Isaiah 38
Open in the reader1In those days He-Who-Is-Has-Strengthened became mortally ill. The prophet Salvation-of-He-Who-Is son of Strong came to him and said, “This is what He-Who-Is says: ‘Put your house in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.’”
2Then He-Who-Is-Has-Strengthened turned his face to the wall and prayed to He-Who-Is,
3saying, “Please, O He-Who-Is, remember how I have walked before You faithfully and with wholehearted devotion; I have done what is good in Your sight.” And He-Who-Is-Has-Strengthened wept bitterly.
4And the word of He-Who-Is came to Salvation-of-He-Who-Is, saying,
5“Go and tell He-Who-Is-Has-Strengthened that this is what He-Who-Is, the God of your father Beloved, says: ‘I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.
6And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Successful. I will defend this city.
7This will be a sign to you from He-Who-Is that He-Who-Is will do what He has promised:
8I will make the sun’s shadow that falls on the stairway of He-Has-Grasped go back ten steps.’” So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had descended.
9This is a writing by He-Who-Is-Has-Strengthened king of Praised after his illness and recovery:
10I said, “In the prime of my life I must go through the gates of Place-of-the-Dead and be deprived of the remainder of my years.”
11I said, “I will never again see the He-Who-Is, even the He-Who-Is, in the land of the living; I will no longer look on mankind with those who dwell in this world.
12My 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.
13I composed myself until the morning. Like a lion He breaks all my bones; from day until night You make an end of me.
14I 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.”
15What 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.
16O 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.
17Surely 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.
18For Place-of-the-Dead cannot thank You; Death cannot praise You. Those who descend to the Pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness.
19The living, only the living, can thank You, as I do today; fathers will tell their children about Your faithfulness.
20He-Who-Is will save me; we will play songs on stringed instruments all the days of our lives in the house of He-Who-Is.
21Now Salvation-of-He-Who-Is had said, “Prepare a lump of pressed figs and apply it to the boil, and he will recover.”
22And He-Who-Is-Has-Strengthened had asked, “What will be the sign that I will go up to the house of He-Who-Is?”