Isaiah 38:17

“Look, the grief I experienced was for my benefit. ¹  You delivered me ²  from the pit of oblivion. ³  For you removed all my sins from your sight. ⁴ 

Job 3:25,26; Job 29:18; Ps 10:2; Ps 30:3; Ps 30:6,7; Ps 40:2; Ps 85:2; Ps 86:13; Ps 88:4-6; Isa 43:25; Jer 31:34; Jon 2:6; Mic 7:18,19

¹ tn Heb “Look, for peace bitterness was to me bitter”; NAB “thus is my bitterness transformed into peace.”

² 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 tn בְּלִי (bÿli) most often appears as a negation, meaning “without,” suggesting the meaning “nothingness, oblivion,” here. Some translate “decay” or “destruction.”

⁴ tn Heb “for you threw behind your back all my sins.”