|
[1] In those days was Hezekiah sick with a mortal disease. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thy house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live.
[2] Then Hezekiah turned his face towards the wall, and prayed to the LORD,
[3] And said, Remember now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
[4] Then came the word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying,
[5] Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add to thy days fifteen years.
[6] And I will deliver thee and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria: and I will defend this city.
[7] And this shall be a sign to thee from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he hath spoken;
[8] Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which hath gone down on the sun-dial of Ahaz ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it had gone down.
[9] The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and had recovered from his sickness:
[10] I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years.
[11] I said, I shall not see the LORD, even the LORD, in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world.
[12] My age hath departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd's tent: I have cut off like a weaver my life: he will cut me off with pining sickness: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.
[13] I reckoned till morning, that, as a lion, so will he break all my bones: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.
[14] Like a crane or a swallow, so I chattered: I mourned as a dove: my eyes fail with looking upward: O LORD, I am oppressed; undertake for me.
[15] What shall I say? he hath both spoken to me, and himself hath done it: I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul.
[16] O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit: so wilt thou recover me, and make me to live.
[17] Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.
[18] For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.
[19] The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth.
[20] The LORD was ready to save me: therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the LORD.
[21] For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaster upon the boil, and he will recover.
[22] Hezekiah also had said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?
|