The living, only the living, can thank You, as I do today; fathers will tell their children about Your faithfulness.
Parallel translations
- WEB The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do today. The father shall make known your truth to the children.
- KJV The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth.
- NKJV The living, the living man, he shall praise You, As I do this day; The father shall make known Your truth to the children.
- NASB “It is the living who give thanks to You, as I do today; A father tells his sons about Your faithfulness.
- NLT Only the living can praise you as I do today. Each generation tells of your faithfulness to the next.
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
The living praise God and pass his truth to their children, as Hezekiah does today. Restored life becomes a means of worship and witness.
Overview
With emphatic repetition, the king celebrates that the living praise God and teach his faithfulness to the next generation. His healing frees him to worship and to hand down the knowledge of God. Passing God's truth to the children reflects the abiding duty to transmit the faith across generations.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Deut 6:7And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
- Ps 119:175Let me live to praise You; may Your judgments sustain me.
- Deut 4:9Only be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves, so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen, and so that they do not slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and grandchildren.
- Ps 78:3–6that we have heard and known and our fathers have relayed to us.
- Joel 1:3Tell it to your children; let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation.
- Gen 18:19For I have chosen him, so that he will command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, in order that the LORD may bring upon Abraham what He has promised.”
- Ps 118:17I will not die, but I will live and proclaim what the LORD has done.
- Exod 13:14–15In the future, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you are to tell him, ‘With a mighty hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
- Exod 12:26–27When your children ask you, ‘What does this service mean to you?’
- Deut 11:19Teach them to your children, speaking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
- Josh 4:21–22Then Joshua said to the Israelites, “In the future, when your children ask their fathers, ‘What is the meaning of these stones?’
- Ps 146:2I will praise the LORD all my life; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.
- Ps 145:4One generation will commend Your works to the next, and will proclaim Your mighty acts—
- Eccl 9:10Whatever you find to do with your hands, do it with all your might, for in Sheol, where you are going, there is no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.
- John 9:4While it is daytime, we must do the works of Him who sent Me. Night is coming, when no one can work.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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 38:19 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.