17“Lo, for my own welfare I had great bitterness;
         It is You who has kept my soul from the pit of nothingness,
         For You have cast all my sins behind Your back.

18“For Sheol cannot thank You,
         Death cannot praise You;
         Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness.

19“It is the living who give thanks to You, as I do today;
         A father tells his sons about Your faithfulness.

20“The LORD will surely save me;
         So we will play my songs on stringed instruments
         All the days of our life at the house of the LORD.”

      21Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may recover.” 22Then Hezekiah had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?”

NASB ©1995