Isaiah 38

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE	DOUAI-RHEIMS
1 In those days, when Hezekiah was mortally ill, the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, came and said to him: "Thus says the LORD: Put your house in order, for you are about to die; you shall not recover."	1 In those days Ezechias was sick even to death, and Isaias the son of Amos the prophet came unto him, and said to him: Thus saith the Lord: Take order with thy house, for thou shalt die, and not live.
2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD:	2 And Ezechias turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord,
3 "O LORD, remember how faithfully and wholeheartedly I conducted myself in your presence, doing what was pleasing to you!" And Hezekiah wept bitterly.	3 And said: I beseech thee, O Lord, remember how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Ezechias wept with great weeping.
4 Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah:	4 And the word of the Lord came to Isaias, saying:
5 "Go, tell Hezekiah: Thus says the LORD, the God of your father David: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will heal you: in three days you shall go up to the LORD'S temple; I will add fifteen years to your life.	5 Go and say to Ezechias: Thus saith the Lord the God of David thy father: I have heard thy prayer, and I have seen thy tears: behold I will add to thy days fifteen years:
6 I will rescue you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; I will be a shield to this city."	6 And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of the Assyrians, and I will protect it.
7 (Isaiah answered:) "This will be the sign for you from the LORD that he will do what he has promised:	7 And this shall be a sign to thee from the Lord, that the Lord will do this word which he hath spoken:
8 See, I will make the shadow cast by the sun on the stairway to the terrace of Ahaz go back the ten steps it has advanced." So the sun came back the ten steps it had advanced.	8 Behold I will bring again the shadow of the lines, by which it is now gone down in the sun dial of Achaz with the sun, ten lines backward. And the sun returned ten lines by the degrees by which it was gone down.
9 The song of Hezekiah, king of Judah, after he had been sick and had recovered from his illness:	9 The writing of Ezechias king of Juda, when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sickness.
10 Once I said, "In the noontime of life I must depart! To the gates of the nether world I shall be consigned for the rest of my years."	10 I said: In the midst of my days I shall go to the gates of hell: I sought for the residue of my years.
11 I said, "I shall see the LORD no more in the land of the living. No longer shall I behold my fellow men among those who dwell in the world."	11 I said: I shall not see the Lord God in the land of the living. I shall behold man no more, nor the inhabitant of rest.
12 My dwelling, like a shepherd's tent, is struck down and borne away from me; You have folded up my life, like a weaver who severs the last thread. Day and night you give me over to torment;	12 My generation is at an end, and it is rolled away from me, as a shepherd's tent. My life is cut off, as by a weaver: whilst I was yet but beginning, he out me off: from morning even to night thou wilt make an end of me.
13 I cry out until the dawn. Like a lion he breaks all my bones; (day and night you give me over to torment).	13 I hoped till morning, as a lion so hath he broken all my bones: from morning even to night thou wilt make an end of me.
14 Like a swallow I utter shrill cries; I moan like a dove. My eyes grow weak, gazing heavenward: O Lord, I am in straits; be my surety!	14 I will cry like a young swallow, I will meditate like a dove: my eyes are weakened looking upward: Lord, I suffer violence, answer thou for me.
15 What am I to say or tell him? He has done it! I shall go on through all my years despite the bitterness of my soul.	15 What shall I say, or what shall he answer for me, whereas he himself hath done it? I will recount to thee all my years in the bitterness of my soul.
16 Those live whom the LORD protects; yours. . . the life of my spirit. You have given me health and life;	16 O Lord, if man's life be such, and the life of my spirit be in such things as these, thou shalt correct me, and make me to live.
17 thus is my bitterness transformed into peace. You have preserved my life from the pit of destruction, When you cast behind your back all my sins.	17 Behold in peace is my bitterness most bitter: but thou best delivered my soul that it should not perish, thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.
18 For it is not the nether world that gives you thanks, nor death that praises you; Neither do those who go down into the pit await your kindness.	18 For hell shall not confess to thee, neither shall death praise thee: nor shall they that go down into the pit, look for thy truth.
19 The living, the living give you thanks, as I do today. Fathers declare to their sons, O God, your faithfulness.	19 The living, the living, he shall give praise to thee, as I do this day: the father shall make thy truth known to the children.
20 The LORD is our savior; we shall sing to stringed instruments In the house of the LORD all the days of our life.	20 O Lord, save me, and we will sing our psalms all the days of our life in the house of the Lord.
21 Isaiah then ordered a poultice of figs to be taken and applied to the boil, that he might recover.	21 Now Isaias had ordered that they should take a lump of figs, and lay it as it plaster upon the wound, and that he should be healed.
22 Then Hezekiah asked, "What is the sign that I shall go up to the temple of the LORD?"	22 And Ezechias bed said: What shah be the sign that I shah go up to the house of the Lord?