Isaiah 38

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¹In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Set your house in order, for you are going to die and not live.’ ” ✦ ²Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, ✦ ³and said, “Please, Lord, just remember how I have walked before You wholeheartedly and in truth, and have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept profusely. ✦ ⁴Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying, ⁵“Go and say to Hezekiah, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David says: “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. ✦ ⁶And I will save you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will protect this city.” ’ ✦ ⁷“And this shall be the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will perform this word that He has spoken: ✦ ⁸Behold, I will make the shadow on the stairway, which has gone down with the sun on the stairway of Ahaz, go back ten steps.” So the sun’s shadow went back ten steps on the stairway on which it had gone down. ✦ ⁹This is a writing of Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery: ✦ ¹⁰I said, “In the middle of my life I am to enter the gates of Sheol; I have been deprived of the rest of my years.” ✦ ¹¹I said, “I will not see the Lord, The Lord in the land of the living; I will no longer look on mankind among the inhabitants of the world. ✦ ¹²“Like a shepherd’s tent my dwelling is pulled up and removed from me; As a weaver I rolled up my life. He cuts me off from the loom; From day until night You make an end of me. ✦ ¹³“I composed my soul until morning. Like a lion—so He breaks all my bones, From day until night You make an end of me. ✦ ¹⁴“Like a swallow, like a crane, so I twitter; I moan like a dove; My eyes look wistfully to the heights; Lord, I am oppressed, be my security. ✦ ¹⁵¶“What shall I say? For He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done it; I will walk quietly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul. ✦ ¹⁶“Lord, by these things people live, And in all these is the life of my spirit; Restore me to health and let me live! ✦ ¹⁷“Behold, for my own welfare I had great bitterness; But You have kept my soul from the pit of nothingness, For You have hurled all my sins behind Your back. ✦ ¹⁸“For Sheol cannot thank You, Death cannot praise You; Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness. ✦ ¹⁹“It is the living who give thanks to You, as I do today; A father tells his sons about Your faithfulness. ✦ ²⁰“The Lord is certain to save me; So we will play my songs on stringed instruments All the days of our life at the house of the Lord.” ✦ ²¹Now Isaiah had said, “Have them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, so that he may recover.” ✦ ²²Then Hezekiah had said, “What is the sign that I will go up to the house of the Lord?” ✦

Tap any verse for its study page. Underlined terms mark a concept, person, or place; ✦ marks verses with cross-references.

Where this chapter connects

Ps 119 ·6 Ps 116 ·5 Ps 102 ·5 2 Kgs 20 ·5 Ps 30 ·5 2 Chr 32 ·4 Isa 37 ·4 Eccl 9 ·4

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 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.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereVideoBibleProject — video overviews & word studiesBibleProject · 5–10 min · Free · evangelical
Free animated overviews of every book of the Bible, plus themes and Hebrew/Greek word studies — the best visual on-ramp to any book. (Biblical-theology, broadly evangelical, not distinctly Reformed.)
★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.

Pastoral

SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

Seminary

★ Start hereCommentaryThe Book of Isaiah (NICOT)John N. Oswalt · Paid · evangelical
The standard evangelical commentary on Isaiah — thorough and devotionally warm.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — Isaiah videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on Isaiah 38YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — Isaiah 38David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on IsaiahMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — Isaiah 38Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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