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those days Hezekiah became sick and was near the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said, “This is what the Lord says, ‘Set your house in order, for you going to die; you will not recover’.”
2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord,
3 “Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You faithfully and with a sincere heart, and have done what is good in Your sight.”
And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
4 Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him: 5 “Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of My people, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David says, “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears, and I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the House of the Lord. 6 I will add fifteen years to your life; and I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for My own sake and for the sake of My servant David” ’.”
7 Then Isaiah said, “Bring a poultice of pressed figs.” So they brought one and applied it to the boil, and he recovered.
8 Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, “What is the sign that the Lord will heal me and that I shall go up to the House of the Lord on the third day?”
9 Isaiah said, “This will be the sign to you from the Lord that the Lord will do the thing as He has promised: Shall the shadow go forward ten steps or go back ten steps?”
10 Hezekiah said, “It is a simple matter for the shadow to go forward ten steps. No, rather have the shadow go back ten steps.”
11 So Isaiah the prophet called out to the Lord, and He brought the shadow back the ten steps it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.
12 At that time Merodach-baladan son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick. 13 Hezekiah received the messengers gladly, and he showed them all the riches stored in his treasury—the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil—his armoury and everything that was found among his treasures. There was nothing in his palace or in his domain that Hezekiah did not show them.
14 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and asked him, “What did these men say, and where have they come to you from?”
Hezekiah replied, “They have come from a distant country, from Babylon.”
15 Isaiah asked, “What have they seen in your palace?”
Hezekiah answered, “They have seen everything that is in My palace. There is nothing among my treasures that I have not showed them.”
16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord: 17 ‘Behold, the time will come when everything that is in your palace, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day will be carried off to Babylon; nothing will be left’, declares the Lord. 18 ‘And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood, whom you have fathered will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon’.”
19 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good,” for he thought, “Will there not at least be peace and security in my lifetime?”
20 As for the other events of Hezekiah’s reign, all his accomplishments, and how he made the pool and the tunnel by which he brought water into the city, are they not written about in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah? 21 Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and his son Manasseh succeeded him as king.