1 About that time was Hezekiah sicke vnto death: and the Prophet Isaiah the sonne of Amoz came to him, and said vnto him, Thus saith the Lord, Put thine house in an order: for thou shalt die, and not liue. 2 Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed to the Lord, saying, 3 I beseech thee, O Lord, remember nowe, howe I haue walked before thee in trueth and with a perfite heart, and haue done that which is good in thy sight: and Hezekiah wept sore. 4 And afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle of the court, the worde of the Lord came to him, saying, 5 Turne againe, and tell Hezekiah the captaine of my people, Thus saith the Lord God of Dauid thy father, I haue heard thy prayer, and seene thy teares: behold, I haue healed thee, and ye third day thou shalt go vp to ye house of ye Lord, 6 And I wil adde vnto thy dayes fiftene yere, and wil deliuer thee and this citie out of the hand of the King of Asshur, and will defende this citie for mine owne sake, and for Dauid my seruats sake. 7 Then Isaiah sayde, Take a lumpe of dry figges. And they tooke it, and layed it on the boyle, and he recouered. 8 For Hezekiah had saide vnto Isaiah, What shalbe the signe that the Lord will heale me, and that I shall goe vp into the house of the Lord the thirde day? 9 And Isaiah answered, This signe shalt thou haue of the Lord, that the Lord will doe that he hath spoken, Wilt thou that the shadowe goe forwarde ten degrees, or go backe ten degrees? 10 And Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadowe to passe forward ten degrees: not so then, but let ye shadow go backe ten degrees. 11 And Isaiah the Prophet called vnto the Lord, and he brought againe the shadowe ten degrees backe by the degrees whereby it had gone downe in the diall of Ahaz. 12 The same season Berodach Baladan the sonne of Baladan King of Babel, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah: for he had heard howe that Hezekiah was sicke. 13 And Hezekiah heard them, and shewed them all his treasure house, to wit, the siluer, and the golde, and the spices, and the precious oyntment, and all the house of his armour, and al that was founde in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, and in all his realme, that Hezekiah shewed them not. 14 Then Isaiah the Prophet came vnto King Hezekiah, and saide vnto him, What saide these men? and from whence came they to thee? And Hezekiah said, They be come from a farre countrey, euen from Babel. 15 Then saide he, What haue they seene in thine house? And Hezekiah answered, All that is in mine house haue they seene: there is nothing among my treasures, that I haue not shewed the. 16 And Isaiah said vnto Hezekiah, Heare the worde of the Lord. 17 Beholde, the dayes come, that all that is in thine house, and what so euer thy fathers haue layed vp in store vnto this day, shall be caryed into Babel: Nothing shall be left, saith the Lord. 18 And of thy sonnes, that shall proceede out of thee, and which thou shalt beget, shall they take away, and they shalbe eunuches in the palace of the King of Babel. 19 Then Hezekiah said vnto Isaiah, The word of the Lord which thou hast spoken, is good: for saide he, Shall it not be good, if peace and trueth be in my dayes? 20 Concerning the rest of the actes of Hezekiah, and all his valiant deedes, and howe he made a poole and a cundite, and brought water into the citie, are they not written in the booke of the Chronicles of the Kings of Iudah? 21 And Hezekiah slept with his fathers: and Manasseh his sonne reigned in his steade.
King Hezekiah's Illness and Recovery
(Isaiah 38.1-8Isaiah 21Isaiah 222 Chronicles 32.24-26)1 About this time King Hezekiah became sick and almost died. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to see him and said to him, “The Lord tells you that you are to put everything in order, because you will not recover. Get ready to die.”
2 Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed: 3 “Remember, Lord, that I have served you faithfully and loyally and that I have always tried to do what you wanted me to.” And he began to cry bitterly.
4 Isaiah left the king, but before he had passed through the central courtyard of the palace the Lord told him 5 to go back to Hezekiah, ruler of the Lord's people, and say to him, “I, the Lord, the God of your ancestor David, have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will heal you, and in three days you will go to the Temple. 6 I will let you live fifteen years longer. I will rescue you and this city Jerusalem from the emperor of Assyria. I will defend this city, for the sake of my own honor and because of the promise I made to my servant David.”
7 Then Isaiah told the king's attendants to put on his boil a paste made of figs, and he would get well. 8 King Hezekiah asked, “What is the sign to prove that the Lord will heal me and that three days later I will be able to go to the Temple?”
9 Isaiah replied, “The Lord will give you a sign to prove that he will keep his promise. Now, would you prefer to have the shadow on the stairway go forward ten steps or go back ten steps?”
10 Hezekiah answered, “It's easy to have the shadow go forward ten steps! Have it go back ten steps.”
11 Isaiah prayed to the Lord, and the Lord made the shadow go back ten steps on the stairway set up by King Ahaz.
Messengers from Babylonia
(Isaiah 39.1-8)12 About that same time the king of Babylonia, Merodach Baladan, the son of Baladan, heard that King Hezekiah had been sick, so he sent him a letter and a present. 13 Hezekiah welcomed the messengers and showed them his wealth—his silver and gold, his spices and perfumes, and all his military equipment. There was nothing in his storerooms or anywhere in his kingdom that he did not show them. 14 Then the prophet Isaiah went to King Hezekiah and asked, “Where did these men come from and what did they say to you?”
Hezekiah answered, “They came from a very distant country, from Babylonia.”
15 “What did they see in the palace?”
“They saw everything. There is nothing in the storerooms that I didn't show them.”
16 Isaiah then told the king, “The Lord Almighty says that 17 a time is coming when everything in your palace, everything that your ancestors have stored up to this day, will be carried off to Babylonia. Nothing will be left. 18 Some of your own direct descendants will be taken away and made eunuchs to serve in the palace of the king of Babylonia.”
19 King Hezekiah understood this to mean that there would be peace and security during his lifetime, so he replied, “The message you have given me from the Lord is good.”
The End of Hezekiah's Reign
(2 Chronicles 32.322 33)20 Everything else that King Hezekiah did, his brave deeds, and an account of how he built a reservoir and dug a tunnel to bring water into the city, are all recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah. 21 Hezekiah died, and his son Manasseh succeeded him as king.