Isaias

Hebrew Bible

Hebrew Bible, Isaias, Ottley, Cambridge, 1904

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 am adding to thy days ﬁfteen years.

6 And I will deliver thee and this city out of the grasp of the king of Assyria, and I will protect this city.

7 And this shall be the sign unto thee from the Lord, that the LORD will do this thing which he hath spoken

8 Behold, I am turning the shadow of the steps, which it has gone down on the steps. of Ahaz by the sun, ten steps back- ward. And the sun returned ten steps, on the steps whereon it was gone down.

9 Α writing of Hezekiah, king of Judah, when he had been sick, and come to life from his sickness:

10 I said, In the stillness of my days I shall go into the gates of hell; I am deprived of the residue of my years.

11 I said, I shall not see Jah, Jab in the land of the living; Ι shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of ceasing.

12 My habitation is plucked up, and carried away from me like a ’s tent. I have rolled up, like a weaver, my life; he ’ cutteth me off from the thrum; from day to night thou wilt make an end of me.

[*](6, ‘grasp,’ lit lit. ‘palm of the hand.)[*](7. ‘thing,’ or ‘word,’)[*](8. i.e. probably, the shadow on the steps.)[*](10. ‘stillness,’ i.e. the noontide pause: cf. ‘solstice.)[*](11. ‘of ’ or almost ‘of ’ i.e. of this transitory life or world. Some would transpose two letters, giving HLD the world, as in Ps. xlix. 1, or rather time, duration, for HDL ceasing.)[*](12. ‘habitation’: or, ‘generation’: ‘rolled ’: or, ‘cut off.)

214

13 I quieted myself till morning; as a lion, so he breaketh all my bones; from day to night thou wilt make an end of me.

14 Like a swift, a crane, so did I chatter; I did moan like a dove; mine eyes failed towards the height; LORD, I am oppressed; be thou surety for me.

15 What shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it; I shall go softly all my years, because of the bitterness of ’my soul.

16 O Lord, by these things men live, and wholly in them is the life of my spirit; and thou wilt recover me, and make me to live.

17 Behold, for peace it was bitter to me, bitter; and thou hast ’ loved my soul from the pit of destruction; for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. 18 For hell cannot give thee thanks, death praise thee; they that go down to the pit cannot hope for thy truth.

19 The living, the living, he shall give thee thanks, as I do this day; the father shall. make the sons to know concerning thy truth.

20 The LORD (was ready) to save me; and we will play on my stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the LORD.

21 And Isaiah said, They shall take a cake of ﬁgs, and apply it to the boil, and he shall live.

22 And Hezekiah said, What sign is there, that I shall go up to the house of the LORD? ’

XXXIX. 1 At that time Merodach Baladan, son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent a letter and a present to Hezekiah; and he heard that he had been sick, and was recovered.

[*](13. ‘I, quieted ‘: or, ‘I ’ (lit. laid). Many would ‘ cried ’: this involves altering a letter (ABBREV) for ABBREV))[*](15. ‘spoken:...done ’ i.e. prob. promised and performed. ‘softly’: or, ‘at ’ or, ‘solemnly’ (Ps. xlii. 4). ‘because ’: or, ‘in spite ’: lit. ‘upon the bitterness.)[*](17. Not meaning instead qf peace, but rather ‘to give ’ ‘Loved,’ i.e. so as to deliver ‘from the ’: some read (ABBREV) thou hast kept back for (ABBREV) (pronounced somewhat alike).)[*](19. ‘truth’: or, ‘faithfulness.)[*](21. Or, ‘rub it on the ’ [Some commentators consider that W. τι, 22 should stand after ver. 6, cf. the parallel passage in 2 Kings.])

216

2 And Hezekiah was glad because of them, and shewed them his treasure-house, the silver and the gold, and the spices, and the ﬁne oil, and all his armoury, and all that was found among his treasures; there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah showed them not.

3 Isaiah the prophet came unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him, What said men, and whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said, They came from a far country unto me, from Babylon.