Text -- Isaiah 38:1-8 (NET)

The Lord Hears Hezekiah’s Prayer

38:1 In those days Hezekiah was stricken with a terminal illness. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz visited him and told him, “This is what the Lord says, ‘Give instructions to your household, for you are about to die; you will not get well.’” 38:2 Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, 38:3 “Please, Lord. Remember how I have served you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion, and how I have carried out your will.” Then Hezekiah wept bitterly. 38:4 The Lord told Isaiah, 38:5 “Go and tell Hezekiah: ‘This is what the Lord God of your ancestor David says: “I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I will add fifteen years to your life, 38:6 and rescue you and this city from the king of Assyria. I will shield this city.”’” 38:7 Isaiah replied, “This is your sign from the Lord confirming that the Lord will do what he has said: 38:8 Look, I will make the shadow go back ten steps on the stairs of Ahaz.” And then the shadow went back ten steps.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Isa 38:1

¹ tn Heb “was sick to the point of dying”; NRSV “became sick and was at the point of death.”

NET Notes: Isa 38:3

¹ tn Heb “walked before you.” For a helpful discussion of the background and meaning of this Hebrew idiom, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 254.

² tn Heb “and with a complete heart”; KJV, ASV “with a perfect heart.”

³ tn Heb “and that which is good in your eyes I have done.”

⁴ tn Heb “wept with great weeping”; NCV “cried loudly”; TEV “began to cry bitterly.”

NET Notes: Isa 38:4

¹ tn Heb “and the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying.”

NET Notes: Isa 38:5

¹ tn Heb “father” (so KJV, NAB, NIV).

NET Notes: Isa 38:7

¹ tn The words “Isaiah replied” are supplied in the translation for clarification. In the present form of the Hebrew text v. 7 is joined directly to v. 6, but vv. 21-22, if original to Isaiah 38, must be inserted here. See 2 Kgs 20:7-8.

NET Notes: Isa 38:8

¹ tn Heb “the shadow on the steps which [the sun] had gone down, on the steps of Ahaz, with the sun, back ten steps.”

sn These steps probably functioned as a type of sundial. See HALOT 614 s.v. מַעֲלָה and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 256.

² tn Heb “and the sun returned ten steps on the steps which it had gone down.”