Major Prophets · Chapter 38 of 66
Isaiah 38
Hezekiah falls mortally ill, and Isaiah tells him to set his house in order. The king turns to the wall and prays, weeping and recalling his faithfulness. God hears, adds fifteen years to his life, and gives a sign by turning the sundial's shadow back ten degrees. Hezekiah writes a psalm of his descent toward death and grateful recovery, praising the God who cast his sins behind His back and restored him to worship.
What happens in Isaiah 38
In those days Hezekiah becomes sick unto death, and Isaiah brings the word that he will die, telling him to set his house in order. Hezekiah turns his face to the wall, prays, asking God to remember how he has walked in truth with a whole heart, and weeps bitterly. God's word comes again to Isaiah: tell Hezekiah that the LORD, the God of David, has heard his prayer and seen his tears, and will add fifteen years to his life and defend the city.
As a sign, God brings the shadow on the sundial of Ahaz backward ten degrees. The chapter then records Hezekiah's own writing, a psalm reflecting on his journey to the gates of the grave, his mourning like a dove, his release from the pit of corruption, and his gratitude that God has cast all his sins behind His back. He resolves to praise God in the temple all his days.
Isaiah 38 in context
This episode, paralleling 2 Kings 20 and 2 Chronicles 32, likely occurred near the time of the Assyrian crisis, since God promises to defend the city from Assyria. It reveals the inner life of a king better known for public reforms.
Hezekiah's psalm is one of Scripture's most personal meditations on facing death, capturing Old Testament grief over the grave, where the dead were thought unable to praise God, and gratitude for restored life and forgiven sin.
Main themes of Isaiah 38
Isaiah 38 (KJV)
1In 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 in order: for thou shalt die, and not live. 2Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, 3And said, Remember now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. 4Then came the word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying, 5Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years. 6And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria: and I will defend this city. 7And this shall be a sign unto thee from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he hath spoken; 8Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down. 9The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sickness: 10I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years. 11I said, I shall not see the LORD, even the LORD, in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world. 12Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd’s tent: I have cut off like a weaver my life: he will cut me off with pining sickness: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me. 13I reckoned till morning, that, as a lion, so will he break all my bones: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me. 14Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove: mine eyes fail with looking upward: O LORD, I am oppressed; undertake for me. 15What 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. 16O LORD, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit: so wilt thou recover me, and make me to live. 17Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. 18For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. 19The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth. 20The LORD was ready to save me: therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the LORD. 21For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaister upon the boil, and he shall recover. 22Hezekiah also had said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?
Verses to carry from Isaiah 38
“Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.”Isaiah 38:5
“Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.”Isaiah 38:17
“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
Thematic connection
How Isaiah 38 points to Jesus
Hezekiah's rescue from death is a shadow, not the substance, of the resurrection hope the New Testament reveals. He grieves that the grave cannot praise God, voicing the Old Testament's dim view of death, and rejoices at fifteen added years. Christians read this longing in light of Christ, who conquers the grave itself and turns Hezekiah's shadowed fear into confident hope, since in Him even those who die will praise God.
Hezekiah's gratitude that God cast all his sins behind His back anticipates the fuller forgiveness accomplished at the cross, where sin is not merely overlooked but borne away. The reversal of the sundial's shadow, a sign that God controls time and life, points thematically to the Lord who holds the keys of death and grants a life the grave cannot cut off.
Questions about Isaiah 38
Does God change His mind when He adds fifteen years?
Isaiah's first word was that Hezekiah would die, yet after the king's prayer God grants added years. Rather than a divine reversal caught off guard, the episode shows that God's announcements can invite response, and that prayer has a real place within His purposes. The initial word exposed the seriousness of the illness and moved Hezekiah to seek God, whose compassion then granted mercy and confirmed it with a sign.
Why does Hezekiah say the grave cannot praise God?
His psalm reflects the Old Testament's limited view of the afterlife, in which the dead were pictured as cut off from the worshiping community and unable to declare God's faithfulness. Hezekiah values continued life largely as continued praise: the living, the living, he shall praise thee. His words express a real longing that later revelation answers, as the resurrection hope opens praise beyond the grave.
Reflection
Hezekiah lets me pray honestly in the face of death, neither pretending calm nor abandoning faith. His deepest relief is not the added years but that God cast his sins behind His back. When I face loss or mortality, I can turn my face, like him, toward the God who hears tears and forgives.
A prayer from Isaiah 38
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