---
title: "Isaiah 38 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/isaiah/38/
description: "Ezechias being advertised that he shall die, obtains by prayer a prolongation of… Isaiah 38 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Isaiah 38

Isaiah 38 is chapter 38 of 66 in the Book of Isaiah. Here are all 22 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> Ezechias being advertised that he shall die, obtains by prayer a prolongation of his life: in confirmation of which the sun goes back. The canticle of Ezechias.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Isaiah 38 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. In those days Hezekiah became ill and was near death. And so, Isaiah, the son of Amoz, the prophet, entered to him, and he said to him: “Thus says the Lord: Put your house in order, for you shall die, and you shall not live.”
2. And Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and he prayed to the Lord.
3. And he said: “I beg you, Lord, I beseech you, to remember how I walked before you in truth and with a whole heart, and that I have done what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept with a great weeping.
4. And the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying:
5. “Go and say to Hezekiah: Thus says the Lord, the God of David, your father: I have heard your prayer, and I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your days.
6. And I will rescue you and this city from the hand of the king of the Assyrians, and I will protect it.
7. And this will be a sign for you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this word, which he has spoken:
8. Behold, I will cause the shadow of the lines, which has now descended on the sundial of Ahaz, to move in reverse for ten lines.” And so, the sun moved backward by ten lines, through the degrees by which it had descended.
9. The writing of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, after he had fallen ill and had recovered from his sickness:
10. “I said: In the middle of my days, I will go to the gates of Hell. So I sought the remainder of my years.
11. I said: I will not see the Lord God in the land of the living. I will no longer behold man, nor the habitation of rest.
12. My longevity has been taken away; it has been folded up and taken from me, like the tent of a shepherd. My life has been cut off, as if by a weaver. While I was still beginning, he cut me off. From morning until evening, you have marked out my limits.
13. I hoped, even until morning. Like a lion, so has he crushed all my bones. From morning until evening, you have marked my limits.
14. I will cry out, like a young swallow. I will meditate, like a dove. My eyes have been weakened by gazing upward. O Lord, I suffer violence! Answer in my favor.
15. What can I say, or what would he answer me, since he himself has done this? I will acknowledge to you all my years, in the bitterness of my soul.
16. O Lord, if such is life, and if the life of my spirit is of such a kind, may you correct me and may you cause me to live.
17. Behold, in peace my bitterness is most bitter. But you have rescued my soul, so that it would not perish. You have cast all my sins behind your back.
18. For Hell will not confess to you, and death will not praise you. Those who descend into the pit will not hope for your truth.
19. The living, the living, these will give praise to you, as I also do this day! The father will make the truth known to the sons.
20. O Lord, save me! And we will sing our psalms, all the days of our life, in the house of the Lord.”
21. Now Isaiah had ordered them to take a paste of figs, and to spread it like plaster over the wound, so that he would be healed.
22. And Hezekiah said, “What will be the sign that I may go up to the house of the Lord?”

## Isaiah 38 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. In diebus illis ægrotavit Ezechias usque ad mortem; et introivit ad eum Isaias, filius Amos, propheta, et dixit ei: Hæc dicit Dominus: Dispone domui tuæ, quia morieris tu, et non vives.
2. Et convertit Ezechias faciem suam ad parietem, et oravit ad Dominum,
3. et dixit: Obsecro, Domine, memento, quæso, quomodo ambulaverim coram te in veritate et in corde perfecto, et quod bonum est in oculis tuis fecerim. Et flevit Ezechias fletu magno.
4. Et factum est verbum Domini ad Isaiam, dicens:
5. Vade, et dic Ezechiæ: Hæc dicit Dominus Deus David patris tui: Audivi orationem tuam, et vidi lacrimas tuas; ecce ego adjiciam super dies tuos quindecim annos,
6. et de manu regis Assyriorum eruam te, et civitatem istam, et protegam eam.
7. Hoc autem tibi erit signum a Domino, quia faciet Dominus verbum hoc quod locutus est:
8. ecce ego reverti faciam umbram linearum per quas descenderat in horologio Achaz in sole, retrorsum decem lineis. Et reversus est sol decem lineis per gradus quos descenderat.
9. Scriptura Ezechiæ, regis Juda, cum ægrotasset et convaluisset de infirmitate sua.
10. Ego dixi in dimidio dierum meorum: Vadam ad portas inferi; quæsivi residuum annorum meorum.
11. Dixi: Non videbo Dominum Deum in terra viventium; non aspiciam hominem ultra, et habitatorem quietis.
12. Generatio mea ablata est, et convoluta est a me, quasi tabernaculum pastorum. Præcisa est velut a texente vita mea; dum adhuc ordirer, succidit me: de mane usque ad vesperam finies me.
13. Sperabam usque ad mane; quasi leo, sic contrivit omnia ossa mea: de mane usque ad vesperam finies me.
14. Sicut pullus hirundinis, sic clamabo; meditabor ut columba. Attenuati sunt oculi mei, suspicientes in excelsum. Domine, vim patior: responde pro me.
15. Quid dicam, aut quid respondebit mihi, cum ipse fecerit? Recogitabo tibi omnes annos meos in amaritudine animæ meæ.
16. Domine, si sic vivitur, et in talibus vita spiritus mei, corripies me, et vivificabis me.
17. Ecce in pace amaritudo mea amarissima. Tu autem eruisti animam meam ut non periret; projecisti post tergum tuum omnia peccata mea.
18. Quia non infernus confitebitur tibi, neque mors laudabit te: non exspectabunt qui descendunt in lacum veritatem tuam.
19. Vivens, vivens ipse confitebitur tibi, sicut et ego hodie; pater filiis notam faciet veritatem tuam.
20. Domine, salvum me fac! et psalmos nostros cantabimus cunctis diebus vitæ nostræ in domo Domini.
21. Et jussit Isaias ut tollerent massam de ficis, et cataplasmarent super vulnus, et sanaretur.
22. Et dixit Ezechias: Quod erit signum quia ascendam in domum Domini?

## Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraph numbers and the Catechism's own section headings (never quoted); text at vatican.va.
- CCC ¶ 1502: Its Foundations in the Economy of Salvation ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 10: “Hell” … Sheol, or Hades, the region of the dead.

## Read at Mass (US)

- Fri, Jul 21, 2028 (computed): Friday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time — First Reading, Isaiah 38:1-6, 21-22, 7-8; Responsorial Psalm, Isaiah 38:10, 11, 12abcd, 16

Dates after May 31, 2027 are computed by Bless from the US Lectionary cycle — confirm with your parish.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).