Yesaya 38:5-8

38:5 “Go and tell Hezekiah: ‘This is what the Lord God of your ancestor ¹  David says: “I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I will add fifteen years to your life, 38:6 and rescue you and this city from the king of Assyria. I will shield this city.”’” 38:7 Isaiah replied, ²  “This is your sign from the Lord confirming that the Lord will do what he has said: 38:8 Look, I will make the shadow go back ten steps on the stairs of Ahaz.” ³  And then the shadow went back ten steps. ⁴ 

Yesaya 38:15-17

38:15 What can I say?

He has decreed and acted. ⁵ 

I will walk slowly all my years because I am overcome with grief. ⁶ 

38:16 O sovereign master, your decrees can give men life;

may years of life be restored to me. ⁷ 

Restore my health ⁸  and preserve my life.’

38:17 “Look, the grief I experienced was for my benefit. ⁹ 

You delivered me ¹⁰  from the pit of oblivion. ¹¹ 

For you removed all my sins from your sight. ¹² 

[38:5]  ¹ tn Heb “father” (so KJV, NAB, NIV).

[38:7]  ² tn The words “Isaiah replied” are supplied in the translation for clarification. In the present form of the Hebrew text v. 7 is joined directly to v. 6, but vv. 21-22, if original to Isaiah 38, must be inserted here. See 2 Kgs 20:7-8.

[38:8]  ³ tn Heb “the shadow on the steps which [the sun] had gone down, on the steps of Ahaz, with the sun, back ten steps.”

[38:8]  sn These steps probably functioned as a type of sundial. See HALOT 614 s.v. מַעֲלָה and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 256.

[38:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “and the sun returned ten steps on the steps which it had gone down.”

[38:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “and he has spoken and he has acted.”

[38:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “because of the bitterness of my soul.”

[38:16]  ⁷ tn The translation offered here is purely speculative. The text as it stands is meaningless and probably corrupt. It reads literally, “O lord, on account of them [the suffix is masculine plural], they live, and to all in them [the suffix is feminine plural], life of my spirit.”

[38:16]  ⁸ tn The prefixed verbal form could be taken as indicative, “you restore my health,” but the following imperatival form suggests it be understood as an imperfect of request.

[38:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “Look, for peace bitterness was to me bitter”; NAB “thus is my bitterness transformed into peace.”

[38:17]  ¹⁰ tc The Hebrew text reads, “you loved my soul,” but this does not fit syntactically with the following prepositional phrase. חָשַׁקְתָּ (khashaqta, “you loved”), may reflect an aural error; most emend the form to חָשַׂכְת, (khasakht, “you held back”).

[38:17]  ¹¹ tn בְּלִי (bÿli) most often appears as a negation, meaning “without,” suggesting the meaning “nothingness, oblivion,” here. Some translate “decay” or “destruction.”

[38:17]  ¹² tn Heb “for you threw behind your back all my sins.”