Bible Glide

Isaiah 38

Isaiah 38 Summary, Context, and Full Chapter

Isaiah 38 tells how King Hezekiah responds when told his illness will lead to death. He prays with urgency, receives healing and added years, and then writes a song of gratitude. The chapter shows both deep distress and confident trust in the LORD.

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What happens in Isaiah 38?

Hezekiah becomes gravely ill and receives a message from Isaiah that he must prepare to die. He turns to the wall in prayer, asking God to remember his faithful walk, and weeps deeply. The LORD hears him and sends a new word: Hezekiah will live fifteen more years, Jerusalem will be defended, and a striking sign will confirm the promise. After recovering, Hezekiah records a heartfelt song about fear, relief, healing, forgiveness, and the praise that belongs to the living. The chapter ends with practical treatment for his illness and a final request for a sign.

This chapter follows the crisis with Assyria in Isaiah 37 and comes before the prophecy against Babylon in Isaiah 39. It shifts from national danger to Hezekiah's personal suffering, showing the same LORD who protects Jerusalem also hears one man's prayer. The chapter stands as a bridge between public deliverance and the king's own testimony.

Themes to notice

  • Prayer in distressHezekiah turns to the LORD honestly and urgently when death seems near.
  • God's healing mercyThe LORD hears, answers, and gives both recovery and extra years of life.
  • Thanksgiving after deliveranceHezekiah's song centers on praise, forgiveness, and telling others of God's faithfulness.

Questions for Isaiah 38

  • What does Hezekiah's prayer show about how he approached God in suffering?
  • Why does the chapter place such emphasis on the sign given to Hezekiah?
  • How does Hezekiah's song change the way you think about recovery and gratitude?

Read the full text of Isaiah 38 below, then open it in the reader to highlight, take notes, or ask follow-up Bible questions. No account is required to read.

Isaiah 38

Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery

1In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Put your house in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.’”

2Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD,3saying, “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before You faithfully and with wholehearted devotion; I have done what was good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

4And the word of the LORD came to Isaiah, saying,5“Go and tell Hezekiah that this is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: ‘I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.6And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city.7This will be a sign to you from the LORD that He will do what He has promised:8I will make the sun’s shadow that falls on the stairway of Ahaz go back ten steps.’” So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had descended.

Hezekiah’s Song of Thanksgiving

9This is a writing by Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery:

10I said, “In the prime of my life

I must go through the gates of Sheol

and be deprived of the remainder of my years.”

11I said, “I will never again see the LORD,

even the LORD, in the land of the living;

I will no longer look on mankind

with those who dwell in this world.

12My dwelling has been picked up and removed from me

like a shepherd’s tent.

I have rolled up my life like a weaver;

He cuts me off from the loom;

from day until night You make an end of me.

13I composed myself until the morning.

Like a lion He breaks all my bones;

from day until night You make an end of me.

14I chirp like a swallow or crane;

I moan like a dove.

My eyes grow weak as I look upward.

O Lord, I am oppressed; be my security.”

15What can I say?

He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done this.

I will walk slowly all my years

because of the anguish of my soul.

16O Lord, by such things men live,

and in all of them my spirit finds life.

You have restored me to health

and have let me live.

17Surely for my own welfare

I had such great anguish;

but Your love has delivered me from the pit of oblivion,

for You have cast all my sins behind Your back.

18For Sheol cannot thank You;

Death cannot praise You.

Those who descend to the Pit

cannot hope for Your faithfulness.

19The living, only the living, can thank You,

as I do today;

fathers will tell their children

about Your faithfulness.

20The LORD will save me;

we will play songs on stringed instruments

all the days of our lives

in the house of the LORD.

21Now Isaiah had said, “Prepare a lump of pressed figs and apply it to the boil, and he will recover.”22And Hezekiah had asked, “What will be the sign that I will go up to the house of the LORD?”

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