In those days Hezekiah was sick to death. And Isaiah the son of Amoz, the prophet, came to him and said to him, So says Jehovah, Command your house, for you are dying, and shall not live.
2And Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to Jehovah,
3and said, O Jehovah, I beg You to remember now that I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart; and I have done the good in Your eyes. And Hezekiah wept with a great weeping.
4Then the Word of Jehovah was to Isaiah, saying,
5Go and say to Hezekiah, So says Jehovah the God of your father David, I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your days.
6And I will deliver you and this city out of the king of Assyria's hand. And I will shield over this city.
7So this shall be the sign to you from Jehovah, that Jehovah shall do this thing that He has spoken:
8Behold, I will bring back the shadow of the steps which has gone down in the steps of Ahaz with the sun, backward ten steps. So the sun went back up ten steps, by which steps it had gone down!
9The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and had recovered from his illness:
10I said in the cessation of my days, I shall go to the gates of Sheol; I am called to account for the rest of my years.
11I said, I shall not see Jah Jehovah in the land of the living; I shall no longer look on man with those dwelling in the death-rest.
12My generation is plucked up and carried away from me, like a shepherd's tent; I have cut off my life like the weaver. He will cut me off from the threads; from day to night You will make an end of me.
13I leveled my soul until morning. Like a lion, so He shatters all my bones. From day until night You make an end of me.
14Like a swift or a crane, so I chatter. I moan as the dove; my eyes look weakly to the heights, O Jehovah; it presses me down; be surety for me!
15What shall I say? For He speaks to me, and He has acted. I shall go softly all my years over the bitterness of my soul.
16O Lord, on them they live, and for all in them is the life of my spirit. And You heal me, and make me live.
17Behold, for peace was bitter to me, most bitter; but You loved my soul from the pit of destruction; You have cast all my sins behind Your back.
18For Sheol cannot thank You; death cannot praise You; the ones going down to the Pit cannot hope for Your truth.
19The living, the living is the one thanking You; as I do today. The father makes known Your truth to his sons.
20For Jehovah will save me; and we will play my songs on stringed instruments all the days of our life, at the house of Jehovah.
21For Isaiah had said, Let them take a cake of figs and rub it on the ulcer, and he will live.
22And Hezekiah said, What is the sign that I will go up to the house of Jehovah?