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Isaiah 38
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| 38:1
In 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. |
 (38:1-5) Does God ever change his mind?
(38:1) "In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah ... said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order:
for thou shalt die, and not live."
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| 38:2
Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the LORD,
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| 38:3
And 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. |
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| 38:4
Then came the word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying, |
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| 38:5
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. |
(38:5)
"Thus saith the LORD ... I will add unto thy days fifteen years."
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| 38:6
And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of
Assyria: and I will defend this city. |
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| 38:7
And this shall be a sign unto thee from the LORD, that the LORD will do
this thing that he hath spoken; |
 (38:7-8) To prove to Hezekiah that he'd let him live 15 more years, God made the sun
move backwards 10 degrees.
(38:7) "This shall be a sign unto thee from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing."
(38:8) "I will bring again the shadow of the degrees ... ten degrees backward.
So the sun returned ten degrees."
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| 38:8
Behold, 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.
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| 38:9
The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and was
recovered of his sickness:
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| 38:10
I 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. |
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| 38:11
I 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. |
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| 38:12
Mine 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. |
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| 38:13
I 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. |
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| 38:14
Like 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. |
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| 38:15
What 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. |
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| 38:16
O 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. |
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| 38:17
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. |
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| 38:18
For the grave cannot
praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit
cannot hope for thy truth. |
(38:18) "For the grave cannot
praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit
cannot hope for thy truth."
Dead people don't pray or hope for the truth.
Is death final?
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| 38:19
The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father
to the children shall make known thy truth.
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| 38:20
The 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. |
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| 38:21
For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a
plaister upon the boil, and he shall recover. |
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| 38:22
Hezekiah also had said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house
of the LORD?
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