Hezekiah's Illness and Recovery

1In those days was Hezekiah sick with a mortal disease. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thy house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live. 2Then Hezekiah turned his face towards the wall, and prayed to the LORD, 3And said, Remember now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

4Then came the word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying, 5Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add to thy days fifteen years. 6And I will deliver thee and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria: and I will defend this city.

7And this shall be a sign to thee from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he hath spoken; 8Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which hath gone down on the sun-dial of Ahaz ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it had gone down.

Hezekiah's Song of Thanksgiving

9The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and had recovered from his sickness:

10I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years.

11I said, I shall not see the LORD, even the LORD, in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world.

12My age hath departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd's tent: I have cut off like a weaver my life: he will cut me off with pining sickness: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.

13I reckoned till morning, that, as a lion, so will he break all my bones: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.

14Like a crane or a swallow, so I chattered: I mourned as a dove: my eyes fail with looking upward: O LORD, I am oppressed; undertake for me.

15What shall I say? he hath both spoken to me, and himself hath done it: I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul.

16O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit: so wilt thou recover me, and make me to live.

17Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.

18For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.

19The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth.

20The LORD was ready to save me: therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the LORD.

21For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaster upon the boil, and he will recover. 22Hezekiah also had said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?