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Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery

38 In those days Hezekiah became sick and was dying. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said, “This is what the Lord says. Give instructions to your household, because you are going to die. You will not survive.”

So Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord. He said, “Please remember, Lord, how I have walked before you in truth and with my whole heart. I have done what is good in your eyes.” Hezekiah wept bitterly.

Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah.

Go back and tell Hezekiah that this is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says:

I have heard your prayer and I have seen your tears. Now then, I will add fifteen years to your life. I will rescue you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city.

This will be the sign from the Lord to you. The Lord will do what he has promised. Watch! I will make the shadow of the setting sun that has moved down the stairway of Ahaz move back, ten steps higher on the staircase.

Then the sun’s shadow moved backwards, ten steps higher on the stairway that it had just descended.

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Hezekiah’s Illness

38 In those days, Hezekiah became sick to death, and Isaiah son of Amoz, the prophet, came to him and said to him, “Thus says Yahweh: ‘Order your house, for you are about to die, and you shall not recover.’” Then[a] Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to Yahweh, and he said, “O Yahweh, please remember how[b] I have walked before your presence[c] in faithfulness with a whole heart, and I have done the good in your eyes!” And Hezekiah wept with great weeping.

Then[d] the word of Yahweh came[e] to Isaiah, saying, “Go and say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says Yahweh, the God of David your ancestor:[f] “I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I am going to[g] add fifteen years to your days. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city.”’

And this is the sign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do this thing that he has spoken: Look! I will cause the shadow of the steps, which it had gone down on the steps of Ahaz with the sun, to turn backwards ten steps.” And the sun turned back ten steps on the steps which it had gone down.

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 38:2 Or “And”
  2. Isaiah 38:3 Or “that”
  3. Isaiah 38:3 Literally “face”
  4. Isaiah 38:4 Or “And”
  5. Isaiah 38:4 Or “was”
  6. Isaiah 38:5 Or “father”
  7. Isaiah 38:5 Literally, “Behold me; he will add,” but in this context it makes better sense to change the “he” to “I”; most translations follow this emendation