Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery

1 aIn those days Hezekiah became 1mortally ill. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘bSet your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’ ”

2 Then he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, saying,

3 “aRemember now, O Lord, I beseech You, bhow I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart and have done what is good in Your sight.” And cHezekiah wept 1bitterly.

4 Before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him, saying,

5 “Return and say to aHezekiah the leader of My people, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of your father David, “bI have heard your prayer, cI have seen your tears; behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord.

6 “I will add fifteen years to your 1life, and I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and aI will defend this city for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.” ’ ”

7 Then Isaiah said, “Take a cake of figs.” And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.

8 Now Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What will be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the Lord the third day?”

9 Isaiah said, “aThis shall be the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that He has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten steps or go back ten steps?”

10 So Hezekiah 1answered, “It is easy for the shadow to decline ten steps; no, but let the shadow turn backward ten steps.”

11 Isaiah the prophet cried to the Lord, and aHe brought the shadow on the 1stairway back ten steps by which it had gone down on the 1stairway of Ahaz.