1In those days Hezekiah became sick, and was near death. The prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him and said, "This is what the LORD says: 'Set your house in order, for you will die and not live.'"
2Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD. He said,
3"I beg you, LORD, remember now how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done what is good in your sight." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
4Before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him:
5"Turn back, and tell Hezekiah the leader of my people, 'This is what the LORD, the God of David your father, says: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears. Look, I will heal you. On the third day you will go up to the house of the LORD.'"
6"'And I will add fifteen years to your days. I will save you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city for my own sake, and for the sake of my servant David.'"
7And Isaiah said, "Take a lump of figs." So they took it and laid it on the boil, and he got better.
8Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "What will be the sign that the LORD will heal me, and that I will go up to the house of the LORD on the third day?"
9Isaiah said, "This is the sign the LORD will give you, that the LORD will do the thing he has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees?"
10Hezekiah answered, "It is an easy thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees. No, let the shadow go back ten degrees instead."
11So Isaiah the prophet cried out to the LORD, and he brought the shadow ten degrees back, down which it had already gone on the dial of Ahaz.
12At that time Berodachbaladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick.
13Hezekiah listened to them, and showed them all the house where he kept his precious things: the silver, the gold, the spices, the fine ointment, and all the house of his armour, and everything that was found among his treasures. There was nothing in his house, or in all his kingdom, that Hezekiah did not show them.
14Then Isaiah the prophet came to king Hezekiah and said to him, "What did these men say? And where did they come from to you?" Hezekiah said, "They have come from a far country, from Babylon."
15And he said, "What have they seen in your house?" Hezekiah answered, "They have seen everything that is in my house. There is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them."
17"Look, the days are coming when everything in your house, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD."
18"And they will take away some of your sons who will come from you, whom you will father, and they will be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon."
19Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "The word of the LORD which you have spoken is good." And he said, "Is it not good, if there is peace and truth in my days?"