Hezekiah’s Illness

38 In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, ‘Thus says the Lord: Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.’ ² Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, and prayed to the Lord: ³ ‘Remember now, O Lord, I implore you, how I have walked before you in faithfulness with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.’ And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

⁴ Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah: ⁵ ‘Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the Lord, the God of your ancestor David: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life. ⁶ I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and defend this city.

²¹ Now Isaiah had said, ‘Let them take a lump of figs, and apply it to the boil, so that he may recover.’ ²² Hezekiah also had said, ‘What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?’

⁷ ‘This is the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that he has promised: ⁸ See, I will make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the dial of Ahaz turn back ten steps.’ So the sun turned back on the dial the ten steps by which it had declined.^[a]

Plucking Grain on the Sabbath

12 At that time Jesus went through the cornfields on the sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. ² When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, ‘Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath.’ ³ He said to them, ‘Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? ⁴ He entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests. ⁵ Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests in the temple break the sabbath and yet are guiltless? ⁶ I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. ⁷ But if you had known what this means, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice”, you would not have condemned the guiltless. ⁸ For the Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.’