In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith Jehovah, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.
Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto Jehovah,
and said, Remember now, Jehovah, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done [that which is] good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept much.
And the word of Jehovah came to Isaiah, saying,
Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add to thy days fifteen years.
And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria: and I will defend this city.
And this [shall be] the sign unto thee from Jehovah that Jehovah will do this thing that he hath spoken:
behold, I will cause the shadow on the steps, which is gone down with the sun on the dial of Ahaz, to return ten steps backward. So the sun returned on the dial ten steps whereby it was gone down.
The writing of Hezekiah, king of Judah, when he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness.
I said, In the still noon of my days I shall go to the gates of Sheol; I am deprived of the residue of my years.
I said, I shall not see Jah, Jah in the land of the living. I shall not behold man longer with the inhabitants of the world.
Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd’s tent. I have rolled off like a weaver my life; from the thrum he cutteth me off; from day to night wilt thou make an end of me.
I kept still till morning: as a lion he breaketh all my bones; from day to night he will make an end of me.
Like a swallow, a crane, so did I chatter; I mourned as a dove; mine eyes failed [with looking] upward. Jehovah, I am oppressed: undertake for me.
What shall I say? He hath both spoken to me, and himself hath done [it]: I shall go softly all my years for the bitterness of my soul.
Lord, by these things [men] live, and wholly in them [is] the life of my spirit; and thou recoverest me and makest me to live.
Behold, for peace I had bitterness on bitterness; but thou hast in love delivered my soul from the pit of destruction, for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.
For Sheol doth not praise thee, [nor] death celebrate thee; they that go down into the pit do not hope for thy truth.
The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I this day; the father to the children shall make known thy truth.
Jehovah—to save me! My song too we will sing to stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of Jehovah.
Now Isaiah had said, Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a plaster upon the boil, and he shall recover.
Hezekiah also had said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of Jehovah?