Isaiah 38
38
Time Spent in Death’s Waiting Room
1At that time, Hezekiah got sick. He was about to die. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz visited him and said, “God says, ‘Prepare your affairs and your family. This is it: You’re going to die. You’re not going to get well.’”
2-3Hezekiah turned away from Isaiah and, facing the wall, prayed to God: “God, please, I beg you: Remember how I’ve lived my life. I’ve lived faithfully in your presence, lived out of a heart that was totally yours. You’ve seen how I’ve lived, the good that I have done.” And Hezekiah wept as he prayed—painful tears.
4-6Then God told Isaiah, “Go and speak with Hezekiah. Give him this Message from me, God, the God of your ancestor David: ‘I’ve heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Here’s what I’ll do: I’ll add fifteen years to your life. And I’ll save both you and this city from the king of Assyria. I have my hand on this city.
7-8“‘And this is your confirming sign, confirming that I, God, will do exactly what I have promised. Watch for this: As the sun goes down and the shadow lengthens on the sundial of Ahaz, I’m going to reverse the shadow ten notches on the dial.’” And that’s what happened: The declining sun’s shadow reversed ten notches on the dial.
* * *
9-15This is what Hezekiah king of Judah wrote after he’d been sick and then recovered from his sickness:
In the very prime of life
I have to leave.
Whatever time I have left
is spent in death’s waiting room.
No more glimpses of God
in the land of the living,
No more meetings with my neighbors,
no more rubbing shoulders with friends.
This body I inhabit is taken down
and packed away like a camper’s tent.
Like a weaver, I’ve rolled up the carpet of my life
as God cuts me free of the loom
And at day’s end sweeps up the scraps and pieces.
I cry for help until morning.
Like a lion, God pummels and pounds me,
relentlessly finishing me off.
I squawk like a doomed hen,
moan like a dove.
My eyes ache from looking up for help:
“Master, I’m in trouble! Get me out of this!”
But what’s the use? God himself gave me the word.
He’s done it to me.
I can’t sleep—
I’m that upset, that troubled.
16-19O Master, these are the conditions in which people live,
and yes, in these very conditions my spirit is still alive—
fully recovered with a fresh infusion of life!
It seems it was good for me
to go through all those troubles.
Throughout them all you held tight to my lifeline.
You never let me tumble over the edge into nothing.
But my sins you let go of,
threw them over your shoulder—good riddance!
The dead don’t thank you,
and choirs don’t sing praises from the morgue.
Those buried six feet under
don’t witness to your faithful ways.
It’s the living—live men, live women—who thank you,
just as I’m doing right now.
Parents give their children
full reports on your faithful ways.
* * *
20 God saves and will save me.
As fiddles and mandolins strike up the tunes,
We’ll sing, oh we’ll sing, sing,
for the rest of our lives in the Sanctuary of God.
21-22Isaiah had said, “Prepare a poultice of figs and put it on the boil so he may recover.”
Hezekiah had said, “What is my cue that it’s all right to enter again the Sanctuary of God?”
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Isaiah 38: MSG
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Isaiah 38
38
Hezekiah’s Illness
1In those days, Hezekiah became sick to death, and Isaiah son of Amoz, the prophet, came to him and said to him, “Thus says Yahweh: ‘Order your house, for you are about to die, and you shall not recover.’ ” 2Then#Or “And” Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to Yahweh, 3and he said, “O Yahweh, please remember how#Or “that” I have walked before your presence#Literally “face” in faithfulness with a whole heart, and I have done the good in your eyes!” And Hezekiah wept with great weeping.
4Then#Or “And” the word of Yahweh came#Or “was” to Isaiah, saying, 5“Go and say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says Yahweh, the God of David your ancestor:#Or “father” “I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I am going to#Literally, “Behold me; he will add,” but in this context it makes better sense to change the “he” to “I”; most translations follow this emendation add fifteen years to your days. 6And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city.” ’
7And this is the sign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do this thing that he has spoken: 8Look! I will cause the shadow of the steps, which it had gone down on the steps of Ahaz with the sun, to turn backwards ten steps.” And the sun turned back ten steps on the steps which it had gone down.
9A writing of Hezekiah, king of Judah, when he was sick and had recovered from his sickness:
10I was the one who said, “I must go in the quiet of my days;
I am summoned through the gates of Sheol for the rest of my years.”
11I said, “I shall not see Yah! Yah in the land of the living!
I shall no more look at humankind among the inhabitants of the world.
12My dwelling place is pulled up and removed from me like the tent of my shepherd;
I have rolled up my life like a weaver.
He cuts me off from the thrum;
from day to night you bring me to an end.
13I lie down#Or “cry out” until morning;
like a lion, so he breaks all my bones;
from day to night you bring me to an end.
14Like a horse or a crane, so I chirp;
I moan like a dove.
My eyes are weak toward the height.
Lord, I have oppression; lend me support!
15What can I say? For#Or “And” he has spoken to me,
and he himself has done it.
I will walk slowly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.
16Lord, they live by them, and the life of my spirit belongs to all among them.
And restore me to health and keep me alive!
17Look! Bitterness was bitter to me for peace.
And you were the one who loved#Or possibly “kept back,” which sounds similar in Hebrew my life from the pit of destruction,
for you have cast all my sins behind your back.
18For Sheol cannot praise you; death cannot praise you.
Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for your faithfulness.
19The living, the living one praises you like me today;
a father will make your faithfulness known to children.
20Yahweh, save me, and we will play my music on stringed instruments all the days of our lives at the temple#Or “house” of Yahweh.”
21And Isaiah said, “Let them take#Literally “lift up” a lump of figs, and let them rub it on the boil so that#Or “and” he may recover.” 22And Hezekiah said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the temple#Or “house” of Yahweh?”
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