The big picture
Isaiah 38 brings danger inside Hezekiah's house. The king who survived an empire now receives a personal sentence of death, turns his face toward the wall, prays, and weeps. The answer is specific: fifteen more years, deliverance for the city, and a sign involving the shadow on the degrees of Ahaz. Yet the center of the chapter is Hezekiah's own writing after recovery. He imagines life dismantled like a shepherd's tent, cut from a loom before the weaving is complete, crushed like bones beneath a lion, and reduced from royal speech to the small strained sounds of birds. Recovery does not erase the bitterness of that experience. It turns life back toward praise, teaching, and the house of the LORD. The Book of Isaiah ends the episode with a lump of figs and a question about returning to worship, keeping divine promise, bodily treatment, and public thanksgiving in the same frame without forcing them into competition.
Central truth
Isaiah 38:1–39:8 places Hezekiah's answered prayer, fifteen added years, and remarkable sign beside his later display of Judah's treasures to Babylon, showing that deliverance from one crisis does not make a faithful king immune to pride, poor judgment, or coming judgment.
The study notes have a page of their own
The movement by movement analysis, the words to trace, the verse by verse notes and where readers differ are written for someone studying alone. They are on the Deep Personal Reflections page for this chapter. This page is the lesson.
A chapter-specific teaching brief
These anchors come from this chapter itself. They help a teacher use the Level 1 overview, the Level 2 study, and the Scripture text as one lesson.
Open with the chapter’s first image
Isaiah 38:1: “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…”
Slow down at the turning point
Isaiah 38:15: “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.”
Keep this word trail visible
LORD, Hezekiah, days, degrees, house, Isaiah
What to explain, in order
Teach the passage in this order. Each step names the verses it rests on, so every point can be shown in the text before it is applied.
Isaiah 38:1-8
A death sentence and fifteen years
Begin with the timing. “In those days” links the illness to the Assyrian crisis, and 38:6 promises deliverance from Assyria, so most readers place it before the end of the siege; the chapters are arranged by theme more than by date. Read 38:1-3 and let the class hear Hezekiah’s prayer and tears. Then 38:4-6: the Lord hears and adds fifteen years. Explain the sign of 38:7-8 without claiming more than the text says about the device. Teach this first because it shows the Lord’s mercy to one man just after his mercy to the city, and because the second half of the unit depends on it.
Isaiah 38:9-14
Hezekiah writes down his fear
Explain that 38:9 introduces a poem Hezekiah wrote after his recovery, looking back. Read 38:10-14 slowly and list the images on the board: the gates of the grave, a shepherd’s tent pulled up, cloth cut from a loom, a lion breaking bones, the chatter of birds. Explain the grave, Sheol, as the place of the dead, pictured as silent and shadowy. Point out that Hezekiah says these things to God, not about him; even his complaint is prayer. This step needs care, because it gives honest words to people facing serious illness.
Isaiah 38:15-22
Restored to praise
Read 38:15-17 and show the turn: the bitterness was for his good, God has delivered him from the pit, and “thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.” Then 38:18-20. Explain that the Old Testament often speaks of death as the end of praise on earth; Hezekiah’s reason for wanting to live is to praise and teach his children. Finally, read 38:21-22, the lump of figs and the request for a sign. Explain that the plaster of figs was a remedy and that God’s promise worked through it. Medicine and prayer stand together in this verse.
Isaiah 39:1-4
Envoys from a far country
Explain who Merodach-baladan was: a Babylonian ruler who repeatedly rebelled against Assyria and was looking for allies. His letters and gift on Hezekiah’s recovery had a political purpose. Read 39:2 and emphasise the word nothing at its end. The text does not state Hezekiah’s motive, so do not invent one, but 2 Chronicles 32:25 and 32:31 speak of his pride and say God left him to test him. Then read Isaiah’s three questions in 39:3-4 and Hezekiah’s honest answers. Teach this so the class sees that the king who spread the letter before the Lord now spreads his treasures before men.
Isaiah 39:5-8
Babylon on the horizon
Read the word of 39:5-7. Babylon, not Assyria, will carry away Judah’s treasures and its royal sons. Explain that this was fulfilled more than a century later, and that Daniel 1:3-7 shows young men of the royal family serving in Babylon’s palace. Then read Hezekiah’s answer in 39:8. Readers hear it differently: as humble acceptance of a just word, or as relief that the loss will not come in his own lifetime, or as both. Set them out without choosing. Do not soften the sense of chill; the chapter wants the reader to feel how much rests on what comes next.
Isaiah 39:8-40:1
Stand at the hinge of the book
End by reading 40:1 aloud: “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.” Explain that chapters 40-66 speak to people living with the exile that 39:6-7 announced. Readers hold different views of how these chapters were written: many have held that Isaiah of Jerusalem was given these words in advance; many scholars think later prophets in his line spoke them to the exiles; others see one book shaped over time. Set these out in a sentence or two without choosing. The point for the class is the turn itself: judgment is spoken, and the next word is comfort.
Where learners get stuck
The misreadings this passage tends to produce, and how to answer each from the text.
“God changed his mind because Hezekiah reminded him how good he was.”
Hezekiah’s prayer does speak of walking “in truth and with a perfect heart” (38:3), but the Lord’s reply speaks of his tears and his prayer, and comes from “the God of David thy father” (38:5). The new word answers a weeping prayer and rests on God’s promise to David. Traditions explain announced judgments that are later withdrawn in different ways. What the text shows plainly is a God who hears a dying man’s prayer.
“Using the figs shows Hezekiah did not really trust God.”
The remedy comes from Isaiah himself: “Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaister upon the boil, and he shall recover” (38:21). The prophet who brought God’s promise also prescribed the treatment. Healing by God and the use of means are not set against each other here. This matters for learners who feel guilty about seeing a doctor or taking medicine, or who have been told that doing so shows weak faith.
“Showing the treasures was just friendly hospitality, so the judgment is unfair.”
Isaiah 39 does not state Hezekiah’s motive, and the teacher should not invent one. But the questions of 39:3-4 imply that something is wrong, and 2 Chronicles 32:25 and 32:31 speak of Hezekiah’s pride and of God testing what was in his heart. The display was also politics: an alliance with Babylon against Assyria. The king who had trusted the Lord alone in chapter 37 now shows his strength to a foreign power.
“Hezekiah’s reply in 39:8 proves he was selfish.”
His words can be heard two ways. “Good is the word of the LORD” may be humble acceptance of a just judgment, and the added line about “peace and truth in my days” may be gratitude for mercy. It may also be relief that he himself will escape. The text records the words without explaining them. Let the class weigh both readings and ask how they would respond to a word about the generation after them.
Learning objectives
- Trace the sequence from Isaiah's death announcement to Hezekiah's prayer, the revised word, and the promise of fifteen additional years.
- Describe the sign involving the shadow on the degrees of Ahaz without claiming more about the device or mechanism than the text states.
- Identify the dominant images in Hezekiah's writing in Isaiah 38:9–20 and explain how they portray threatened life and restored praise.
- Explain the function of the lump of figs in Isaiah 38:21 alongside the divine promise and sign.
- List what Hezekiah shows the Babylonian envoys in Isaiah 39:1–4 and why Isaiah's repeated question 'What have they seen' matters.
- State the judgment announced in Isaiah 39:5–7 and explain how it opens the door to the exile-and-comfort horizon beginning in Isaiah 40.
Teacher preparation
- Read 2 Kings 20 and 2 Chronicles 32:24–31 alongside Isaiah 38–39.
- Prepare the chronology carefully.
- Mark the KJV phrase 'degrees of the sun dial of Ahaz' in 38:8.
- Read Hezekiah's poem aloud before class and mark its movement from the gates of the grave, cut-off life, and failed strength to praise among the living and a father making truth known to children.
- Prepare the transition into Isaiah 40.
Evidence and interpretation checks
Explicit
Isaiah 38:1 announces that Hezekiah will die.
Scripture-supported
2 Chronicles 32:25–26 and 31 explicitly brings pride and testing into the larger biblical account of Hezekiah's later years, supporting caution against reading Isaiah 39 as harmless hospitality.
Strong inference
The placement of personal deliverance immediately before national exile judgment strongly suggests a deliberate contrast: even a king who has received extraordinary mercy cannot become Judah's final ground of hope.
Possible or traditional reading
Readers differ over the exact construction meant by the 'degrees' or steps of Ahaz and over how the shadow reversal occurred.
Limit
Isaiah 39 does not explicitly state Hezekiah's motive for showing the treasures, so do not assert vanity as if verse 2 names it directly.
Discussion with answer guidance
1. What changes between Isaiah 38:1 and 38:5?
What a good answer contains
In 38:1 Isaiah brings a plain sentence: “Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live.” Hezekiah turns to the wall, prays, reminds the Lord how he has walked “in truth and with a perfect heart”, and weeps “sore” (38:2-3). By 38:5 a new word has come: “I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.” A good answer notes that the Lord speaks as “the God of David thy father”, tying the answer to his promise. A weak answer says only that God changed his mind, without noticing the prayer and tears between.
Show teacher guidance
The announced death is followed by Hezekiah's prayer, tears, and a new word adding fifteen years.
2. What does the sign in 38:7–8 confirm, and what detail should the class resist pretending to know?
What a good answer contains
It confirms “that the LORD will do this thing that he hath spoken” (38:7). The shadow on “the sun dial of Ahaz” goes back ten degrees (38:8). The class should resist pretending to know exactly what the device was, steps or a dial, or how the shadow moved; the text does not say. A good answer notices the irony that the sign is given on Ahaz’s structure, the king who refused a sign in 7:12, and that Hezekiah, unlike Ahaz, asks for one (38:22).
Show teacher guidance
It confirms that the LORD will do what he has spoken.
3. Which images does Hezekiah use for his threatened life in 38:10–14?
What a good answer contains
He piles up pictures of a life being taken down: going to “the gates of the grave” (38:10); his dwelling “removed from me as a shepherd’s tent”; his life cut off “like a weaver” cutting cloth from the loom (38:12); God breaking his bones “as a lion” (38:13); and his voice reduced to bird sounds, “Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove” (38:14). A good answer sees that each image is of something temporary, cut short or helpless, and that the poem ends 38:14 with a cry, “undertake for me.”
Show teacher guidance
Expect gates of the grave, shepherd's tent, weaving, lion, crane or swallow, and dove.
4. What does Hezekiah say the living can do in 38:18–20 that the grave cannot do in his lament?
What a good answer contains
The grave cannot praise or hope: “the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee” (38:18). The living can: “The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth” (38:19). And they can worship together, “we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the LORD” (38:20). A good answer names praise, teaching the next generation and public worship, and notes that 38:17 says God has cast his sins behind his back.
Show teacher guidance
The living praise, make truth known to children, and sing in the house of the LORD.
5. How exhaustive is Hezekiah's tour for the Babylonian envoys in 39:2–4?
What a good answer contains
Complete. He showed them “the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armour”, and the verse ends “there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah shewed them not” (39:2). When Isaiah asks what they saw, Hezekiah repeats it: “All that is in mine house have they seen” (39:4). A good answer shows the repetition and notices that Isaiah’s questions are like the Lord’s questions to Adam: they ask what the king should already know.
Show teacher guidance
The repetition is the point: precious things, silver, gold, spices, ointment, armour, treasures, and 'nothing' left unseen.
6. How does Isaiah's Babylon prophecy in 39:5–7 change the emotional temperature after Hezekiah's recovery?
What a good answer contains
After a chapter of rescue and song, the word is loss. Everything in the king’s house “shall be carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the LORD” (39:6), and some of his own descendants will serve as eunuchs in the Babylonian palace (39:7). The nothing of 39:2 is answered by the nothing of 39:6. Hezekiah replies, “Good is the word of the LORD” and adds “For there shall be peace and truth in my days” (39:8). A strong answer sees the chill and sets out the readings of his reply fairly.
Show teacher guidance
Personal rescue is followed by national loss.
Responsible application
Heart and habits
Use Hezekiah's two crises to compare what people often do when obviously desperate and what they may do after success.
Relationships and community
Give a hypothetical leader access to sensitive institutional resources after a major victory.
Mercy is not immunity
Place 'answered prayer,' 'sign,' 'song,' 'treasure display,' and 'Babylon' in sequence.
Session plans
Two timings of the same lesson. The shorter keeps the reading, the central discussion and one response; the longer gives the confusions and the application their own time.
45 minutes
Death announced
Read 38:1-5. Take question one and confusion one.
The shadow and the figs
Read 38:6-8 and 38:21-22. Take question two and confusion two.
Hezekiah writes
Read 38:9-20 aloud slowly. Take questions three and four.
Nothing unseen
Read 39:1-4. Take question five and confusion three, with 2 Chronicles 32:31.
Babylon and the hinge
Read 39:5-8. Take question six and confusion four. Then read 40:1 without teaching chapter 40.
Response
Give out the handout, read 38:19 together and pray for the generation after you.
90 minutes
After the crisis
Ask the group when they have been most careless: during a crisis or just after one. Keep the answers for chapter 39.
Set thine house in order
Read 38:1-8 and 2 Kings 20:1-11. Take questions one and two and confusion one. Explain the chronology briefly.
The writing of Hezekiah
Read 38:9-20. Take questions three and four. Ask anyone willing to say which image they recognise from their own illness or a loved one’s.
Figs and faith
Read 38:21-22 and take confusion two, with care for those who are ill.
The envoys
Read 39:1-4 and 2 Chronicles 32:24-31. Take question five and confusion three. Return to the opening answers.
Babylon
Read 39:5-8 and Daniel 1:1-7. Take question six and confusion four, setting out the readings of 39:8.
Comfort ye
Read 40:1-2. Explain the hinge and set out the views on how chapters 40-66 came to be, without choosing. Work one application in pairs.
Key verse and prayer
Read 38:19 together, give out the handout and pray for children and grandchildren by name.
Adapting the lesson
Children
Tell how King Hezekiah was very sick and prayed and cried, and God made him well and gave him fifteen more years. Show a shadow moving on the floor with a torch and say God did something like that as a sign. Then tell how he showed visitors all his treasures, and how Isaiah said that was not wise. Leave out the eunuchs and keep the end simple: God was still going to comfort his people.
Youth
Ask what changes in people after they win something big or come through a hard time. Then read 38:1-5 and 39:1-4 side by side and talk about the different Hezekiah in each. Let them discuss whether his reply in 39:8 sounds humble or selfish. Use 38:19 to ask what truth they hope to pass on one day. Be gentle with anyone who has lost a parent or friend to illness.
Adults
Give time to the chronology, to the parallel in 2 Kings 20 and 2 Chronicles 32, and to the hinge into chapter 40, setting out the authorship views fairly and briefly. Hezekiah’s poem will speak to adults who are ill or caring for someone dying; give it room. Ask how success after a crisis tempted Hezekiah, and where the same temptation appears in mature believers.
One to one
If the person is ill or has had a frightening diagnosis, read 38:10-17 with them and let Hezekiah’s words carry theirs, then pray. If they have just come through a crisis, read 39:1-4 and ask gently what they are showing others about themselves now. End with 38:19 and ask whom they want to make God’s truth known to.
Song and video learning lab
A song or video may interpret, compress, or dramatize the text. Its value becomes clearer when its choices are compared with Scripture.
- Before the media: the exact passage and its central movement.
- During the media: the words, people, events, and emotions the artist emphasizes.
- After the media: what it clarifies, what it leaves out, and what belongs back in the biblical text.
Handout
One page for learners to take home. The print button prints this section alone.
Isaiah 38:1–39:8
The passage in brief
In Isaiah 38 King Hezekiah becomes so ill that Isaiah tells him he will die. Hezekiah prays and weeps, and God answers that he will live fifteen more years and that Jerusalem will be defended. As a sign, a shadow moves backward. Hezekiah writes a poem about nearly dying and about praising God among the living. In chapter 39 messengers come from Babylon, and Hezekiah shows them every treasure he has. Isaiah warns that one day all of it, and some of Hezekiah’s descendants, will be carried to Babylon. The next chapter begins with comfort for those people.
A verse to keep
The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth.
Isaiah 38:19 · King James Version
Questions to take home
What did Hezekiah do when he heard he would die, and how did God answer?
Which picture in Hezekiah’s poem in 38:10-14 helps you most to understand how he felt?
Why was showing everything to the Babylonians in 39:2 a mistake?
This week
Tell one younger person this week something true about God that you have learned in a hard time.
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.
