38
In those days has Hezekiah been sick to death, and Isaiah son of Amoz, the prophet, comes to him and says to him, “Thus said YHWH: Give a charge to your house, for you [are] dying, and do not live.” And Hezekiah turns around his face to the wall, and prays to YHWH, and says, “Ah, now, O YHWH, please remember how I have habitually walked before You in truth, and with a perfect heart, and I have done that which [is] good in your eyes”; and Hezekiah weeps [with] a great weeping. And a word of YHWH is to Isaiah, saying, Go, and you have said to Hezekiah, Thus said YHWH, God of your father David: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tear, behold, I am adding fifteen years to your days, and out of the hand of the king of Asshur I deliver you and this city, and have covered over this city. And this [is] to you the sign from YHWH, that YHWH does this thing that He has spoken. Behold, I am bringing back the shadow of the degrees that it has gone down on the degrees of Ahaz, by the sun, backward ten degrees”; and the sun turns back ten degrees in the degrees that it had gone down. A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah concerning his being sick when he revives from his sickness: 10 I said in the cutting off of my days, || I go to the gates of Sheol, || I have numbered the remnant of my years. 11 I said, I do not see YAH—YAH! In the land of the living, || I do not behold man anymore, || With the inhabitants of the world. 12 My sojourning has departed, || And been removed from me as a shepherd’s tent, || I have drawn together, as a weaver, my life, || By weakness it cuts me off, || From day to night You end me. 13 I have set [Him] as a lion until morning, || So He breaks all my bones, || From day to night You end me. 14 As a cranea swallowso I chatter, || I mourn as a dove, || My eyes have been drawn up on high, || O YHWH, oppression [is] on me, be my guarantor. 15 What do I say? Seeing He spoke to me, || And He Himself has worked, || I go softly all my years for the bitterness of my soul. 16 Lord, [men] live by these, || And by all in them [is] the life of my spirit, || And You save me, make me to also live, 17 Behold, He changed bitterness to peace for me, || And You have delighted in my soul without corruption, || For You have cast all my sins behind Your back. 18 For Sheol does not confess You, || Death does not praise You, || Those going down to the pit do not hope for Your truth. 19 The living, the living, he confesses You, 20 Like myself today; A father makes known to [his] sons of Your faithfulness, || O YHWHto save me: And we sing my songs all [the] days of our lives || In the house of YHWH.” 21 And Isaiah says, “Let them take a bunch of figs, and plaster over the ulcer, and he lives.” 22 And Hezekiah says, “What [is] the sign that I go up to the house of YHWH?”