Isaiah 38:10

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
I said: In the prime of my lifeI must go to the gates of Sheol;I am deprived of the rest of my years.

Hebrew Names Version
I said, In the noontide of my days I shall go into the gates of She'ol: I am deprived of the residue of my years.

King James Version
I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years.

English Standard Version
I said, In the middle of my days I must depart; I am consigned to the gates of Sheol for the rest of my years.

New American Standard Bible
I said, "In the middle of my life I am to enter the gates of Sheol; I have been deprived of the rest of my years."

New Century Version
I said, "I am in the middle of my life. Do I have to go through the gates of death? Will I have the rest of my life taken away from me?"

Amplified Bible
I said, "In mid-life I am to go through the gates of Sheol (the place of the dead), I am to be summoned, deprived of the remainder of my years."

World English Bible
I said, In the noontide of my days I shall go into the gates of Sheol: I am deprived of the residue of my years.

Geneva Bible (1587)
I saide in the cutting off of my dayes, I shall goe to the gates of the graue: I am depriued of the residue of my yeeres.

Legacy Standard Bible
I said, "In the middle of my lifeI am to enter the gates of Sheol;I am to be deprived of the rest of my years."

Berean Standard Bible
"I said that in the prime of my life I must go to the gates of Sheol; I will be deprived of the remainder of my years.

Contemporary English Version
I thought I would die during my best years and stay as a prisoner forever in the world of the dead.

Complete Jewish Bible
"I once said: ‘In the prime of life I am going off to the gates of Sh'ol. I am being deprived of living out the full span of my life.'

Darby Translation
I said, In the meridian of my days I shall go to the gates of Sheol: I am deprived of the rest of my years.

Easy-to-Read Version
I thought I would live a full life. But now, in the middle of my life, the time has come for me to die.

George Lamsa Translation
I said, In the midst of my days I shall die, at the gates of Sheol I am deprived of the rest of my years.

Good News Translation
I thought that in the prime of life I was going to the world of the dead, Never to live out my life.

Lexham English Bible
I was the one who said, "I must go in the quiet of my days; I am summoned through the gates of Sheol for the rest of my years."

Literal Translation
I said in the cessation of my days, I shall go to the gates of Sheol; I am called to account for the rest of my years.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
I thought I shulde haue gone to the gates of hell in my best age, and haue wanted the residue of my yeares.

American Standard Version
I said, In the noontide of my days I shall go into the gates of Sheol: I am deprived of the residue of my years.

Bible in Basic English
I said, In the quiet of my days I am going down into the underworld: the rest of my years are being taken away from me.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
I said: In the noontide of my days I shall go, even to the gates of the nether-world; I am deprived of the residue of my years.

King James Version (1611)
I saide in the cutting off of my dayes; I shall goe to the gates of the graue: I am depriued of the residue of my yeeres.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
I thought I shoulde haue gone to the gates of hell when myne age was shortened, and haue wanted the residue of my yeres.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
I said in the end of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I shall part with the remainder of my years.

English Revised Version
I said, In the noontide of my days I shall go into the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
I seide, in the myddil of my daies Y schal go to the yatis of helle.

Update Bible Version
I said, In the noontide of my days I shall go into the gates of Sheol: I am deprived of the residue of my years.

Webster's Bible Translation
I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years.

New English Translation
"I thought, ‘In the middle of my life I must walk through the gates of Sheol, I am deprived of the rest of my years.'

New King James Version
I said, "In the prime of my life I shall go to the gates of Sheol; I am deprived of the remainder of my years."

New Living Translation
I said, "In the prime of my life, must I now enter the place of the dead? Am I to be robbed of the rest of my years?"

New Life Bible
I said, "Half-way through my life I am to go through the gates of the place of the dead. The rest of my years have been kept from me."

New Revised Standard
I said: In the noontide of my days I must depart; I am consigned to the gates of Sheol for the rest of my years.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
I, said - In the noontide of my days, I must enter the gates of hades, - I am deprived of the residue of ray years!

Douay-Rheims Bible
I said: In the midst of my days I shall go to the gates of hell: I sought for the residue of my years.

Revised Standard Version
I said, In the noontide of my days I must depart; I am consigned to the gates of Sheol for the rest of my years.

Young's Literal Translation
`I -- I said in the cutting off of my days, I go in to the gates of Sheol, I have numbered the remnant of mine years.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
I said, "In the middle of my life I am to enter the gates of Sheol; I am to be deprived of the rest of my years."

Contextual Overview

⁹This is what Hezekiah king of Judah wrote after he'd been sick and then recovered from his sickness: In the very prime of life I have to leave. Whatever time I have left is spent in death's waiting room. No more glimpses of God in the land of the living, No more meetings with my neighbors, no more rubbing shoulders with friends. This body I inhabit is taken down and packed away like a camper's tent. Like a weaver, I've rolled up the carpet of my life as God cuts me free of the loom And at day's end sweeps up the scraps and pieces. I cry for help until morning. Like a lion, God pummels and pounds me, relentlessly finishing me off. I squawk like a doomed hen, moan like a dove. My eyes ache from looking up for help: "Master, I'm in trouble! Get me out of this!" But what's the use? God himself gave me the word. He's done it to me. I can't sleep— I'm that upset, that troubled. ¹⁶O Master, these are the conditions in which people live, and yes, in these very conditions my spirit is still alive— fully recovered with a fresh infusion of life! It seems it was good for me to go through all those troubles. Throughout them all you held tight to my lifeline. You never let me tumble over the edge into nothing. But my sins you let go of, threw them over your shoulder—good riddance! The dead don't thank you, and choirs don't sing praises from the morgue. Those buried six feet under don't witness to your faithful ways. It's the living—live men, live women—who thank you, just as I'm doing right now. Parents give their children full reports on your faithful ways. ²⁰ God saves and will save me. As fiddles and mandolins strike up the tunes, We'll sing, oh we'll sing, sing, for the rest of our lives in the Sanctuary of God . ²¹Isaiah had said, "Prepare a poultice of figs and put it on the boil so he may recover." Hezekiah had said, "What is my cue that it's all right to enter again the Sanctuary of God ?"

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Isaiah 38:1, Job 6:11, Job 7:7, Job 17:11-16, 2 Corinthians 1:9

Reciprocal: Genesis 42:36 - all these things are against me Genesis 42:38 - bring Job 33:22 - his soul Psalms 9:13 - thou Psalms 49:14 - they Psalms 55:4 - terrors Psalms 88:5 - Free Psalms 102:24 - I said Psalms 107:18 - and they Lamentations 3:54 - I said Jonah 2:4 - I said Matthew 16:18 - and the

Cross-References

Genesis 46:12
Judah's sons: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah (Er and Onan had already died in the land of Canaan). The sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.

Numbers 11:1
The people fell to grumbling over their hard life. God heard. When he heard his anger flared; then fire blazed up and burned the outer boundaries of the camp. The people cried out for help to Moses; Moses prayed to God and the fire died down. They named the place Taberah (Blaze) because fire from God had blazed up against them.

Numbers 22:34
Balaam said to God 's angel, "I have sinned. I had no idea you were standing in the road blocking my way. If you don't like what I'm doing, I'll head back."

Numbers 26:19
Er and Onan were sons of Judah who died early on in Canaan. The sons of Judah by clans: Shelah and the Shelanite clan, Perez and the Perezite clan, Zerah and the Zerahite clan. The sons of Perez: Hezron and the Hezronite clan, Hamul and the Hamulite clan. These were the clans of Judah. They numbered 76,500.

Proverbs 14:32
The evil of bad people leaves them out in the cold; the integrity of good people creates a safe place for living.

Haggai 1:13
Then Haggai, God 's messenger, preached God 's Message to the people: "I am with you!" God 's Word.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

I said, in the cutting off of my days,.... When he was told that he should die, and he believed he should; this he calls a "cutting off" in allusion to the weaver's web, Isaiah 38:12 and a cutting off "his days", he being now in the prime of his age, about thirty nine or forty years of age, and not arrived to the common period of life, and to which, according to his constitution, and the course of nature, he might have attained. The Jews call such a death a cutting off, that is, by the hand of God, which is before a man is fifty years of age. The Vulgate Latin version is, "in the midst of my days"; as it was, according to the common term of life, being threescore and ten, and at most eighty, Psalms 90:10:

I shall go to the gates of the grave; and enter there into the house appointed for all living, which he saw were open for him, and ready to receive him:

I am deprived of the residue of my days; the other thirty or forty years which he might expect to have lived, according to the course of nature; of these he was bereaved, according to the sentence of death he now had in him; what if the words were rendered, "I am visited with more of my years f?" and so the sense be, when I was apprehensive that I was just going to be cut off, and to be deprived of the days and years I might have lived, and hoped I should, to the glory of God, and the good of my subjects; just when I saw it was all over with me, I had a gracious visit or message from the Lord, assuring me that fifteen years should be added to my life: and so this is mentioned as a singular instance of divine goodness, in the midst of his distress; and to this sense the Targum agrees,

"because he remembered me for good, an addition was made to my years.''

f פקדתי יתר שנותי "visitatus sum, eum adhuc superessent anni", Tigurine version.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I said - Probably the words ‘I said’ do not imply that he said or spoke this openly or audibly; but this was the language of his heart, or the substance of his reflections.

In the cutting off of my days - There has been considerable diversity of interpretation in regard to this phrase. Vitringa renders it as our translators have done. Rosenmuller renders it, ‘In the meridian of my days.’ The Septuagint, Ἐν τῷ ὕψει τῶν ἡμερῶν μου En tō hupsei tōn hēmerōn mou - ‘In the height of my days,’ where they evidently read ברמי instead of בדמי, by the change of a single letter. Aquila, and the Greek interpreters generally, rendered it, ‘In the silence of my days.’ The word used here in Hebrew (דמי demı̂y) denotes properly stillness, quiet, rest; and Gesenius renders it, ‘in the quiet of my days.’ According to him the idea is, ‘now when I might have rest; when I am delivered from my foes; when I am in the midst of my life, of my reign, and of my plans of usefulness, I must die.’ The sense is, doubtless, that he was about to be cut off in middle life, and when he had every prospect of usefulness, and of happiness in his reign.

I shall go to the gates of the grave - Hebrew, ‘Gates of sheol.’ On the meaning of the word sheol, and the Hebrew idea of the descent to it through gates, see the notes at Isaiah 5:14; Isaiah 14:9. The idea is, that he must go down to the regions of the dead, and dwell with departed shades (see the note at Isaiah 38:11).

The residue of my years - Those which I had hoped to enjoy; of which I had a reasonable prospect in the ordinary course of events. It is evident that Hezekiah had looked forward to a long life, and to a prosperous and peaceful reign. This was the means which God adopted to show him the impropriety of his desire, and to turn him more entirely to his service, and to a preparation for death. Sickness often has this effect on the minds of good people.