Isaiah 38

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¹In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’ ” ✦ ²Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord, ✦ ³and said, “Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. ✦ ⁴And the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying, ⁵“Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will add to your days fifteen years. ✦ ⁶I 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 the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing which He has spoken: ✦ ⁸“Behold, I will bring the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down with the sun on the sundial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward.” So the sun returned ten degrees on the dial by which it had gone down. ✦ ⁹This is the writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness: ✦ ¹⁰I said, “In the prime of my life I shall go to the gates of Sheol; I am deprived of the remainder of my years.” ✦ ¹¹I said, “I shall not see Yah, The Lord in the land of the living; I shall observe man no more among the inhabitants of the world. ✦ ¹²My life span is gone, Taken from me like a shepherd’s tent; I have cut off my life like a weaver. He cuts me off from the loom; From day until night You make an end of me. ✦ ¹³I have considered until morning— Like a lion, So He breaks all my bones; From day until night You make an end of me. ✦ ¹⁴Like a crane or a swallow, so I chattered; I mourned like a dove; My eyes fail from looking upward. O Lord, I am oppressed; Undertake for me! ✦ ¹⁵“What shall I say? He has both spoken to me, And He Himself has done it. I shall walk carefully all my years In the bitterness of my soul. ✦ ¹⁶O 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. ✦ ¹⁷Indeed it was for my own peace That I had great bitterness; But You have lovingly delivered my soul from the pit of corruption, For You have cast all my sins behind Your back. ✦ ¹⁸For Sheol cannot thank You, Death cannot praise You; Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your truth. ✦ ¹⁹The living, the living man, he shall praise You, As I do this day; The father shall make known Your truth to the children. ✦ ²⁰“The Lord was ready to save me; Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments All the days of our life, in the house of the Lord.” ✦ ²¹Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a lump of figs, and apply it as a poultice on the boil, and he shall recover.” ✦ ²²And Hezekiah had said, “What is the sign that I shall 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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