Back to Isaiah 38

Isaiah 38:16-20

Lord, men live by these things; and my spirit finds life in all of them: you restore me, and cause me to live.

Behold, for peace I had great anguish, but you have in love for my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for you have cast all my sins behind your back.

For Sheol can’t praise you. Death can’t celebrate you. Those who go down into the pit can’t hope for your truth.

The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do today. The father shall make known your truth to the children.

Yahweh will save me. Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments all the days of our life in Yahweh’s house.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Read all of Isaiah 38 →

Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

    Lord, men live by these things; and my spirit finds life in all of them: you restore me, and cause me to live.

    Behold, for peace I had great anguish, but you have in love for my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for you have cast all my sins behind your back.

    For Sheol can’t praise you. Death can’t celebrate you. Those who go down into the pit can’t hope for your truth.

    The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do today. The father shall make known your truth to the children.

    Yahweh will save me. Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments all the days of our life in Yahweh’s house.

  • KJV King James Version

    O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit: so wilt thou recover me, and make me to live.

    Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.

    For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.

    The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth.

    The LORD was ready to save me: therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the LORD.

Show all 3 translations
  • JPS JPS Tanakh (1917)

    O Lord, by these things men live, and altogether therein is the life of my spirit; wherefore recover Thou me, and make me to live.

    Behold, for my peace I had great bitterness; but Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back.

    For the nether-world cannot praise Thee, death cannot celebrate Thee; they that go down into the pit cannot hope for Thy truth.

    The living, the living, he shall praise Thee, as I do this day; the father to the children shall make known Thy truth.

    The LORD is ready to save me; therefore we will sing songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the LORD.

View more translations →

Examined in Scripture Analysis

Contradictions (2)

Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.

  • Is death final?
  • Does hell exist?

Explore Contradictions →

Cross-references (59)

  • Isaiah 43:25 (v17) I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake; and I will not remember your sins.
  • Deuteronomy 6:7 (v19) and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and…
  • Ecclesiastes 9:10 (vv18–19) Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work, nor plan, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol, where you are…
  • Jonah 2:6 (v17) I went down to the bottoms of the mountains. The earth barred me in forever: yet have you brought up my life from the pit, Yahweh my God.
  • Micah 7:18-19 (v17) Who is a God like you, who pardons iniquity, and passes over the disobedience of the remnant of his heritage? He doesn’t retain his anger…
Show all 58 cross-references
  • Psalms 6:5 (v18) For in death there is no memory of you. In Sheol, who shall give you thanks?
  • Psalms 30:9 (v18) “What profit is there in my destruction, if I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise you? Shall it declare your truth?
  • Psalms 30:3 (v17) Yahweh, you have brought up my soul from Sheol. You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.
  • Jeremiah 31:34 (v17) They will no longer each teach his neighbor, and every man teach his brother, saying, ‘Know Yahweh;’ for they will all know me, from their…
  • Psalms 86:13 (v17) For your loving kindness is great toward me. You have delivered my soul from the lowest Sheol.
  • Psalms 119:175 (v19) Let my soul live, that I may praise you. Let your ordinances help me.
  • Deuteronomy 4:9 (v19) Only be careful, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes saw, and lest they depart from your heart all…
  • Job 3:25-26 (v17) For the thing which I fear comes on me, That which I am afraid of comes to me. I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither have I rest;…
  • Psalms 30:6-7 (v17) As for me, I said in my prosperity, “I shall never be moved.” You, Yahweh, when you favored me, made my mountain stand strong; but when you…
  • Psalms 40:2 (v17) He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay. He set my feet on a rock, and gave me a firm place to stand.
  • Psalms 78:3-6 (v19) Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come…
  • Psalms 85:2 (v17) You have forgiven the iniquity of your people. You have covered all their sin.
  • Psalms 88:10-11 (v18) Do you show wonders to the dead? Do the departed spirits rise up and praise you? Is your loving kindness declared in the grave? Or your…
  • Psalms 115:17-18 (v18) The dead don’t praise Yah, neither any who go down into silence; but we will bless Yah, from this time forward and forever more. Praise Yah!
  • Genesis 18:19 (v19) For I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of Yahweh, to do…
  • Exodus 12:26-27 (v19) It will happen, when your children ask you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ that you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of Yahweh’s…
  • Exodus 13:14-15 (v19) It shall be, when your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is this?’ that you shall tell him, ‘By strength of hand Yahweh brought…
  • Deuteronomy 11:19 (v19) You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when…
  • Joshua 4:21-22 (v19) He spoke to the children of Israel, saying, “When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, ‘What do these stones mean?’…
  • Job 29:18 (v17) Then I said, ‘I will die in my own house, I will count my days as the sand.
  • Psalms 10:2 (v17) In arrogance, the wicked hunt down the weak. They are caught in the schemes that they devise.
  • Psalms 88:4-6 (v17) I am counted among those who go down into the pit. I am like a man who has no help, set apart among the dead, like the slain who lie in the…
  • Psalms 116:2 (v20) Because he has turned his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
  • Psalms 118:17 (v19) I will not die, but live, and declare Yah’s works.
  • Psalms 145:4 (v19) One generation will commend your works to another, and will declare your mighty acts.
  • Psalms 146:2 (v19) While I live, I will praise Yahweh. I will sing praises to my God as long as I exist.
  • Joel 1:3 (v19) Tell your children about it, and have your children tell their children, and their children, another generation.
  • Numbers 16:33 (v18) So they, and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol. The earth closed on them, and they perished from among the assembly.
  • Psalms 119:25 (v16) My soul is laid low in the dust. Revive me according to your word!
  • Psalms 145:2 (v20) Every day I will praise you. I will extol your name forever and ever.
  • Psalms 150:4 (v20) Praise him with tambourine and dancing! Praise him with stringed instruments and flute!
  • Matthew 4:4 (v16) But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of God’s mouth.’ ”
  • 1 Corinthians 11:32 (v16) But when we are judged, we are punished by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.
  • Hebrews 12:10-11 (v16) For they indeed, for a few days, punished us as seemed good to them; but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. All…
  • Deuteronomy 8:3 (v16) He humbled you, allowed you to be hungry, and fed you with manna, which you didn’t know, neither did your fathers know, that he might teach…
  • Job 33:19-28 (v16) He is chastened also with pain on his bed, with continual strife in his bones, so that his life abhors bread, and his soul dainty food. His…
  • Psalms 9:13-14 (v20) Have mercy on me, Yahweh. See my affliction by those who hate me, and lift me up from the gates of death, that I may show all of your…
  • Psalms 27:5-6 (v20) For in the day of trouble, he will keep me secretly in his pavilion. In the secret place of his tabernacle, he will hide me. He will lift…
  • Psalms 30:11-12 (v20) You have turned my mourning into dancing for me. You have removed my sackcloth, and clothed me with gladness, to the end that my heart may…
  • Psalms 33:2 (v20) Give thanks to Yahweh with the lyre. Sing praises to him with the harp of ten strings.
  • Psalms 51:15 (v20) Lord, open my lips. My mouth will declare your praise.
  • Psalms 66:13-15 (v20) I will come into your temple with burnt offerings. I will pay my vows to you, which my lips promised, and my mouth spoke, when I was in…
  • Psalms 68:25 (v20) The singers went before, the minstrels followed after, among the ladies playing with tambourines,
  • Psalms 116:17-19 (v20) I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call on Yahweh’s name. I will pay my vows to Yahweh, yes, in the presence of…
  • Proverbs 14:32 (v18) The wicked is brought down in his calamity, but in death, the righteous has a refuge.
  • Isaiah 64:5 (v16) You meet him who rejoices and does righteousness, those who remember you in your ways. Behold, you were angry, and we sinned. We have been…
  • Habakkuk 3:19 (v20) Yahweh, the Lord, is my strength. He makes my feet like deer’s feet, and enables me to go in high places. For the music director, on my…
  • Matthew 8:12 (v18) but the children of the Kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
  • Matthew 25:46 (v18) These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
  • Luke 16:26-31 (v18) Besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, that those who want to pass from here to you are not able, and that no…
  • John 9:4 (v19) I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. The night is coming, when no one can work.
  • Psalms 71:20 (v16) You, who have shown us many and bitter troubles, you will let me live. You will bring us up again from the depths of the earth.
  • 2 Corinthians 4:17 (v16) For our light affliction, which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory,

58 distinct cross-references across this passage (59 total citations).

Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)

Explain this passage (18 sources)

Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.

Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv16–20 They that shall overlive the men that are now…

They that shall overlive the men that are now alive, and all they that are in these years shall acknowledge this benefit.

That after that thou hadst condemned me to death thou restoredst me to life.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.

John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv16–20 Isa 38:16 O Lord, by these [things men] live,…
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv16–20 By these things; by virtue of thy gracious word…
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv16–20 Behold, for peace I had great bitterness,.... Meaning not…
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv16, 18, 20 By these - By thy promises, and thy performance…
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv16, 17, 19 Verse 16. By these things men live - "For…
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv16–18 Isa 38:16. By these things men live — By…
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv16–20 O Lord, by these things men live - The…
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v18 Truth. He speaks only of the body.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv16–20 by these--namely, by God's benefits, which are implied in…
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv16–20 16. By these… men live — God’s virtual promise…
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv16–20 16. The thought expressed by E.V. is somewhat as…
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv16–20 (16) By these things . . .—i.e., by the…
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv16–20 By these things; i.e. "the things which thou speakest…
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv16–19 O Lord, by these things men live
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v18 grave Heb. "Sheol," (See Scofield "Hab 2:5")
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv16, 18, 20 General Information:
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v16 38:16 God’s restoration of Hezekiah’s health also symbolized the…
Share