Hezekiah becomes mortally ill, and Isaiah tells him to put his house in order. Hezekiah prays and weeps, and the LORD adds fifteen years to his life, giving as a sign the shadow going back on the stairway. Hezekiah writes a psalm of thanks.
1 In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death . And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD , Set thine house in order : for thou shalt die , and not live .
2 Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall , and prayed unto the LORD ,
3 And 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 sore .
4 Then came the word of the LORD to Isaiah , saying ,
5 Go , 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 unto thy days fifteen years .
6 And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria : and I will defend this city .
7 And this shall be a sign unto thee from the LORD , that the LORD will do this thing that he hath spoken ;
8 Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees , which is gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz , ten degrees backward . So the sun returned ten degrees , by which degrees it was gone down .
9 The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah , when he had been sick , and was recovered of his sickness :
10 I 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 .
11 I 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 .
12 Mine age is 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.
13 I 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.
14 Like a crane or a swallow , so did I chatter : I did mourn as a dove : mine eyes fail with looking upward : O LORD , I am oppressed ; undertake for me.
15 What shall I say ? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it: I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul .
16 O 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 .
17 Behold, 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 .
18 For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth .
19 The living , the living , he shall praise thee, as I do this day : the father to the children shall make known thy truth .
20 The 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 .
21 For Isaiah had said , Let them take a lump of figs , and lay it for a plaister upon the boil , and he shall recover .
22 Hezekiah also had said , What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD ?