Isaiah 38:10
“I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Hezekiah describes the moment when he believed his days were ending and the grave awaited him.
Context
Now Hezekiah speaks in his own voice about the anguish he felt when death seemed imminent.
What Does Isaiah 38:10 Mean?
In the cutting off of his days. The phrase evokes a life interrupted, a thread snipped before its time. Hezekiah feels robbed. The 'residue of his years,' the future that should have been his, is being taken. The grave lies open before him like a gate through which he is about to pass, and he perceives it as loss beyond measure.
Yet this very anguish becomes the ground of his prayer. Because Hezekiah feels the weight of what is being taken, he cries out. The numbness of denial would not have moved him to speak. It is the keen awareness of what is at stake that makes him desperate, and desperation makes him honest. In honesty, he meets God.
In the Original Language
keshet (קצת), 'cutting off' -- an abrupt breaking off, as of a thread or a life interrupted.
Application
The awareness of our own mortality is not to be fled from or numbed, but faced and felt. It is the catalyst that drives us to prayer and to God.