2 Kings 20:1-13 ▼

1 In those days Hezekiah was sick unto death, and Isaiah son of Amoz the prophet went to him and said to him, “Thus says YHWH: ‘Set in order your house, for you shall die and not live.’”

2 And he turned his face toward the wall and prayed to YHWH, saying,

3 “Please, O YHWH, remember now how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and I have done good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept a great weeping.

4 And it came to pass—Isaiah had not gone out to the middle courtyard—that the word of YHWH came to him, saying,

5 “Return and say to Hezekiah the leader of My people, thus says YHWH, the God of David your father: ‘I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Surely I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of YHWH.

6 And I will add to your days fifteen years, and from the hand of the king of Assyria I will deliver you and this city, and I will cover over this city for My own sake and for the sake of David My servant.’”

7 And Isaiah said, “Take a cake of figs.” And they took it and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.

8 And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What is the sign that YHWH will heal me, that I shall go up the third day to the house of YHWH?”

9 And Isaiah said, “This is to you the sign from YHWH, that YHWH will do the thing that He has spoken: Shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go backward ten degrees?”

10 And Hezekiah answered, “It is light for the shadow to lengthen ten degrees. No, but let the shadow go backward ten degrees.”

11 And Isaiah the prophet cried out to YHWH, and He brought back the shadow by the degrees that it had gone down on the steps of Ahaz—backward ten degrees.

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

13 And Hezekiah listened to them and showed them all the house of his treasure—the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and and the house of his armor, and all that was found among his treasures. There was not a thing that Hezekiah did not show them in his house and in all his dominion.