ISV(i)
9 Hezekiah’s Prayer A composition by King Hezekiah of Judah, following his illness and recovery:
10 I said, “Must I leave in the prime of my life? Must I be consigned to the control of Sheol? Bitter are my years!”
11 I said, “I won’t see the LORD in the land of the living; and I’ll no longer observe human beings among the denizens of the grave.
12 My house has been plucked up and vanishes from me like a shepherd’s tent; like a weaver, I’ve taken account of my life, and he cuts me off from the loom— day and night you make an end of me.
13 I’ve been swept bare until morning; just like a lion, he breaks all my bones— day and night you make an end of me.
14 Like a swallow or a crane I chirp, I moan like a dove. My eyes look weakly upward. O Lord, I am oppressed, so stand up for me!
15 What can I say, so I tell myself, since he has done this to me? I will walk slowly all my years because of my soul’s anguish.
16 “My Lord is against them, yet they live, and among all of them who live is his spirit. Now you have restored me to health, so let me live!
17 Yes, it was for my own good that I suffered extreme anguish. But in love you have held back my life from the Pit in which it has been confined; you have tossed all my sins behind your back.
18 For Sheol cannot thank you, death cannot sing your praise; and those who go down to the Pit cannot hope for your faithfulness.
19 The living—yes the living—they thank you, just as I am doing today; fathers will tell their children about your faithfulness.
20 The LORD will save me, and we will play my music on strings all the days of our lives in the LORD’s Temple.