Bible Study: Isaiah 38:9-20
In this Wednesday Telephone Bible Study we looked at Isaiah 38:9-20, which reads:
9 This is a writing of Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery:
10 I said, “In the middle of my life
I am to enter the gates of Sheol;
I have been deprived of the rest of my years.”
11 I said, “I will not see the Lord,
The Lord in the land of the living;
I will no longer look on mankind among the inhabitants of the world.
12 Like a shepherd’s tent my dwelling is pulled up and removed from me;
As a weaver I rolled up my life.
He cuts me off from the loom;
From day until night You make an end of me.
13 I composed my soul until morning.
Like a lion—so He breaks all my bones,
From day until night You make an end of me.
14 Like a swallow, like a crane, so I twitter;
I moan like a dove;
My eyes look wistfully to the heights;
Lord, I am oppressed, be my security.
15 “What shall I say?
For He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done it;
I will walk quietly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.
16 Lord, by these things people live,
And in all these is the life of my spirit;
Restore me to health and let me live!
17 Behold, for my own welfare I had great bitterness;
But You have kept my soul from the pit of nothingness,
For You have hurled 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 faithfulness.
19 It is the living who give thanks to You, as I do today;
A father tells his sons about Your faithfulness.
20 The Lord is certain to save me;
So we will play my songs on stringed instruments
All the days of our life at the house of the Lord.”