2 Kings 20:1-13 ▼

1 In those days [when Sennacherib first invaded Judah] Hezekiah became deathly ill. The prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not recover.’”

2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, saying,

3 “Please, O LORD, remember now [with compassion] how I have walked before You in faithfulness and truth and with a whole heart [entirely devoted to You], and have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

4 Before Isaiah had gone out of the middle courtyard, the word of the LORD came to him, saying,

5 “Go back and tell Hezekiah the leader of My people, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father (ancestor): “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears. Behold, I am healing you; on the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD.

6 I will add fifteen years to your life and save you and this city [Jerusalem] from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will protect this city for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.”’”

7 Then Isaiah said, “Bring a cake of figs. And they brought it and placed it on the [painful] inflammation, and he recovered.”

8 Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What will be the sign that the LORD will [completely] heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the LORD on the third day?”

9 Isaiah said, “This will be the sign to you from the LORD, that He will do the thing that He has spoken: shall the shadow [indicating the time of day] go forward ten steps, or go backward ten steps?”

10 Hezekiah answered, “It is easy for the shadow to go forward ten steps; no, but let the shadow turn backward ten steps.”

11 So Isaiah the prophet called out to the LORD, and He brought the shadow on the steps ten steps backward by which it had gone down on the sundial of Ahaz.

12 At that time Berodach-baladan a son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick.

13 Hezekiah listened to and welcomed them and [foolishly] showed them all his treasure house—the silver and gold and spices and precious oil and his armory and everything that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his house (palace) nor in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them.