Canticle Of Hezekiah

"Once I said: In the noontime of my life I go;

I am sent to the land of the dead,

for the rest of my years.

I said: Never again shall I see YAHWEH 

in the land of the living;

never again shall I see the inhabitants of the earth.

Like a shepherd's tent, my dwelling

has been pulled down and thrown away;

like a weaver, YOU rolled up my life

and cut it from the loom:

from day to night YOU made me waste away.

I have cried for help until morning.

Like a lion, HE has broken all my bones.

I have uttered shrill cries

like a swallow or a crane,

I have moaned like a dove.

My eyes all the while are growing weary

as I look up to the heavens:

Come and help me, O LORD!

For I am troubled.

But how can I speak

and what shall I say to HIM,

If HE HIMSELF is doing this to me?

I will have to walk all my years

bearing this anguish of my soul.

O LORD, give me back my health

and give me back my life!"

- Isaiah 38:10-16

(Hezekiah's canticle is a psalm of thanksgiving like those we find in the Book of Psalms.  It expresses the profound feelings of the believers of the Old Testament for whom dying meant losing everything and who tried to convince GOD that HE would gain nothing in letting HIS faithful disappear forever.)

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