Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery
In those days Hezekiah fell sick, to the point of death. And Isaiah the son of Amoz, the prophet, came to him and said to him, “Thus says the LORD: Give charge to your house — for you are dying, and you will not live.”
And he turned his face to the wall, and prayed to the LORD, saying:
“Please, LORD — remember, please, how I have walked before you in truth and with a whole heart, and have done the good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept a great weeping.
And it was — Isaiah had not yet gone out of the middle court — that the word of the LORD came to him, saying:
“Turn back, and say to Hezekiah, the leader of my people: Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look — I am healing you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD.
And I will add to your days fifteen years; and from the palm of the king of Assyria I will deliver you and this city. And I will defend this city for my own sake, and for the sake of David my servant.”
And Isaiah said, “Take a cake of figs.” And they took it and laid it on the boil — and he lived.
And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What is the sign that the LORD will heal me, and that I shall go up on the third day to the house of the LORD?”
And Isaiah said: “This is the sign for you from the LORD, that the LORD will do the thing that he has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or turn back ten steps?”
And Hezekiah said, “It is a light thing for the shadow to stretch out ten steps. No — let the shadow turn backward ten steps.”
And Isaiah the prophet called to the LORD; and he turned back the shadow on the steps — where it had gone down on the steps of Ahaz — backward ten steps.
Hezekiah Shows His Treasures
At that time Berodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah — for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick.
And Hezekiah listened to them, and showed them all his treasure house — the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the good oil — and his armory, and all that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing that Hezekiah did not show them, in his house and in all his dominion.
And Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him, “What did these men say? And from where did they come to you?” And Hezekiah said, “From a far land they came — from Babylon.”
And he said, “What did they see in your house?” And Hezekiah said, “All that is in my house they saw. There was nothing that I did not show them in my treasuries.”
And Isaiah said to Hezekiah: “Hear the word of the LORD:
Look — days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD.
And some of your sons who will go out from you, whom you will father, will be taken; and they will be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”
And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “Good is the word of the LORD that you have spoken.” And he said, “Is it not — if there will be peace and truth in my days?”
Manasseh Succeeds Hezekiah
And the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made the pool and the conduit and brought the water into the city — are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
And Hezekiah lay down with his fathers; and Manasseh his son became king in his place.