Day 266 of 365

¹In those days was Hezekiah sick and near death. Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him, and said to him, "Thus says the Lord, 'Set your house in order, for you will die, and not live.'"

²Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord,

³and said, "Remember now, the Lord, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight." Hezekiah wept bitterly.

⁴Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying,

⁵"Go, and tell Hezekiah, 'Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father, "I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.

⁶I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city.

⁷This shall be the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that he has spoken.

⁸Behold, I will cause the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down on the sundial of Ahaz with the sun, to return backward ten steps. So the sun returned ten steps on the sundial on which it had gone down."'"

⁹The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and had recovered of his sickness.

¹⁰I said, "In the middle of my life I go into the gates of Sheol. I am deprived of the residue of my years."

¹¹I said, "I won't see Yah, Yah in the land of the living. I will see man no more with the inhabitants of the world.

¹²My dwelling is removed, and is carried away from me like a shepherd's tent. I have rolled up, like a weaver, my life. He will cut me off from the loom. From day even to night you will make an end of me.

¹³I waited patiently until morning. He breaks all my bones like a lion. From day even to night you will make an end of me.

¹⁴I chattered like a swallow or a crane. I moaned like a dove. My eyes weaken looking upward. Lord, I am oppressed. Be my security."

¹⁵What will I say? He has both spoken to me, and himself has done it. I will walk carefully all my years because of the anguish of my soul.

¹⁶Lord, men live by these things; and my spirit finds life in all of them: you restore me, and cause me to live.

¹⁷Behold, for peace I had great anguish, but you have in love for my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for you have cast all my sins behind your back.

¹⁸For Sheol can't praise you. Death can't celebrate you. Those who go down into the pit can't hope for your truth.

¹⁹The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do this day. The father shall make known your truth to the children.

²⁰The Lord will save me. Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord.

²¹Now Isaiah had said, "Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a poultice on the boil, and he shall recover."

²²Hezekiah also had said, "What is the sign that I will go up to the house of the Lord?"

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

²Hezekiah was pleased with them, and showed them the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, the spices, and the precious oil, and all the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah did not show them.

³Then Isaiah the prophet came to king Hezekiah, and asked him, "What did these men say? Where did they come from to you?" Hezekiah said, "They have come from a country far from me, even from Babylon."

⁴Then he asked, "What have they seen in your house?" Hezekiah answered, "They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them."

⁵Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the Lord of hosts:

⁶'Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried to Babylon. Nothing will be left,' says the Lord.

⁷'They will take away your sons who will issue from you, whom you shall father, and they will be eunuchs in the king of Babylon's palace.'"

⁸Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "The Lord's word which you have spoken is good." He said moreover, "For there will be peace and truth in my days."

¹"Comfort, comfort my people," says your God.

²"Speak tenderly to Jerusalem; and call out to her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins."

³The voice of one who calls out, "Prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness! Make a level highway in the desert for our God.

⁴Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain.

⁵The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it."

⁶The voice of one saying, "Cry!" One said, "What shall I cry?" "All flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field.

⁷The grass withers, the flower fades, because the Lord's breath blows on it. Surely the people are like grass.

⁸The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God stands forever."

⁹You who tell good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who tell good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with strength. Lift it up. Do not be afraid. Say to the cities of Judah, "Behold, your God!"

¹⁰Behold, the Lord God will come as a mighty one, and his arm will rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.

¹¹He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead those who have their young.

¹²Who has measured the waters of the sea in the hollow of his hand, and marked off the sky with his span, and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?

¹³Who has known the mind of the Lord, or has taught him as his counselor?

¹⁴Who did he take counsel with, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?

¹⁵Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on a balance. Behold, he lifts up the islands like a very little thing.

¹⁶Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor its animals sufficient for a burnt offering.

¹⁷All the nations are like nothing before him. They are regarded by him as less than nothing, and vanity.

¹⁸To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to him?

¹⁹A workman has cast an image, and the goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts silver chains for it.

²⁰He who is too impoverished for such an offering chooses a tree that will not rot. He seeks a skillful workman to set up an engraved image for him that will not be moved.

²¹Haven't you known? Haven't you heard, yet? Haven't you been told from the beginning? Haven't you understood from the foundations of the earth?

²²It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in;

²³who brings princes to nothing; who makes the judges of the earth like meaningless.

²⁴They are planted scarcely. They are sown scarcely. Their stock has scarcely taken root in the ground. He merely blows on them, and they wither, and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble.

²⁵"To whom then will you liken me? Who is my equal?" says the Holy One.

²⁶Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these, who brings out their host by number. He calls them all by name; by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power, Not one is lacking.

²⁷Why do you say, Jacob, and speak, Israel, "My way is hidden from the Lord, and the justice due me is disregarded by my God?"

²⁸Haven't you known? Haven't you heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn't faint. He isn't weary. His understanding is unsearchable.

²⁹He gives power to the weak. He increases the strength of him who has no might.

³⁰Even the youths faint and get weary, and the young men utterly fall;

³¹But those who wait for the Lord will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.

¹I love the Lord, because he listens to my voice, and my cries for mercy.

²Because he has turned his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.

³The cords of death surrounded me, the pains of Sheol got a hold of me. I found trouble and sorrow.

⁴Then I called on the name of the Lord: "Lord, I beg you, deliver my soul."

⁵The Lord is Gracious and righteous. Yes, our God is merciful.

⁶The Lord preserves the simple. I was brought low, and he saved me.

⁷Return to your rest, my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.

⁸For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.

⁹I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

¹⁰I believed, therefore I said, "I am greatly afflicted."

¹¹I said in my haste, "All men are liars."

¹²What will I give to the Lord for all his benefits toward me?

¹³I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.

¹⁴I will pay my vows to the Lord, yes, in the presence of all his people.

¹⁵Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his holy ones.

¹⁶Lord, truly I am your servant. I am your servant, the son of your handmaid. You have freed me from my chains.

¹⁷I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call on the name of the Lord.

¹⁸I will pay my vows to the Lord, yes, in the presence of all his people,

¹⁹in the courts of the Lord's house, in the midst of you, Jerusalem. Praise Yah!

¹An unfriendly man pursues selfishness, and defies all sound judgment.

²A fool has no delight in understanding, but only in revealing his own opinion.

³When wickedness comes, contempt also comes, and with shame comes disgrace.

⁴The words of a man's mouth are like deep waters. The fountain of wisdom is like a flowing brook.

⁵To be partial to the faces of the wicked is not good, nor to deprive the innocent of justice.

⁶A fool's lips come into strife, and his mouth invites beatings.

⁷A fool's mouth is his destruction, and his lips are a snare to his soul.

⁸The words of a gossip are like dainty morsels: they go down into a person's innermost parts.

⁹One who is slack in his work is brother to him who is a master of destruction.

¹⁰The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous run to him, and are safe.

¹¹The rich man's wealth is his strong city, like an unscalable wall in his own imagination.

¹²Before destruction the heart of man is proud, but before honor is humility.

¹³He who gives answer before he hears, that is folly and shame to him.

¹⁴A man's spirit will sustain him in sickness, but a crushed spirit, who can bear?

¹⁵The heart of the discerning gets knowledge. The ear of the wise seeks knowledge.

¹⁶A man's gift makes room for him, and brings him before great men.

¹⁷He who pleads his cause first seems right; until another comes and questions him.

¹⁸The lot settles disputes, and keeps strong ones apart.

¹⁹A brother offended is more difficult than a fortified city; and disputes are like the bars of a castle.

²⁰A man's stomach is filled with the fruit of his mouth. With the harvest of his lips he is satisfied.

²¹Death and life are in the power of the tongue; those who love it will eat its fruit.

²²Whoever finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor of the Lord.

²³The poor plead for mercy, but the rich answer harshly.

²⁴A man of many companions may be ruined, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.