1 In those days Hezekiah fell ill and was near death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and told him, "This is what the LORD says: Give final instructions to your household, for you are dying; you will not live."
2 Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall and prayed to the LORD.
3 He said, "I beg you, LORD, please remember how I have walked before you faithfully and with an undivided heart, and how I have done what is good in your eyes." And Hezekiah wept with great weeping.
4 Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah:
5 "Go and tell Hezekiah, 'This is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears. See, I am adding fifteen years to your days.
6 I will rescue you and this city from the grasp of the king of Assyria, and I will shield this city.
7 And this will be your sign from the LORD that the LORD will do what he has promised:
8 See, I am going to make the shadow on the steps of Ahaz, which has gone down with the sun, turn back ten steps.'" So the sun turned back ten steps on the steps it had gone down.
9 A writing by Hezekiah king of Judah when he had been ill and had come through his illness:
10 I said, "In the middle of my days I must go off through the gates of Sheol; I am robbed of the remainder of my years."
11 I said, "I will not see the LORD, the LORD in the land of the living; I will no longer look on any human being among those who dwell in the place where all has ceased.
12 My home is pulled up and carried away from me like a shepherd's tent; I have rolled up my life like a weaver; he cuts me loose from the loom. Between day and night you make an end of me.
13 I lay still until morning; like a lion he crushes all my bones. Between day and night you make an end of me.
14 Like a swift or a crane I twitter, I moan like a dove; my eyes are worn out from gazing on high. Lord, I am hard pressed; stand surety for me!
15 What am I to say? He has spoken to me, and he himself has acted. I will go softly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.
16 Lord, by such things people live, and in all of them is my spirit's life. Restore me to health and keep me alive!
17 See, my bitter, bitter grief was for my welfare; you in your love have held my life back from the pit of ruin, for you have thrown all my sins behind your back.
18 For Sheol does not give you thanks, death does not praise you; those who go down to the pit do not hope in your faithfulness.
19 The living, only the living, give you thanks, as I do today; fathers tell their children about your faithfulness.
20 The LORD is there to save me, so we will play my songs on strings all the days of our life at the house of the LORD."
21 Now Isaiah had said, "Have them take a cake of figs and rub it on the boil, so that he may live."
22 And Hezekiah had asked, "What is the sign that I will go up to the house of the LORD?"