 1 In those days Hezekiah was sick to death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him and said to him, Thus says the Lord, Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live. 2 Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord, 3 and said, Remember now, O Lord, I beseech you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a whole heart, and have done the good in your sight. And Hezekiah wept with a great weeping. 4 Then came the Word of the Lord to Isaiah saying, 5 Go and say to Hezekiah: Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father, I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add to your days fifteen years. 6 I will deliver you and this city from the king of Assyria. And I will defend this city. 7 This shall be a sign to you from the Lord that the Lord will do this that He has spoken: 8 behold, I will bring again the shadow of the steps, which has gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten steps backward. So the sun returned ten steps, by which steps it had gone down. 9 The writing of King Hezekiah of Judah, when he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness: 10 I said in the cutting off of my days, I will go to the gates of the grave. I have numbered the rest of my years. 11 I will not see the Lord Jah. Not even the Lord Jehovah in the land of the living. I will no longer look on mankind with the people of the world. 12 My generation has departed and been removed from me like a shepherd's tent. I have cut off my life like a weaver. He will cut me off from the loom. From day even to night, you will make an end of me. 13 I place Him before me until morning, that, as a lion, so He breaks all my bones. From day even until night you make an end of me. 14 Like a twittering swallow, so I chatter; I mourn as a dove. My eyes look weakly to the heights. O Lord, I am pressed down. Be surety for me. 15 What shall I say? He has spoken to me, and He Himself has acted; 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 is the life of my spirit. So you will recover me, and make me to live. 17 Behold, I had great bitterness for peace. But you loved my soul from the pit of destruction. You have cast all my sins behind your back. 18 The grave cannot praise you. Death cannot rejoice in you. Those who go down into the pit cannot hope for your truth. 19 The living, the living will praise you as I do this day. The fathers will make your truth known to the children. 20 For the Lord is for my salvation. We will sing songs on stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord. 21 For Isaiah had said, Let them take a cake of figs and rub it on the ulcer and he will live. 22 Hezekiah said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?
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