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Lord, your discipline is good, for it leads to life and health. You restore my health and allow me to live!
Isaiah 38:16 · New Living Translation
Parallel translations
  • WEB Lord, men live by these things; and my spirit finds life in all of them: you restore me, and cause me to live.
  • KJV 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.
  • BSB O Lord, by such things men live, and in all of them my spirit finds life. You have restored me to health and have let me live.
  • NKJV O Lord, by these things men live; And in all these things is the life of my spirit; So You will restore me and make me live.
  • NASB “Lord, by these things people live, And in all these is the life of my spirit; Restore me to health and let me live!

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

Hezekiah confesses that people live by God's words and that God restores and revives him. Life itself is a gift sustained by God.

Overview

The king acknowledges that true life is found in God's dealings and that the Lord has restored his spirit. He sees his recovery as God causing him to live. This confession that God is the giver and sustainer of life points to the One who is himself the resurrection and the life.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 9

  • Matt 4:4But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’”
  • Ps 119:25My soul is laid low in the dust. Revive me according to your word!
  • Heb 12:10–11For they indeed, for a few days, punished us as seemed good to them; but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness.
  • 1 Cor 11:32But when we are judged, we are punished by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.
  • Job 33:19–28He is chastened also with pain on his bed, with continual strife in his bones;
  • Deut 8:3He humbled you, and allowed you to be hungry, and fed you with manna, which you didn’t know, neither did your fathers know; that he might teach you that man does not live by bread only, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of Yahweh’s mouth.
  • Isa 64:5You meet him who rejoices and does righteousness, those who remember you in your ways. Behold, you were angry, and we sinned. We have been in sin for a long time. Shall we be saved?
  • Ps 71:20You, who have shown us many and bitter troubles, you will let me live. You will bring us up again from the depths of the earth.
  • 2 Cor 4:17For our light affliction, which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory;

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (4)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Isaiah videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Isaiah 38:16YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on IsaiahMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).

How Isaiah 38:16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.