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17 “Look, the grief I experienced was for my benefit.[a]

You delivered me[b] from the Pit of oblivion.[c]
For you removed all my sins from your sight.[d]
18 Indeed[e] Sheol does not give you thanks;
death does not[f] praise you.
Those who descend into the Pit do not anticipate your faithfulness.

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 38:17 tn Heb “Look, for peace bitterness was to me bitter”; NAB “thus is my bitterness transformed into peace.”
  2. Isaiah 38:17 tc The Hebrew text reads, “you loved my soul,” but this does not fit syntactically with the following prepositional phrase. חָשַׁקְתָּ (khashaqta, “you loved”), may reflect an aural error; most emend the form to חָשַׂכְת, (khasakht, “you held back”).
  3. Isaiah 38:17 tn בְּלִי (beli) most often appears as a negation, meaning “without,” suggesting the meaning “nothingness, oblivion,” here. Some translate “decay” or “destruction.”
  4. Isaiah 38:17 tn Heb “for you threw behind your back all my sins.”
  5. Isaiah 38:18 tn Or “For” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
  6. Isaiah 38:18 tn The negative particle is understood by ellipsis in this line. See GKC 483 §152.z.

17 Surely it was for my benefit(A)
    that I suffered such anguish.(B)
In your love you kept me
    from the pit(C) of destruction;
you have put all my sins(D)
    behind your back.(E)
18 For the grave(F) cannot praise you,
    death cannot sing your praise;(G)
those who go down to the pit(H)
    cannot hope for your faithfulness.

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