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Isaiah 38 (CEV)

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¹ About this time, Hezekiah got sick and was almost dead. So I went in and told him, "The LORD says you won't ever get well. You are going to die, and so you had better start doing what needs to be done." ² Hezekiah turned toward the wall and prayed, ³ "Don't forget that I have been faithful to you, LORD. I have obeyed you with all my heart, and I do whatever you say is right." After this, he cried hard. ⁴ Then the LORD sent me ⁵ with this message for Hezekiah: I am the LORD God, who was worshiped by your ancestor David. I heard you pray, and I saw you cry. I will let you live fifteen years more, ⁶ while I protect you and your city from the king of Assyria. ⁷ Now I will prove to you that I will keep my promise. ⁸ Do you see the shadow made by the setting sun on the stairway built for King Ahaz? I will make the shadow go back ten steps. Then the shadow went back ten steps. ⁹ This is what Hezekiah wrote after he got well: ¹⁰ I thought I would die during my best years and stay as a prisoner forever in the world of the dead. ¹¹ I thought I would never again see you, my LORD, or any of the people who live on this earth. ¹² My life was taken from me like the tent that a shepherd pulls up and moves. You cut me off like thread from a weaver's loom; you make a wreck of me day and night. ¹³ Until morning came, I thought you would crush my bones just like a hungry lion; both night and day you make a wreck of me. ¹⁴ I cry like a swallow; I mourn like a dove. My eyes are red from looking to you, LORD. I am terribly abused. Please come and help me. ¹⁵ There's nothing I can say in answer to you, since you are the one who has done this to me. My life has turned sour; I will limp until I die. ¹⁶ Your words and your deeds bring life to everyone, including me. Please make me healthy and strong again. ¹⁷ It was for my own good that I had such hard times. But your love protected me from doom in the deep pit, and you turned your eyes away from my sins. ¹⁸ No one in the world of the dead can thank you or praise you; none of those in the deep pit can hope for you to show them how faithful you are. ¹⁹ Only the living can thank you, as I am doing today. Each generation tells the next about your faithfulness. ²⁰ You, LORD, will save me, and every day that we live we will sing in your temple to the music of stringed instruments. ²¹ I had told King Hezekiah's servants to put some mashed figs on the king's open sore, and he would get well. ²² Then Hezekiah asked for proof that he would again worship in the LORD's temple.