Study

Hezekiah’s Illness

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In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, “Thus says the L ord: Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.” ²Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, and prayed to the L ord: ³“Remember now, O L ord, I implore you, how I have walked before you in faithfulness with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

⁴ Then the word of the L ord came to Isaiah: ⁵“Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the L ord, the God of your ancestor David: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life. ⁶I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and defend this city.

⁷ “This is the sign to you from the L ord, that the L ord will do this thing that he has promised: ⁸See, I will make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the dial of Ahaz turn back ten steps.” So the sun turned back on the dial the ten steps by which it had declined.

 

⁹ A writing of King Hezekiah of Judah, after he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:

10

I said: In the noontide of my days

I must depart;

I am consigned to the gates of Sheol

for the rest of my years.

11

I said, I shall not see the L ord

in the land of the living;

I shall look upon mortals no more

among the inhabitants of the world.

12

My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me

like a shepherd’s tent;

like a weaver I have rolled up my life;

he cuts me off from the loom;

from day to night you bring me to an end;

13

I cry for help until morning;

like a lion he breaks all my bones;

from day to night you bring me to an end.

 

14

Like a swallow or a crane I clamor,

I moan like a dove.

My eyes are weary with looking upward.

O Lord, I am oppressed; be my security!

15

But what can I say? For he has spoken to me,

and he himself has done it.

All my sleep has fled

because of the bitterness of my soul.

 

16

O Lord, by these things people live,

and in all these is the life of my spirit.

Oh, restore me to health and make me live!

17

Surely it was for my welfare

that I had great bitterness;

but you have held back my life

from the pit of destruction,

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 go down to the Pit cannot hope

for your faithfulness.

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The living, the living, they thank you,

as I do this day;

fathers make known to children

your faithfulness.

 

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The L ord will save me,

and we will sing to stringed instruments

all the days of our lives,

at the house of the L ord.

 

²¹ Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a lump of figs, and apply it to the boil, so that he may recover.” ²²Hezekiah also had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the L ord?”