Chapter 38

  In those days hath Hezekiah been sick unto death, and come in unto him doth Isaiah son of Amoz, the prophet, and saith unto him, 'Thus said Jehovah: Give a charge to thy house, for thou [art] dying, and dost not live.'  

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  And Hezekiah turneth round his face unto the wall, and prayeth unto Jehovah,  

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  and saith, 'I pray thee, O Jehovah, remember, I pray Thee, how I have walked habitually before Thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and that which [is] good in thine eyes I have done;' and Hezekiah weepeth -- a great weeping.  

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  And a word of Jehovah is unto Isaiah, saying,  

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  Go, and thou hast said to Hezekiah, Thus said Jehovah, God of David thy father, 'I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tear, lo, I am adding to thy days fifteen years,  

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  and out of the hand of the king of Asshur I deliver thee and this city, and have covered over this city.  

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  And this [is] to thee the sign from Jehovah, that Jehovah doth this thing that He hath spoken.  

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  Lo, I am bringing back the shadow of the degrees that it hath gone down on the degrees of Ahaz, by the sun, backward ten degrees:' and the sun turneth back ten degrees in the degrees that it had gone down.  

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  A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah concerning his being sick, when he reviveth from his sickness:  

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  'I -- I said in the cutting off of my days, I go in to the gates of Sheol, I have numbered the remnant of mine years.  

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  I said, I do not see Jah -- Jah! In the land of the living, I do not behold man any more, With the inhabitants of the world.  

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  My sojourning hath departed, And been removed from me as a shepherd's tent, I have drawn together, as a weaver, my life, By weakness it cutteth me off, From day unto night Thou dost end me.  

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  I have set [Him] till morning as a lion, So doth He break all my bones, From day unto night Thou dost end me.  

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  As a crane -- a swallow -- so I chatter, I mourn as a dove, Drawn up have been mine eyes on high, O Jehovah, oppression [is] on me, be my surety.  

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  -- What do I say? seeing He said to me, And He Himself hath wrought, I go softly all my years for the bitterness of my soul.  

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  Lord, by these do [men] live, And by all in them [is] the life of my spirit, And Thou savest me, make me also to live,  

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  Lo, to peace He changed for me bitterness, And Thou hast delighted in my soul without corruption, For Thou hast cast behind Thy back all my sins.  

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  For Sheol doth not confess Thee, Death doth not praise Thee, Those going down to the pit hope not for Thy truth.  

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  The living, the living, he doth confess Thee.  

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  Like myself to-day -- a father to sons Doth make known of Thy faithfulness, O Jehovah -- to save me: And my songs we sing all days of our lives In the house of Jehovah.'  

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  And Isaiah saith, 'Let them take a bunch of figs, and plaster over the ulcer, and he liveth.'  

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  And Hezekiah saith, 'What [is] the sign that I go up to the house of Jehovah!'  

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