The Second of Kings 20:1-21
20 In those days Hez·e·kiʹah became sick and was at the point of death.+ The prophet Isaiah the son of Aʹmoz came and said to him, “This is what Jehovah says: ‘Give instructions to your household, for you will die; you will not recover.’”+
2 At that he turned his face to the wall and began to pray to Jehovah:
3 “I beg you, O Jehovah, remember, please, how I have walked before you faithfully and with a complete heart, and I have done what was good in your eyes.”+ And Hez·e·kiʹah began to weep profusely.
4 Isaiah had not yet gone out to the middle courtyard when Jehovah’s word came to him, saying:+
5 “Go back and say to Hez·e·kiʹah, the leader of my people, ‘This is what Jehovah the God of David your forefather says: “I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears.+ Here I am healing you.+ On the third day you will go up to the house of Jehovah.+
6 I will add 15 years to your life,* and I will rescue you and this city out of the hand of the king of As·syrʹi·a,+ and I will defend this city for my own sake and for the sake of David my servant.”’”+
7 Isaiah then said: “Bring a cake of pressed dried figs.” So they brought it and applied it to the boil, after which he gradually recovered.+
8 Hez·e·kiʹah had asked Isaiah: “What is the sign+ to show that Jehovah will heal me and that I will go up on the third day to the house of Jehovah?”
9 Isaiah replied: “This is the sign from Jehovah to show you that Jehovah will carry out the word that he has spoken: Do you want the shadow on the stairway* to move forward ten steps or back ten steps?”+
10 Hez·e·kiʹah said: “It is an easy thing for the shadow to extend itself ten steps but not to go back ten steps.”
11 So Isaiah the prophet called out to Jehovah, and He made the shadow on the stairway of Aʹhaz go back ten steps after it had already descended the steps.+
12 At that time the king of Babylon, Be·roʹdach-balʹa·dan son of Balʹa·dan, sent letters and a gift to Hez·e·kiʹah, for he had heard that Hez·e·kiʹah had been sick.+
13 Hez·e·kiʹah welcomed* them and showed them his entire treasure-house+—the silver, the gold, the balsam oil and other precious oil, his armory, and everything that was to be found in his treasuries. There was nothing that Hez·e·kiʹah did not show them in his own house* and in all his dominion.
14 After that Isaiah the prophet came in to King Hez·e·kiʹah and asked him: “What did these men say, and where did they come from?” So Hez·e·kiʹah said: “They came from a distant land, from Babylon.”+
15 Next he asked: “What did they see in your house?”* Hez·e·kiʹah replied: “They saw everything in my house.* There was nothing that I did not show them in my treasuries.”
16 Isaiah now said to Hez·e·kiʹah: “Hear the word of Jehovah,+
17 ‘Look! Days are coming, and all that is in your house* and all that your forefathers have stored up to this day will be carried off to Babylon.+ Nothing will be left,’ says Jehovah.
18 ‘And some of your own sons to whom you will become father will be taken+ and will become court officials in the palace of the king of Babylon.’”+
19 At that Hez·e·kiʹah said to Isaiah: “The word of Jehovah that you have spoken is good.”+ Then he added: “It is good if there will be peace and stability* during my lifetime.”*+
20 As for the rest of the history of Hez·e·kiʹah, all his mightiness and how he made the pool+ and the conduit and brought the water into the city,+ is it not written in the book of the history of the times of the kings of Judah?
21 Then Hez·e·kiʹah was laid to rest with his forefathers;+ and his son Ma·nasʹseh+ became king in his place.+
Footnotes
^ Lit., “days.”
^ Perhaps these stairs were used to count time, as on a sundial.
^ Or “palace.”
^ Or “listened to.”
^ Or “palace.”
^ Or “palace.”
^ Or “palace.”
^ Lit., “days.”
^ Or “truth.”
