Hezekiah’s Prayer upon Recovery from Illness

Isaiah 38:9–20

ca. 1200–332 BCE

9A poem by King Hezekiah of Judah when he recovered from the illness he had suffered:

10I had thought:
I must depart in the middle of my days;
I have been consigned to the gates of Sheol
For the rest of my years.
11I thought, I shall never see Yah,a
Yah in the land of the living,
Or ever behold men again
Among those who inhabit the earth.
12My dwelling is pulled up and removed from me
Like a tent of shepherds;
My life is rolled up like a web
And cut from the thrum.
Only from daybreak to nightfall
Was I kept whole,
13Then it was as though a lion
Were breaking all my bones;
I cried out until morning.
(Only from daybreak to nightfall
Was I kept whole.)
14I piped like a swift or a swallow,
I moaned like a dove,
As my eyes, all worn, looked to heaven:
“My Lord, I am in straits;
Be my surety!”
15What can I say? He promised me,
And He it is who has wrought it.
All my sleep had fled
Because of the bitterness of my soul.
16My Lord, for all that and despite it
My life-breath is revived;
You have restored me to health and revived me.
17Truly, it was for my own good
That I had such great bitterness:
You saved my life
From the pit of destruction,
For You have cast behind Your back
All my offenses.
18For it is not Sheol that praises You,
Not [the Land of] Death that extols You;
Nor do they who descend into the Pit
Hope for Your grace.
19The living, only the living
Can give thanks to You
As I do this day;
Fathers relate to children
Your acts of grace:
20“[It has pleased] the Lord to deliver us,
That is why we offer up music
All the days of our lives
At the House of the Lord.”
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Notes

I.e., visit His Temple.

Credits

Reprinted from Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures by permission of the University of Nebraska Press. Copyright 1985 by the Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 1.

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