Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery

1In those days Hezekiah became terminally ill.† The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Set your house in order,† for you are about to die; you will not recover.’ ”†

2Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord. 3He said, “Please, Lord, remember how I have walked before you faithfully and wholeheartedly,† and have done what pleases you.”† And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

4Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah: 5“Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what the Lord God of your ancestor David says: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I am going to add fifteen years to your life.† † 6And I will rescue you and this city from the grasp of the king of Assyria; I will defend this city.† 7This is the sign to you† from the Lord that he will do what he has promised: 8I am going to make the sun’s shadow that goes down on the stairway of Ahaz go back by ten steps.’ ”† So the sun’s shadow† went back the ten steps it had descended.

9A poem by King Hezekiah of Judah after he had been sick and had recovered from his illness:

10I said: In the prime† of my life†

I must go to the gates of Sheol;†

I am deprived of the rest of my years.

11I said: I will never see the Lord,

the Lord in the land of the living;†

I will not look on humanity any longer

with the inhabitants of what is passing away.†

12My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me

like a shepherd’s tent.†

I have rolled up my life like a weaver;†

he cuts me off from the loom.†

By nightfall† you make an end of me.d

13I thought until the morning:

He will break all my bones like a lion.

By nightfall you make an end of me.

14I chirp like a swallow or a crane;

I moan like a dove.†

My eyes grow weak looking upward.

Lord, I am oppressed; support me.†

15What can I say?

He has spoken to me,

and he himself has done it.

I walk along slowly all my years†

because of the bitterness of my soul.†

16Lord, by such things people live,†

and in every one of them my spirit finds life;

you have restored me to health†

and let me live.†

17Indeed, it was for my own well-being

that I had such intense bitterness;†

but your love has delivered me

from the Pit of destruction,†

for you have thrown all my sins behind your back.†

18For Sheol cannot thank you;

Death cannot praise you.†

Those who go down to the Pit

cannot hope for your faithfulness.

19The living, only the living can thank you,

as I do today;

a father will make your faithfulness known to children.†

20The Lord is ready to save me;

we will play stringed instruments

all the days of our lives

at the house of the Lord.†

21Now Isaiah† had said, “Let them take a lump of pressed figs and apply it to his infected skin, so that he may recover.” 22And Hezekiah had asked, “What is the sign that I will go up to the Lord’s temple? ”