Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery
1 In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him, and said to him, “The Lord says, ‘Set your house in order, for you will die and not live.’ ”
2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, 3 and said, “Remember now, Lord, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight.”
Then Hezekiah wept bitterly.
4 Then the Word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying, 5 “Go, and tell Hezekiah that this is what the Lord, the God of David your father, says: “I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. I will add fifteen years to your life. 6 I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city. 7 This shall be the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that he has spoken. 8 I will cause the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down on the sundial of Ahaz, to return back ten steps.’ ” So the sun returned ten steps on the sundial on which it had gone down.
Hezekiah’s Song of Thanksgiving
9 The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:
10 I said, “In the middle of my life
I am going into the gates of the grave.
I am deprived of the rest of my years.”
11 I said, “I will never again see the Lord,
in the land of the living.
I will no longer look upon man,
the inhabitants of the world.
12 My dwelling is removed
and is carried away from me
like a shepherd’s tent.
I have rolled up my life like a weaver.
He will cut me off from the loom.
From day to night you make an end of me.
13 I waited patiently until morning.
He breaks all my bones like a lion.
From day to night you make an end of me.
14 I chattered like a swallow or a crane.
I moaned like a dove.
My eyes weaken looking upward.
Lord, I am oppressed.
Be my security.”
15 What will I say?
He has spoken to me,
and he himself has done it.
I will walk carefully all my years
because of the anguish of my soul.
16 Lord, men live by these things,
and my spirit finds life in all of them.
You have restored me and caused me to live.
17 For my own welfare,
I had great anguish,
but out of love for me,
you have delivered me from the pit of corruption;
for you have cast all my sins behind your back.
18 For the grave cannot praise you.
Death cannot celebrate you.
Those who go down into the pit
cannot hope for your truth.
19 The living, the living,
he shall praise you, as I do today.
The father shall make known
your truth to the children.
20 The Lord will save me.
Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments
all the days of our life in the house of the Lord.
21 Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs and lay it for a poultice on the boil, and he shall recover.” 22 Hezekiah also had said, “What is the sign that I will go up to the house of the Lord?”