Isaiah 38:9-21

A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery: 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.” 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. 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. 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. 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. “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. 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! 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. For Sheol cannot thank You, Death cannot praise You; Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness. It is the living who give thanks to You, as I do today; A father tells his sons about Your faithfulness. 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.” Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may recover.”