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 Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to theLord,
3 and said,“Remember now, OLord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have donewhatisgood in Yoursight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
4 And the word of theLordcame to Isaiah, saying,
5 “Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘Thus says theLord, the God of David your father: “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will add to your days fifteen years.
6 I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, andI will defend this city.” ’
7 And thisisthe sign to you from theLord, that theLordwill do this thing which He has spoken:
8 “Behold, I will bring the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down with the sun on the sundial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward.” So the sun returned ten degrees on the dial by which it had gone down.
9 This is the writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:
10 I said,
“In the prime of my life
I shall go to the gates of Sheol;
I am deprived of the remainder of my years.”
11 I said,
“I shall not seeYah,
# TheLordin the land of the living;
I shall observe man no more among the inhabitants of the world.
12 My life span is gone,
Taken from me like a shepherd’s tent;
I have cut off my life like a weaver.
He cuts me off from the loom;
From day until night You make an end of me.
13 I have considered until morning—
Like a lion,
So He breaks all my bones;
From day until night You make an end of me.
14 Like a craneora swallow, so I chattered;
# I mourned like a dove;
My eyes failfromlookingupward.
OLord, I am oppressed;
Undertake for me!
15 “What shall I say?
He has both spoken to me,
And He Himself has doneit.
I shall walk carefully all my years
# In the bitterness of my soul.
16 O Lord, by thesethingsmenlive;
And in all thesethingsisthe life of my spirit;
So You will restore me and make me live.
17 Indeeditwasformyownpeace
ThatI had great bitterness;
But You have lovinglydeliveredmy soul from the pit of corruption,
For You have cast all my sins behind Your back.
18 ForSheol cannot thank You,
Death cannot praise You;
Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your truth.
19 The living, the living man, he shall praise You,
As Idothis day;
# The father shall make known Your truth to the children.
20 “TheLordwasreadyto save me;
Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments
All the days of our life, in the house of theLord.”
21 NowIsaiah had said, “Let them take a lump of figs, and applyitas a poultice on the boil, and he shall recover.”
22 AndHezekiah had said, “Whatisthe sign that I shall go up to the house of theLord?”