2 Kings 20

1 In those days Hezekiah fell ill, and was near death. And Isaiah son of Amoz the prophet came in to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: give your orders to your household, for you are dying and will not live.” [a] 2 And Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, saying, 3 “Ah, Lord — remember, I ask you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a full heart, and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept, and his weeping was great.

4 And Isaiah was in the middle court, and the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 5 “Turn back, and say to Hezekiah the leader of my people: Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father — I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears. Look, I am going to heal you. On the third day you will go up to the house of the Lord, 6 and I will add to your days fifteen years; and I will save you and this city out of the hand of the king of the Assyrians, and I will hold my shield over this city for my own sake and for the sake of David my slave.” 7 And he said, “Let them take a cake of pressed figs and lay it on the boil, and he will get well.”

8 And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What is the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I will go up to the house of the Lord on the third day?” 9 And Isaiah said, “This is the sign from the Lord that the Lord will do the thing he has spoken: the shadow will go forward ten steps — or shall it turn back ten steps?” [b] 10 And Hezekiah said, “It is a light thing for the shadow to lean ten steps forward. No — let the shadow turn back ten steps.” 11 And Isaiah the prophet cried out to the Lord, and the shadow went back ten steps on the stairway.

12 At that time Merodach-baladan son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, because he had heard that Hezekiah had been ill. [c] 13 And Hezekiah was glad of them, and he showed them the whole house of his spices — the silver and the gold, the spices and the fine oil — and the house where his gear was kept, and everything that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing that Hezekiah did not show them, in his house and in all his realm. [d]

14 And Isaiah the prophet came in to king Hezekiah and said to him, “What did these men say, and where have they come to you from?” And Hezekiah said, “They have come to me from a distant land, from Babylon.” 15 And he said, “What did they see in your house?” And he said, “They saw everything that is in my house. There was nothing in my house that I did not show them — and what is in my treasuries as well.”

16 And Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord: 17 Look, days are coming when everything that is in your house, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon; and nothing will be left — so the Lord has said. [e] 18 And your sons who come out of you, whom you will father — he will take them, and they will be eunuchs in the house of the king of Babylon.” [f] 19 And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that he has spoken is good. Let there be peace in my days.”

20 And the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and everything he made — the spring and the water channel, and how he brought the water into the city — are they not written in the book of the daily record of the kings of Judah? 21 And Hezekiah rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of David; and Manasseh his son reigned in his place. [g]