38:1  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 Jehovah: Give a charge to thy house, for thou `art' dying, and dost not live.'

38:2  And Hezekiah turneth round his face unto the wall, and prayeth unto Jehovah,

38:3  and saith, `I pray thee, O Jehovah, 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.

38:4  And a word of Jehovah is unto Isaiah, saying,

38:5  Go, and thou hast said to Hezekiah, Thus said Jehovah, God of David thy father, `I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tear, lo, I am adding to thy days fifteen years,

38:6  and out of the hand of the king of Asshur I deliver thee and this city, and have covered over this city.

38:7  And this `is' to thee the sign from Jehovah, that Jehovah doth this thing that He hath spoken.

38:8  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.

38:9  A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah concerning his being sick, when he reviveth from his sickness:

38:10  `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.

38:11  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.

38:12  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.

38:13  I have set `Him' till morning as a lion, So doth He break all my bones, From day unto night Thou dost end me.

38:14  As a crane -- a swallow -- so I chatter, I mourn as a dove, Drawn up have been mine eyes on high, O Jehovah, oppression `is' on me, be my surety.

38:15  -- 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.

38:16  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,

38:17  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.

38:18  For Sheol doth not confess Thee, Death doth not praise Thee, Those going down to the pit hope not for Thy truth.

38:19  The living, the living, he doth confess Thee.

38:20  Like myself to-day -- a father to sons Doth make known of Thy faithfulness, O Jehovah -- to save me: And my songs we sing all days of our lives In the house of Jehovah.'

38:21  And Isaiah saith, `Let them take a bunch of figs, and plaster over the ulcer, and he liveth.'

38:22  And Hezekiah saith, `What `is' the sign that I go up to the house of Jehovah!'