Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery

1In those days Hezekiah became ill to the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says Yahweh, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’” 2Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to Yahweh 3and said, “Remember now, O Yahweh, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart and have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept [†]greatly.

4Then the word of Yahweh came to Isaiah, saying, 5“Go and say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says Yahweh, the God of your father David, “I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears; behold, I will add fifteen years to your [†]life. 6And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city.”’

7“Now this shall be the sign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do this word that He has spoken: 8Behold, I will cause the shadow on the stairway, which has gone down with the sun on the stairway of Ahaz, to go back ten steps.” So the sun’s shadow went back ten steps on the stairway on which it had gone down.

9A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and [†]recovery:

10I said, “In the middle of my [†]life

I am to enter the gates of Sheol;

I am to be deprived of the rest of my years.”

11I said, “I will not see Yah,

Yah in the land of the living;

I will look on man no more among the inhabitants of the world.

12Like a shepherd’s tent my dwelling is pulled up and removed from me;

As a weaver I rolled up my life.

He cuts me off from the loom;

From day until night You make an end of me.

13I soothed my soul until morning.

Like a lion—so He shatters all my bones;

From day until night You make an end of me.

14Like a swallow, like a crane, so I chirped;

I moan like a dove;

My eyes look wistfully to the heights;

O Lord, I am oppressed, be my security.

15“What shall I say?

[†]Indeed, He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done it;

I will wander about all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.

16O Lord, by these things men live,

And in all these is the life of my spirit;

[†]O restore me to health and let me live!

17Behold, for my own well-being I had great bitterness;

But it is You who has [†]held back my soul from the pit of [†]nothingness,

For You have cast all my sins behind Your back.

18For Sheol cannot thank You;

Death cannot praise You;

Those who go down to the pit cannot keep watch for Your truth.

19It is the living, the living who give thanks to You, as I do today;

A father makes known to his sons about Your truth.

20Yahweh is here to save me;

So we will play my songs on stringed instruments

All the days of our life at the house of Yahweh.”

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