Isaiah 38

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¹In those days was Hezekiah sick and near death. Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him, and said to him, “Yahweh says, ‘Set your house in order, for you will die, and not live.’” ✦ ²Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to Yahweh, ✦ ³and said, “Remember now, Yahweh, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight.” Hezekiah wept bitterly. ✦ ⁴Then Yahweh’s word came to Isaiah, saying, ⁵“Go, and tell Hezekiah, ‘Yahweh says, the God of David your father, “I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. ✦ ⁶I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city. ✦ ⁷This shall be the sign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do this thing that he has spoken. ✦ ⁸Behold, I will cause the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down on the sundial of Ahaz with the sun, to return backward ten steps. So the sun returned ten steps on the sundial on which it had gone down.”’” ✦ ⁹The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and had recovered of his sickness. ✦ ¹⁰I said, “In the middle of my life I go into the gates of Sheol. I am deprived of the residue of my years.” ✦ ¹¹I said, “I won’t see Yah, Yah in the land of the living. I will see man no more with the inhabitants of the world. ✦ ¹²My dwelling is removed, and is carried away from me like a shepherd’s tent. I have rolled up, like a weaver, my life. He will cut me off from the loom. From day even to night you will make an end of me. ✦ ¹³I waited patiently until morning. He breaks all my bones like a lion. From day even to night you will make an end of me. ✦ ¹⁴I chattered like a swallow or a crane. I moaned like a dove. My eyes weaken looking upward. Lord, I am oppressed. Be my security.” ✦ ¹⁵What will I say? He has both spoken to me, and himself has done it. I will walk carefully all my years because of the anguish of my soul. ✦ ¹⁶Lord, men live by these things; and my spirit finds life in all of them: you restore me, and cause me to live. ✦ ¹⁷Behold, for peace I had great anguish, but you have in love for my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for you have cast all my sins behind your back. ✦ ¹⁸For Sheol can’t praise you. Death can’t celebrate you. Those who go down into the pit can’t hope for your truth. ✦ ¹⁹The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do today. The father shall make known your truth to the children. ✦ ²⁰Yahweh will save me. Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments all the days of our life in Yahweh’s house. ✦ ²¹Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a poultice on the boil, and he shall recover.” ✦ ²²Hezekiah also had said, “What is the sign that I will go up to Yahweh’s house?” ✦

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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