38:1  In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, "Thus says the LORD, `Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.'"

38:2  Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD,

38:3  and said, "Remember now, O LORD, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in Your sight. And Hezekiah wept bitterly."

38:4  Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah, saying,

38:5  "Go and say to Hezekiah, `Thus says the LORD, the God of your father David, "I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.

38:6  "I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city.'"

38:7  "This shall be the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that He has spoken:

38:8  "Behold, I will cause the shadow on the stairway, which has gone down with the sun on the stairway of Ahaz, to go back ten steps. So the sun's {shadow} went back ten steps on the stairway on which it had gone down."

38:9  A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery:

38:10  I said, "In the middle of my life I am to enter the gates of Sheol; I am to be deprived of the rest of my years."

38:11  I said, "I will not see the LORD, The LORD in the land of the living; I will look on man no more among the inhabitants of the world.

38:12  "Like a shepherd's tent my dwelling is pulled up and removed from me; As a weaver I rolled up my life. He cuts me off from the loom; From day until night You make an end of me.

38:13  "I composed {my soul} until morning. Like a lion--so He breaks all my bones, From day until night You make an end of me.

38:14  "Like a swallow, {like} a crane, so I twitter; I moan like a dove; My eyes look wistfully to the heights; O Lord, I am oppressed, be my security.

38:15  "What shall I say? For He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done it; I will wander about all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.

38:16  "O Lord, by {these} things {men} live, And in all these is the life of my spirit; O restore me to health and let me live!

38:17  "Lo, for {my own} welfare I had great bitterness; It is You who has kept my soul from the pit of nothingness, For You have cast all my sins behind Your back.

38:18  "For Sheol cannot thank You, Death cannot praise You; Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness.

38:19  "It is the living who give thanks to You, as I do today; A father tells his sons about Your faithfulness.

38:20  "The LORD will surely save me; So we will play my songs on stringed instruments All {the} days of our life at the house of the LORD."

38:21  Now Isaiah had said, "Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may recover."

38:22  Then Hezekiah had said, "What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?"