(Canticle of_Ezechias * Isa 38:10-23)
38:10 I said: In the midst of my days * I shall go to the gates of hell:
38:11 I sought for the residue of my years. * I said: I shall not see the Lord God in the land of the living.
38:12 I shall behold man no more, * nor the inhabitant of rest.
38:13 My generation is at an end, and it is rolled away from me, * as a shepherd’s tent.
38:14 My life is cut off, as by a weaver: whilst I was yet but beginning, he cut me off: * from morning even to night thou wilt make an end of me.
38:15 I hoped till morning, * as a lion so hath he broken all my bones:
38:16 From morning even to night thou wilt make an end of me. * I will cry like a young swallow, I will meditate like a dove:
38:17 My eyes are weakened * looking upward:
38:18 Lord, I suffer violence, answer thou for me. * What shall I say, or what shall he answer for me, whereas he himself hath done it?
38:19 I will recount to thee all my years * in the bitterness of my soul.
38:20 O Lord, if man’s life be such, and the life of my spirit be in such things as these, thou shalt correct me, and make me to live. * Behold in peace is my bitterness most bitter:
38:21 But thou hast delivered my soul that it should not perish, * thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.
38:22 For hell shall not confess to thee, neither shall death praise thee: * nor shall they that go down into the pit, look for thy truth.
38:23 The living, the living, he shall give praise to thee, as I do this day: * the father shall make thy truth known to the children.
38:24 O Lord, save me, and we will sing our psalms all the days of our life * in the house of the Lord.