Hezekiah’s Life Extended
1 Inthose days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, “Thus says theLord: ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die, and not live.’ ”
2 Then he turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to theLord, saying,
3 “Remember now, OLord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have donewhatwasgood in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
4 And it happened, before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, that the word of theLordcame to him, saying,
5 “Return and tell Hezekiahthe leader of My people, ‘Thus says theLord, the God of David your father:“I have heard your prayer, I have seenyour tears; surely I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of theLord.
6 And I will add to your days fifteen years. I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; andI will defend this city for My own sake, and for the sake of My servant David.” ’ ”
7 ThenIsaiah said, “Take a lump of figs.” So they took and laiditon the boil, and he recovered.
8 And Hezekiah said to Isaiah,“Whatisthe sign that theLordwill heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of theLordthe third day?”
9 Then Isaiah said,“This is the sign to you from theLord, that theLordwill do the thing which He has spoken:shallthe shadow go forward ten degrees or go backward ten degrees?”
10 And Hezekiah answered, “It is an easy thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees; no, but let the shadow go backward ten degrees.”
11 So Isaiah the prophet cried out to theLord, andHe brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down on the sundial of Ahaz.
The Babylonian Envoys
12 At that time Berodach-Baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick.
13 AndHezekiah was attentive to them, and showed them all the house of his treasures—the silver and gold, the spices and precious ointment, and all his armory—all that was found among his treasures. There was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.
14 Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say, and from where did they come to you?”
So Hezekiah said, “They came from a far country, from Babylon.”
15 And he said, “What have they seen in your house?”
# So Hezekiah answered,“They have seen all thatisin my house; there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.”
16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of theLord:
17 ‘Behold, the days are coming when all thatisin your house, and what your fathers have accumulated until this day,shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,’ says theLord.
18 ‘Andthey shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you, whom you will beget;and they shall beeunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’ ”
19 So Hezekiah said to Isaiah,“The word of theLordwhich you have spokenisgood!” For he said, “Will there not be peace and truth at least in my days?”
Death of Hezekiah
20 Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah—all his might, and how hemade apool and a tunnel andbrought water into the city—arethey not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
21 SoHezekiah rested with his fathers. Then Manasseh his son reigned in his place.