2 Kings 20:1-13 ▼

1 In those days was Hezekiah sick to death. Isaiah 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, and not live.'|

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

3 |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.| Hezekiah wept bitterly.

4 It happened, before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, that the word of the LORD came to him, saying,

5 |Turn back, and tell Hezekiah the prince of my people, 'Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father, |I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Look, I will heal you. On the third day, you shall go up to the house of the LORD.

6 I will add to your days fifteen years. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my own sake, and for my servant David's sake.|'|

7 Isaiah said, |Take a cake of figs.| They took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.

8 Hezekiah said to Isaiah, |What shall be the sign that the LORD will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the LORD the third day?|

9 Isaiah said, |This shall be the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do the thing that he has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or go back ten steps?|

10 Hezekiah answered, |It is a light thing for the shadow to go forward ten steps. Nay, but let the shadow return backward ten steps.|

11 Isaiah the prophet cried to the LORD; and he brought the shadow ten steps backward, by which it had gone down on the dial of Ahaz.

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

13 Hezekiah was delighted at this, and showed them all the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious oil, and the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah did not show them.