Isaiah 38:8-22

Listen carefully, I will turn the shadow on the stairway [denoting the time of day] ten steps backward, the shadow on the stairway (sundial) of Ahaz.” And the sunlight went ten steps backward on the stairway where it had [previously] gone down. This is the writing of Hezekiah king of Judah after he had been sick and had recovered from his illness: I said, “In mid-life I am to go through the gates of Sheol (the place of the dead), I am to be summoned, deprived of the remainder of my years.” I said, “I will not see the LORD, The LORD in the land of the living; I will no longer see man among the inhabitants of the world. “My dwelling (body) is pulled up and removed from me like a shepherd’s tent; I have rolled up my life as a weaver [rolls up the finished web]. He cuts me free from the warp [of the loom]; From day to night You bring me to an end. “I lay down until morning. Like a lion, so He breaks all my bones; From day until night You bring me to an end. “Like a swallow, like a crane, so I chirp; I coo like a dove. My eyes look wistfully upward; O Lord, I am oppressed, take my side and be my security. ¶“What shall I say? For He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done it; I will wander aimlessly 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; Restore me to health and let me live! “Indeed, it was for my own well-being that I had such bitterness; But You have loved back my life from the pit of nothingness (destruction), For You have cast all my sins behind Your back. “For Sheol cannot praise or thank You, Death cannot praise You and rejoice in You; Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness. “It is the living who give praise and thanks to You, as I do today; A father tells his sons about Your faithfulness. “The LORD is ready to save me; Therefore we will play my songs on stringed instruments All the days of our lives at the house of the LORD.” Now Isaiah had said, “Have them take a cake of figs and rub it [as an ointment] on the inflamed spot, that he may recover.” Hezekiah also had said, “What is the sign that I will go up to the house of the LORD?”