Isaiah 38:13-22

38:13 I cry out ¹  until morning;

like a lion he shatters all my bones;

you turn day into night and end my life. ² 

38:14 Like a swallow or a thrush I chirp,

I coo ³  like a dove;

my eyes grow tired from looking up to the sky. ⁴ 

O sovereign master, ⁵  I am oppressed;

help me! ⁶ 

38:15 What can I say?

He has decreed and acted. ⁷ 

I will walk slowly all my years because I am overcome with grief. ⁸ 

38:16 O sovereign master, your decrees can give men life;

may years of life be restored to me. ⁹ 

Restore my health ¹⁰  and preserve my life.’

38:17 “Look, the grief I experienced was for my benefit. ¹¹ 

You delivered me ¹²  from the pit of oblivion. ¹³ 

For you removed all my sins from your sight. ¹⁴ 

38:18 Indeed ¹⁵  Sheol does not give you thanks;

death does not ¹⁶  praise you.

Those who descend into the pit do not anticipate your faithfulness.

38:19 The living person, the living person, he gives you thanks,

as I do today.

A father tells his sons about your faithfulness.

38:20 The Lord is about to deliver me, ¹⁷ 

and we will celebrate with music ¹⁸ 

for the rest of our lives in the Lord’s temple.” ¹⁹ 

38:21 ²⁰  Isaiah ordered, “Let them take a fig cake and apply it to the ulcerated sore and he will get well.” 38:22 Hezekiah said, “What is the confirming sign that I will go up to the Lord’s temple?”

[38:13]  ¹ tn The verb form in the Hebrew text is a Piel from שָׁוַה (shavah). There are two homonyms שָׁוַה, one meaning in the Piel “level, smooth out,” the other “set, place.” Neither fits in v. 13. It is likely that the original reading was שִׁוַּעְתִּי (shivva’ti, “I cry out”) from the verbal root שָׁוַע (shava’), which occurs exclusively in the Piel.

[38:13]  ² tn Heb “from day to night you bring me to an end.”

[38:14]  ³ tn Or “moan” (ASV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); KJV, CEV “mourn.”

[38:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “my eyes become weak, toward the height.”

[38:14]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in v. 16 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[38:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “stand surety for me.” Hezekiah seems to be picturing himself as a debtor who is being exploited; he asks that the Lord might relieve his debt and deliver him from the oppressive creditor.

[38:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “and he has spoken and he has acted.”

[38:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “because of the bitterness of my soul.”

[38:16]  ⁹ tn The translation offered here is purely speculative. The text as it stands is meaningless and probably corrupt. It reads literally, “O lord, on account of them [the suffix is masculine plural], they live, and to all in them [the suffix is feminine plural], life of my spirit.”

[38:16]  ¹⁰ tn The prefixed verbal form could be taken as indicative, “you restore my health,” but the following imperatival form suggests it be understood as an imperfect of request.

[38:17]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Look, for peace bitterness was to me bitter”; NAB “thus is my bitterness transformed into peace.”

[38:17]  ¹² 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”).

[38:17]  ¹³ tn בְּלִי (bÿli) most often appears as a negation, meaning “without,” suggesting the meaning “nothingness, oblivion,” here. Some translate “decay” or “destruction.”

[38:17]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “for you threw behind your back all my sins.”

[38:18]  ¹⁵ tn Or “For” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[38:18]  ¹⁶ tn The negative particle is understood by ellipsis in this line. See GKC 483 §152.z.

[38:20]  ¹⁷ tn The infinitive construct is used here to indicate that an action is imminent. See GKC 348-49 §114.i, and IBHS 610 §36.2.3g.

[38:20]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and music [or perhaps, “stringed instruments”] we will play.”

[38:20]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “all the days of our lives in the house of the Lord.”

[38:21]  ²⁰ tc If original to Isaiah 38, vv. 21-22 have obviously been misplaced in the course of the text’s transmission, and would most naturally be placed here, between Isa 38:6 and 38:7. See 2 Kgs 20:7-8, where these verses are placed at this point in the narrative, not at the end. Another possibility is that these verses were not in the original account, and a scribe, familiar with the 2 Kgs version of the story, appended vv. 21-22 to the end of the account in Isaiah 38.