9. This is the writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:
10. I said,“In the prime of my lifeI shall go to the gates of Sheol;I am deprived of the remainder of my years.”
11. I said,“I shall not see Yah,The Lord in the land of the living;I shall observe man no more among the inhabitants of the world.
12. My life span is gone,Taken from me like a shepherd’s tent;I have cut off my life like a weaver.He cuts me off from the loom;From day until night You make an end of me.
13. I have considered until morning—Like a lion,So He breaks all my bones;From day until night You make an end of me.
14. Like a crane or a swallow, so I chattered;I mourned like a dove;My eyes fail from looking upward.O Lord, I am oppressed;Undertake for me!
15. “What shall I say?He has both spoken to me,And He Himself has done it.I shall walk carefully all my yearsIn the bitterness of my soul.
16. O Lord, by these things men live;And in all these things is the life of my spirit;So You will restore me and make me live.
17. Indeed it was for my own peaceThat I had great bitterness;But You have lovingly delivered my soul from the pit of corruption,For You have cast all my sins behind Your back.
18. For Sheol cannot thank You,Death cannot praise You;Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your truth.
19. The living, the living man, he shall praise You,As I do this day;The father shall make known Your truth to the children.
20. “The Lord was ready to save me;Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instrumentsAll the days of our life, in the house of the Lord.”
21. Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a lump of figs, and apply it as a poultice on the boil, and he shall recover.”