The big picture
Grave illness strikes Hezekiah, king of Judah. Judah is the southern kingdom of God's people. Isaiah, the prophet who speaks for God, tells him to put his affairs in order because death is near. The king turns to God with tears. God answers with added years, a promise to defend the city, and an extraordinary sign involving a shadow. A song written after recovery remembers the fear of death. It also gives thanks for restored life, forgiveness, and the chance to praise among the living.
In this chapter
- Prayer Is Answered with Added Time Isaiah 38:1-8
Isaiah tells the king that his illness will end in death.
- The King Remembers Life Being Cut Short Isaiah 38:9-14
After recovery, Hezekiah writes of what he thought while ill.
- Living Praise Answers Rescue from the Pit Isaiah 38:15-20
The king has little to add to what God has both said and done.
- A Dressing and Sign Are Recalled Isaiah 38:21-22
The closing lines add details to the earlier account.
Central truth
God hears Hezekiah's tears and grants him more life, turning his fear of the grave into thanks for rescue and forgiveness.
Scripture beside the summary
Isaiah · King James Version · 22Isaiah 38:1-8
Prayer Is Answered with Added Time
Isaiah tells the king that his illness will end in death. Hezekiah turns towards the wall and asks God to remember his faithful conduct. He weeps deeply. God sends the prophet back with an answer: he has heard the prayer and seen the tears. Fifteen years will be added to the king's life. God also promises rescue from Assyria, the attacking empire, and protection for Jerusalem, Judah's capital. As a sign, the shadow on the steps associated with Ahaz, an earlier king, moves ten divisions backwards. The promised reversal receives a visible witness.
In everyday life
A hospital patient turns towards the wall after hearing grave news, then weeps as he speaks with the chaplain beside his bed. Later, an unexpected recovery gives him time he had thought lost. Relief does not erase the first fear. The king also receives a set number of years and a sign in the sky.
Notice
Isaiah 38:5 God says he has both heard the prayer and seen the tears. The answer attends to the king's spoken appeal and his visible grief together.
Isaiah 38:1-8
King James Version1In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live.
2Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the LORD,
3And said, Remember now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.
4Then came the word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying,
5Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.
6And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria: and I will defend this city.
7And this shall be a sign unto thee from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he hath spoken;
8Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down.
Isaiah 38:9-14
The King Remembers Life Being Cut Short
After recovery, Hezekiah writes of what he thought while ill. He expected to enter the grave before his remaining years were spent. He feared losing fellowship with God and other people in the land of the living. Life seemed like a shepherd's tent packed away or cloth cut from a loom. The pain felt like a lion breaking his bones. His cries resembled the sounds of birds, and his eyes grew tired from looking upwards. The remembered prayer asks God to take up his cause when he has no strength left.
In everyday life
A recovering pianist tells a friend how the silent instrument looked from her sickbed when she thought she would never play again. She remembers staring at the keys rather than planning another concert. The remembered fear gives recovery its weight. Hezekiah addresses God as his rescuer while interpreting death through ancient images.
Notice
Isaiah 38:12 Tent and weaving both picture a life whose present work is being ended. The images show interruption and removal, rather than a calm completion of the years expected.
Isaiah 38:9-14
King James Version9The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sickness:
10I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years.
11I said, I shall not see the LORD, even the LORD, in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world.
12Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd’s tent: I have cut off like a weaver my life: he will cut me off with pining sickness: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.
13I reckoned till morning, that, as a lion, so will he break all my bones: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.
14Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove: mine eyes fail with looking upward: O LORD, I am oppressed; undertake for me.
Isaiah 38:15-20
Living Praise Answers Rescue from the Pit
The king has little to add to what God has both said and done. He will carry the memory of bitterness with humble care through his remaining years. He asks for continued life and recognises that God's love has kept him from the pit. His sins are pictured as thrown behind God's back. He contrasts the grave's silence with the living person's praise and a father's telling truth to children. These are words of thanks from a rescued man, not a full account of Christian teaching on life after death. He promises worship with stringed music.
In everyday life
A grandfather returns to the family table after a severe illness and begins telling his grandchildren about the people who cared for him. The chance to speak with them feels newly precious. Gratitude finds a voice while life is still shared. Hezekiah gives thanks for God's forgiveness as well as renewed years.
Notice
Isaiah 38:19 The living person's praise is joined to a parent's telling children God's truth. Added life gives room for speech that reaches beyond the recovered person alone.
Isaiah 38:15-20
King James Version15What shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it: I shall go softly 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 wilt thou recover me, and make me to live.
17Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.
18For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.
19The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth.
20The LORD was ready to save me: therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the LORD.
Isaiah 38:21-22
A Dressing and Sign Are Recalled
The closing lines add details to the earlier account. Isaiah had directed that a cake of figs be laid on the boil as a dressing, and the king would recover. Hezekiah had also asked what sign would confirm that he would again go to God's house. The remedy and the request stand together without explaining every medical step. The king's hoped-for return is to worship, not only to public business. These details belong with the promise and sign already described, rather than announcing a separate second recovery.
In everyday life
A convalescent organist sits by her music stand at home while a visiting nurse changes her dressing. She asks when she can return to the church loft. Her open score waits beside the medical supplies. Recovery has a place she longs to reach. Hezekiah receives a sign from God, not a nurse's estimate.
Notice
Isaiah 38:22 The king asks about going to God's house. That goal connects bodily recovery with the public praise described in his song, giving the sign a concrete destination.
Isaiah 38:21-22
King James Version21For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaister upon the boil, and he shall recover.
22Hezekiah also had said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?
Details worth noticing
The opening image
Isaiah 38:1 begins with “In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house…”
Where the chapter turns
Isaiah 38:15 forms a natural hinge: “What shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it: I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul.”
The final note
Isaiah 38:22 leaves the reader with “Hezekiah also had said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?”
A word trail through the chapter
The words LORD, Hezekiah, days, degrees, house, Isaiah help reveal the chapter’s repeated concerns.
KJV words made clear
- degrees
- Measured steps or divisions used here to track a moving shadow.
- plaister
- A poultice or dressing laid on a sore area of the body.
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
