Isaiah 38 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
~705-704 BC, during King Hezekiah's reign
Location
Jerusalem, Kingdom of Judah
Audience
The people of Judah and subsequent generations reading the prophetic record
Situation
King Hezekiah became mortally ill and was told by the prophet Isaiah that he would die. After Hezekiah's desperate prayer, God granted him fifteen additional years of life and confirmed this promise with a miraculous sign.
Key Background
Hezekiah was one of Judah's most faithful kings who instituted sweeping religious reforms and destroyed idolatrous worship. This illness occurred during the period when Assyria dominated the Near East and threatened Judah's existence. The account parallels 2 Kings 20 and 2 Chronicles 32, and the miraculous healing demonstrated God's faithfulness to the Davidic line and His power over life and death, occurring shortly before the famous deliverance of Jerusalem from Sennacherib's siege in 701 BC.
Around that time, Hezekiah became The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said, "This is what Yahweh says: in because you are going to die — you won't recover from this."
Hezekiah to the and prayed to Yahweh.
"Please, Yahweh, remember how I have you faithfully and with my I have done what is good in your eyes." And Hezekiah
Then the of came to Isaiah:
"Go and tell Hezekiah: This is what Yahweh, the of says — I have heard prayer. I have seen tears. I am to life."
"And I will you and this city from the hand of the of I will defend this city."
"And this will be the to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do what he has promised:"
"I am going to make the shadow on the of go back ten steps — the shadow that has already gone down." And the sunlight went back ten steps on the where it had gone down.
A of Hezekiah king of Judah, after his illness and recovery:
I said, "In the middle of my life I must pass through the of death. I am of the rest of my years."
I said, "I will not see — Yah in the of the living. I will never again look on another human being among those who dwell in this world."
My home is pulled up and carried away from me like a tent. I have rolled up my life like a weaver; he cuts me off from the loom. Between daybreak and nightfall, you finish me off.
I waited until morning, but like a he was breaking all my bones. Between daybreak and nightfall, you finish me off.
Like a swallow or a crane, I chirped; I moaned like a dove. My eyes grew weak looking upward. Yahweh, I am — stand up for me!
What can I say? He has spoken to me, and he himself has done this. I will all my years because of the of my
by these things people truly live, and my finds its life in all of them. You have restored me and let me live.
Look — it was for my own wholeness that I had such bitter suffering. You me from the of destruction by throwing all my behind your
Because the cannot thank you, death cannot praise you. Those who go down to the pit cannot hope in your
The the — they are the ones who thank you, as I do today. A father makes your faithfulness known to his children.
is ready to me! So we will play our stringed instruments all the days of our lives at the of
Isaiah had said, "Prepare a of and apply it to the and he will recover."
Hezekiah had also asked, "What is the sign that I will go up to the house of Yahweh?"