Isaiah 38 WYC
Summary: Hezekiah becomes mortally ill, and Isaiah tells him to set his house in order, for he will die; Hezekiah weeps and prays, reminding the LORD of his faithful walk, and before Isaiah has even left the middle courtyard the LORD sends him back with fifteen additional years of life and deliverance from Assyria, confirmed by the sign of the sun's shadow moving backward ten steps on Ahaz's sundial. The chapter includes Hezekiah's own psalm-like writing composed after his recovery, reflecting on the nearness of death, being "cut off" like a weaver's thread, and his anguish likened to a swallow's chattering and a dove's mourning. He praises the LORD for delivering his soul from the pit of corruption and casting all his sins behind His back, resolving to sing praises in the temple all his remaining days. The chapter closes with a fig poultice applied to Hezekiah's boil and his recovery confirmed by a sign, so he can again go up to the house of the LORD.
1In tho daies Esechie was sijk `til to the deth; and Isaie, the profete, the sone of Amos, entride to hym, and seide to hym, The Lord seith these thingis, Dispose thi hous, for thou schalt die, and thou schalt not lyue.
2And Esechie turnede his face to the wal, and preiede the Lord, and seide, Lord, Y biseche;
3haue thou mynde, Y biseche, hou Y yede bifore thee in treuthe, and in perfit herte, and Y dide that that was good bifore thin iyen. And Ezechye wept with greet wepyng.
4And the word of the Lord was maad to Isaie, and seide,
5Go thou, and seie to Ezechye, The Lord God of Dauid, thi fadir, seith these thingis, I haue herd thi preier, and Y siy thi teeris. Lo! Y schal adde on thi daies fiftene yeer;
6and Y schal delyuere thee and this citee fro the hond of the kyng of Assiriens, and Y schal defende it.
7Forsothe this schal be to thee a signe of the Lord, that the Lord schal do this word, which he spak.
8Lo! Y schal make the schadewe of lynes, bi which it yede doun in the orologie of Achas, in the sunne, to turne ayen backward bi ten lynes. And the sunne turnede ayen bi ten lynes, bi degrees bi whiche it hadde go doun.
9The scripture of Ezechie, kyng of Juda, whanne he hadde be sijk, and hadde rekyuered of his sikenesse.
10I seide, in the myddil of my daies Y schal go to the yatis of helle.
11Y souyte the residue of my yeeris; Y seide, Y schal not se the Lord God in the lond of lyueris; Y schal no more biholde a man, and a dwellere of reste.
12My generacioun is takun awei, and is foldid togidere fro me, as the tabernacle of scheepherdis is foldid togidere. Mi lijf is kit doun as of a webbe; he kittide doun me, the while Y was wouun yit. Fro the morewtid `til to the euentid thou schalt ende me;
13Y hopide til to the morewtid; as a lioun, so he al to-brak alle my boonys. Fro the morewtid til to the euentid thou schalt ende me; as the brid of a swalewe, so Y schal crie;
14Y schal bithenke as a culuer. Myn iyen biholdynge an hiy, ben maad feble. Lord, Y suffre violence, answere thou for me; what schal Y seie,
15ether what schal answere to me, whanne `I mysilf haue do? Y schal bithenke to thee alle my yeeris, in the bitternisse of my soule.
16Lord, if me lyueth so, and the lijf of my spirit is in siche thingis, thou schalt chastise me, and schalt quykene me.
17Lo! my bitternesse is moost bittir in pees; forsothe thou hast delyuered my soule, that it perischide not; thou hast caste awey bihynde thi bak alle my synnes.
18For not helle schal knowleche to thee, nethir deth schal herie thee; thei that goon doun in to the lake, schulen not abide thi treuthe.
19A lyuynge man, a lyuynge man, he schal knouleche to thee, as and Y to dai; the fadir schal make knowun thi treuthe to sones.
20Lord, make thou me saaf, and we schulen synge oure salmes in all the daies of oure lijf in the hous of the Lord.
21And Ysaie comaundide, that thei schulden take a gobet of figus, and make a plaster on the wounde; and it schulde be heelid.
22And Ezechie seide, What signe schal be, that Y schal stie in to the hous of the Lord?
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