Hezekiah's Sickness and Recovery

¹qIn those days Hezekiah became rsick and was at the point of death. And sIsaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: Set your house in order, for you shall die, you shall not recover.”1 ²Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, ³and said, “Please, O Lord, remember how tI have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

⁴Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah: ⁵“Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add ufifteen years to your life.2 ⁶vI will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and 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 promised: ⁸wBehold, I will make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the dial of Ahaz turn back ten steps.” So the sun turned back on the dial the ten steps by which it had declined.3

⁹A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, after he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:

¹⁰I said, xIn the middle4 of my days

I must depart;

I am consigned to the gates of Sheol

for the rest of my years.

¹¹I said, I shall not see the Lord,

the Lord yin the land of the living;

I shall look on man no more

among the inhabitants of the world.

¹²My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me

zlike a shepherd's tent;

alike a weaver bI have rolled up my life;

che cuts me off from the loom;

dfrom day to night you bring me to an end;

¹³eI calmed myself5 until morning;

like a lion fhe breaks all my bones;

from day to night you bring me to an end.

¹⁴Like ga swallow or a crane I chirp;

hI moan like a dove.

iMy eyes are weary with looking upward.

O Lord, I am oppressed; jbe my pledge of safety!

¹⁵What shall I say? For he has spoken to me,

and he himself has done it.

kI walk slowly all my years

because of the bitterness of my soul.

¹⁶lO Lord, by these things men live,

and in all these is the life of my spirit.

Oh restore me to health and make me live!

¹⁷mBehold, it was for my welfare

that I had great bitterness;

nbut in love you have delivered my life

from the pit of destruction,

nfor you have cast all my sins

behind your back.

¹⁸oFor Sheol does not thank you;

death does not praise you;

those who go down to the pit do not hope

for your faithfulness.

¹⁹The living, the living, he thanks you,

as I do this day;

pthe father makes known to the children

your faithfulness.

²⁰The Lord will save me,

and we will play my music on stringed instruments

all the days of our lives,

qat the house of the Lord.

²¹rNow Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may recover.” ²²Hezekiah also had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?”