2 Kings 20

¹ About then Hezekiah fel il and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came andsaid to him, 'Yahweh says this, "Put your affairs in order, for you are going to die, you wil not live." '

² Hezekiah turned his face to the wal and addressed this prayer to Yahweh,

³ 'Ah, Yahweh, remember, I beg you, that I have behaved faithful y and with sincerity of heart in yourpresence and done what you regard as right.' And Hezekiah shed many tears.

⁴ Isaiah had not left the middle court, before the word of Yahweh came to him,

⁵ 'Go back and say to Hezekiah, prince of my people, "Yahweh, the God of your ancestor David, saysthis: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I shal cure you: in three days' time you will go up to theTemple of Yahweh.

⁶ I shal add fifteen years to your life. I shal save you and this city from the king of Assyria's clutches anddefend this city for my sake and my servant David's sake." '

⁷ 'Bring a fig poultice,' Isaiah said; they brought one, applied it to the ulcer, and the king recovered.

⁸ Hezekiah said to Isaiah, 'What is the sign to tel me that Yahweh wil cure me and that I shal be goingup to the Temple of Yahweh in three days' time?'

⁹ 'Here', Isaiah replied, 'is the sign from Yahweh that he wil do what he has said; would you like theshadow to go forward ten steps, or to go back ten steps?'

¹⁰ 'It is easy for the shadow to lengthen ten steps,' Hezekiah replied. 'No, I would rather the shadowwent back ten steps.'

¹¹ The prophet Isaiah then cal ed on Yahweh, who made the shadow cast by the declining sun on thesteps -- the steps to Ahaz's roof-room -- go back ten steps.

¹² At that time the king of Babylon, Merodach-Baladan son of Baladan, sent letters and a gift toHezekiah, for he had heard of his il ness and his recovery.

¹³ Hezekiah was delighted at this and showed the ambassadors his entire treasury, the silver, gold,spices, precious oil, his armoury too, and everything to be seen in his storehouses. There was nothing in hispalace or in his whole domain that Hezekiah did not show them.

¹⁴ The prophet Isaiah then came to King Hezekiah and asked him, 'What have these men said, andwhere have they come from?' Hezekiah answered, 'They have come from a distant country, from Babylon.'

¹⁵ Isaiah said, 'What have they seen in your palace?' 'They have seen everything in my palace,'Hezekiah answered. 'There is nothing in my storehouses that I have not shown them.'

¹⁶ Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, 'Listen to the word of Yahweh,

¹⁷ "The days are coming when everything in your palace, everything that your ancestors have amasseduntil now, wil be carried off to Babylon. Not a thing wil be left," Yahweh says.

¹⁸ "Sons sprung from you, sons fathered by you, wil be abducted to be eunuchs in the palace of theking of Babylon." '

¹⁹ Hezekiah said to Isaiah, 'This word of Yahweh that you announce is reassuring,' for he was thinking,'And why not? So long as there is peace and security during my lifetime.'

²⁰ The rest of the history of Hezekiah, al his prowess, how he constructed the pool and the conduit tobring water into the city, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah?

²¹ Then Hezekiah fel asleep with his ancestors; his son Manasseh succeeded him.