Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery

20 In those days^(A) Hezekiah became terminally ill.^(B) The prophet Isaiah^(C) son of Amoz came and said to him, ‘This is what the Lord says: “Set your house in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.” ’^(D)

² Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall^(E) and prayed to the Lord, ³ ‘Please, Lord, remember^(F) how I have walked before you faithfully and wholeheartedly and have done what pleases you.’^[a](G) And Hezekiah wept bitterly.^(H)

⁴ Isaiah had not yet gone out of the inner courtyard when the word of the Lord came to him: ⁵ ‘Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader^(I) of my people, “This is what the Lord God of your ancestor David says: I have heard your prayer;^(J) I have seen your tears. Look, I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the Lord’s temple. ⁶ I will add fifteen years to your life. I will rescue you and this city from the grasp of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.” ’^(K)

⁷ Then Isaiah said, ‘Bring a lump of pressed figs.’ So they brought it and applied it to his infected skin, and he recovered.^(L)

⁸ Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, ‘What is the sign^(M) that the Lord will heal me and that I will go up to the Lord’s temple on the third day? ’

⁹ Isaiah said, ‘This is the sign^(N) to you from the Lord that he will do what he has promised: Should the shadow go ahead ten steps or go back ten steps? ’

¹⁰ Then Hezekiah answered, ‘It’s easy for the shadow to lengthen ten steps. No, let the shadow go back ten steps.’ ¹¹ So the prophet Isaiah called out to the Lord, and he brought the shadow^[b] back the ten steps it had descended on the stairway of Ahaz.^[c](O)

Hezekiah’s Folly

¹² At that time^(P) Merodach-baladan^[d] son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah since he heard that he had been ill. ¹³ Hezekiah listened to the letters and showed the envoys his whole treasure-house – the silver, the gold, the spices, and the precious oil – and his armoury, and everything that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his palace and in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them.^(Q)

¹⁴ Then the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah and asked him, ‘Where did these men come from and what did they say to you? ’

Hezekiah replied, ‘They came from a distant country, from Babylon.’

¹⁵ Isaiah asked, ‘What have they seen in your palace? ’

Hezekiah answered, ‘They have seen everything in my palace. There isn’t anything in my treasuries that I didn’t show them.’

¹⁶ Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, ‘Hear the word of the Lord: ¹⁷ “Look, the days are coming when everything in your palace and all that your predecessors have stored up until today will be carried off to Babylon; nothing will be left,”^(R) says the Lord. ¹⁸ “Some of your descendants – who come from you, whom you father – will be taken away,^(S) and they will become eunuchs^[e] in the palace of the king of Babylon.” ’^(T)

¹⁹ Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, ‘The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good,’^(U) for he thought, ‘Why not, if there will be peace and security during my lifetime? ’

Hezekiah’s Death

²⁰ The rest of the events of Hezekiah’s reign, along with all his might and how he made the pool^(V) and the tunnel and brought water into the city,^(W) are written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings.^{(X) 21} Hezekiah rested with his ancestors, and his son Manasseh became king in his place.^(Y)