Isaiah 38:15

38:15 What can I say?

He has decreed and acted.

I will walk slowly all my years because I am overcome with grief.

Isaiah 38:17

38:17 “Look, the grief I experienced was for my benefit.

You delivered me from the pit of oblivion.

For you removed all my sins from your sight.


tn Heb “and he has spoken and he has acted.”

tn Heb “because of the bitterness of my soul.”

tn Heb “Look, for peace bitterness was to me bitter”; NAB “thus is my bitterness transformed into peace.”

tc The Hebrew text reads, “you loved my soul,” but this does not fit syntactically with the following prepositional phrase. חָשַׁקְתָּ (khashaqta, “you loved”), may reflect an aural error; most emend the form to חָשַׂכְת, (khasakht, “you held back”).

tn בְּלִי (bÿli) most often appears as a negation, meaning “without,” suggesting the meaning “nothingness, oblivion,” here. Some translate “decay” or “destruction.”

tn Heb “for you threw behind your back all my sins.”