Isaiah 59

1 Behold I will bring again the shadow of the lines, by which it is now gone down in the sun dial of Achaz with the sun, ten lines backward. And the sun returned ten lines by the degrees by which it was gone down. 2 The writing of Ezechias king of Juda, when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sickness. 3 I said: In the midst of my days I shall go to the gates of hell: I sought for the residue of my years. 4 I said: I shall not see the Lord God in the land of the living. I shall behold man no more, nor the inhabitant of rest. 5 My generation is at an end, and it is rolled away from me, as a shepherd’s tent. My life is cut off, as by a weaver: whilst I was yet but beginning, he cut me off: from morning even to night thou wilt make an end of me. 6 I hoped till morning, as a lion so hath he broken all my bones: from morning even to night thou wilt make an end of me. 7 I will cry like a young swallow, I will meditate like a dove: my eyes are weakened looking upward: Lord, I suffer violence, answer thou for me. 8 What shall I say, or what shall he answer for me, whereas he himself hath done it? I will recount to thee all my years in the bitterness of my soul. 9 O Lord, if man’s life be such, and the life of my spirit be in such things as these, thou shalt correct me, and make me to live. 10 Behold in peace is my bitterness most bitter: but thou hast delivered my soul that it should not perish, thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. 11 For hell shall not confess to thee, neither shall death praise thee: nor shall they that go down into the pit, look for thy truth. 12 The living, the living, he shall give praise to thee, as I do this day: the father shall make the truth known to the children. 13 O Lord, save me, and we will sing our psalms all the days of our life in the house of the Lord. 14 Now Isaiah had ordered that they should take a lump of figs, and lay it as a plaster upon the wound, and that he should be healed. 15 And Ezechias had said: What shall be the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord? 17 At that time Merodach Baladan, the son of Baladan king of Babylon, sent letters and presents to Ezechias: for he had heard that he had been sick and was recovered. 18 And Ezechias rejoiced at their coming, and he shewed them the storehouses of his aromatical spices, and of the silver, and of the gold, and of the sweet odours, and of the precious ointment, and all the storehouses of his furniture, and all things that were found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion that Ezechias shewed them not. 19 Then Isaiah the prophet came to king Ezechias, and said to him: What said these men, and from whence came they to thee? And Ezechias said: From a far country they came to me, from Babylon. 20 And he said: What saw they in thy house? And Ezechias said: All things that are in my house have they seen, there was not any thing which I have not shewn them in my treasures. 21 And Isaiah said to Ezechias: Hear the word of the Lord of hosts.