2 Kings 20:1-21
20 In those days Hezekiah fell sick and was at the point of death, and the prophet Isaiah the son of Amos came to him and said to him “Says Jehovah, Make your will, because you are a dead man and are not to recover.”
2 And he turned his face to the wall and prayed to Jehovah
3 “Ah, Jehovah, remember how I have walked before you in wholehearted loyalty and done what pleased you”—and Hezekiah wept copiously.
4 And the prophet Isaiah had not got out to the middle court when Jehovah’s word came to him
5 “Go back and say to Hezekiah, the warden of my people, ‘Says Jehovah, your father David’s God, I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears: I am healing you: day after tomorrow you shall go up to Jehovah’s house;
6 and I will add to your days fifteen years, and will deliver you and this city out of the hands of the king of Assyria, and will shield this city for my own sake and for my servant David’s.’”
7 And Isaiah said “Take a cake of figs”; and they took it and laid it over the abscess, and he recovered.
8 And Hezekiah said to Isaiah “What is the token that Jehovah will heal me and I shall go up to Jehovah’s house day after tomorrow?”
9 * And Isaiah said “This is the token you are to have from Jehovah that Jehovah will do the thing he said he would: shall the shadow move on ten steps or back ten steps?”
10 And Hezekiah said “It is too easy for the shadow to slant down ten steps; no, let the shadow recede ten steps backward.”
11 And the prophet Isaiah called out to Jehovah, and he sent the shadow back on the steps, ten steps backward.
12 At that time Merodac Baladan the son of Baladan, the king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, because he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick.
13 And Hezekiah was glad to see them, and showed them all his treasury, the silver and the gold and the spices and the fine oil, and his arsenal, and everything that was to be found in his hoards: there was not a thing that Hezekiah did not show them, in his palace and in all his dominions.
14 And the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah and said to him “What did these men say, and where do they come to you from?” and Hezekiah said “They have come from a distant country, Babylon.”
15 And he said “What did they see in your palace?” and Hezekiah said “They saw everything that there was in my palace: there was not a thing that I did not show them in my hoards.”
16 And Isaiah said to Hezekiah “Listen to Jehovah’s word:
17 there are days coming when everything there is in your palace, and that your fathers have hoarded down to this day, will be carried away to Babylon: there will not be a thing left, says Jehovah.
18 And sons of yours, out of your body, of your begetting, will be taken and become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”
19 And Hezekiah said to Isaiah “Jehovah’s word that you speak is good”; and he said “It is, is it not, if there will be peace and fairness in my time?”
20 And as to the rest of the history of Hezekiah, and all his exploits, and how he made the reservoir and the aqueduct and brought the water into the city, they are recorded in the chronicles of the kings of Judah.
21 And Hezekiah went to rest with his fathers, and his son Manasseh succeeded him.
Footnotes
^ 20:9 Codd. the shadow has moved on ten steps, shall it move back
