Isaiah 38:9-22 - Hezekiah's Poem Of Praise

⁹ The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and had recovered of his sickness.

¹⁰ I said, "In the middle of my life I go into the gates of Sheol. I am deprived of the residue of my years." ¹¹ I said, "I won't see Yah, Yah in the land of the living. I will see man no more with the inhabitants of the world. ¹² My dwelling is removed, and is carried away from me like a shepherd's tent. I have rolled up, like a weaver, my life. He will cut me off from the loom. From day even to night you will make an end of me. ¹³ I waited patiently until morning. He breaks all my bones like a lion. From day even to night you will make an end of me. ¹⁴ I chattered like a swallow or a crane. I moaned like a dove. My eyes weaken looking upward. Lord, I am oppressed. Be my security."

¹⁵ What will I say? He has both spoken to me, and himself has done it. I will walk carefully all my years because of the anguish of my soul. ¹⁶ Lord, men live by these things; and my spirit finds life in all of them: you restore me, and cause me to live. ¹⁷ Behold, for peace I had great anguish, but you have in love for my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for you have cast all my sins behind your back. ¹⁸ For Sheol can't praise you. Death can't celebrate you. Those who go down into the pit can't hope for your truth. ¹⁹ The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do this day. The father shall make known your truth to the children. ²⁰ Yahweh will save me. Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of Yahweh.

²¹ Now Isaiah had said, "Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a poultice on the boil, and he shall recover." ²² Hezekiah also had said, "What is the sign that I will go up to the house of Yahweh?"