2 Kings 20

¹In those days Hezekiah became ill, to the point of death. And Isaiah the son of Amoz, the prophet, came to him and said to him: Thus says the Lord, 'Set your house in order, for you are dying and you will not live.'

²He turned his face toward the wall and prayed to the LORD, saying:

³O LORD, please remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and I have done what is good in your eyes. And Hezekiah wept with great weeping.

⁴And it came to pass, Isaiah had not yet gone out of the middle courtyard, when the word of the Lord came to him, saying,

⁵Return 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. Behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord.

⁶I will add fifteen years to your days, and from the hand of the king of Assyria I will deliver you and this city, and I will defend this city, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.

⁷And Isaiah said, 'Take a cake of figs.' And they took it and placed it on the boil, and he recovered.

⁸And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "What is the sign that the Lord will heal me, and I will go up to the house of the Lord on the third day?"

⁹And Isaiah said: This is the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that he has spoken: Shall the shadow advance ten steps, or shall it go back ten steps?

¹⁰Hezekiah said, It is easy for the shadow to decline ten steps; no, let the shadow turn back ten steps.

¹¹And Isaiah the prophet called out to the LORD, and he brought the shadow back on the steps, which it had gone down on the steps of Ahaz, backward ten steps.

¹²At that time Merodach-baladan son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he had heard that Hezekiah had been ill.

¹³Hezekiah listened to them and showed them all his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, and the fine oil, his armory, and all that was found in his treasuries; there was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them.

¹⁴And 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: They came from a distant land, from Babylon.

¹⁵And Isaiah said, 'What did they see in your house?' Hezekiah replied, 'They saw all that is in my house; there was not a thing that I did not show them in my treasuries.'

¹⁶And Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the Lord."

¹⁷Behold, days are coming when everything that is in your house and what your fathers have stored up to this day shall be carried away to Babylon; not a thing shall remain, says the Lord.

¹⁸And some of your sons who will come from you, whom you will father, will be taken away, and they will become officials in the palace of the king of Babylon.

¹⁹And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, 'The word of the LORD that you have spoken is good.' And he thought, 'Will there not be peace and stability in my days?'

²⁰Now the rest of the deeds 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 Annals of the Kings of Judah?

²¹And Hezekiah lay down with his fathers, and Manasseh his son reigned in his place.