In those days was Hezekiah sick to the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him and said to him, “This is what Yahweh says: ‘Set your house in order, for you are going to die and will not live.’”
Then he turned his face to the wall and prayed to Yahweh
and said, “Please Yahweh, remember now how I have walked before you in truth and with a wholly devoted heart, and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept; it was a great weeping.
Then the word of Yahweh came to Isaiah, saying,
“Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what Yahweh, the God of David your father, says: “I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add 15 years to your life.
I will rescue you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city.
This is to be the sign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do this thing that he has spoken.
Behold, I will cause the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down with the sun on the sundial of Ahaz, to go back ten steps.” So the sun’s shadow went back ten steps on the sundial on which it had gone down.
The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, after he had been sick and had recovered of his sickness:
I said, “In the prime of my days I am to enter the gates of Sheol. I am deprived of the remainder of my years.”
I said, “I will not see Yah, Yah in the land of the living. I will no longer look on humankind along with those who live in this world.
My dwelling is pulled up and removed from me like a shepherd’s tent. I have rolled up my life like a weaver. He will cut me off from the loom. From day to night you bring me to an end.
I waited patiently until morning, but he breaks all my bones like a lion. From day to night you bring me to an end.
I chirp like a swallow or a crane, I moan like a dove. My eyes weaken looking upward. Lord, I am oppressed. Support me!”
What can I say? He has spoken to me, and he himself has done it. I will walk carefully all my years because of the anguish my soul experienced.
O Lord, by these things people live, and my spirit finds life in all of them: you restore me and cause me to live.
Behold, it was for my own welfare I had anguish—anguish— but in love you delivered my soul from the pit of oblivion, for you have cast all my sins behind your back.
For Sheol cannot praise you. Death cannot celebrate you. Those who go down into the pit cannot have hope for your faithfulness.
The living person, the living person, he gives you thanks, as I do this day; the father makes known your faithfulness to the children.
Yahweh will save me. Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of Yahweh.
Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs and lay it for a poultice on the boil, and he may recover.”
Hezekiah also had said, “What is the sign that I will go up to the house of Yahweh?”