1In those days Hezekiah became sick, and was near death. Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him and said, "This is what the LORD says: Put your house in order, for you will die. You will not live."
2Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall and prayed to the LORD.
3He said, "Remember now, LORD, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your eyes." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
4Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah:
5"Go and say to Hezekiah, This is what the LORD, the God of David your father, says: I have heard your prayer, and I have seen your tears. Look, I will add fifteen years to your life."
6"And I will save you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city."
7"This will be a sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he has said:"
8"Look, I will bring back the shadow of the degrees ten degrees, the degrees which the sun has gone down on the sundial of Ahaz." So the sun went back ten degrees, the degrees it had already gone down.
10I said, in the cutting short of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave. I am robbed of the rest of my years.
11I said, I shall not see the LORD, even the LORD, in the land of the living. I shall look on man no more with those who live in the world.
12My life is gone, taken from me like a shepherd's tent. Like a weaver I have cut off my life. He will cut me off with wasting sickness. From day to night you will make an end of me.
13I waited until morning, and like a lion, so he will break all my bones. From day to night you will make an end of me.
14Like a crane or a swallow, so I cried out. I mourned like a dove. My eyes grow weak from looking upward. LORD, I am crushed; take my side.
15What shall I say? He has spoken to me, and he himself has done it. I shall walk softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul.
16Lord, by these things people live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit. So you will make me well, and let me live.
17Look, my great bitterness was for my peace. But you, in love for my soul, have saved it from the pit of ruin, for you have thrown all my sins behind your back.
18For the grave cannot praise you, death cannot sing of you. Those who go down into the pit cannot hope for your truth.
19The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do this day. The father shall make your truth known to his children.
20The LORD was ready to save me. So we will sing my songs with stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the LORD.
21For Isaiah had said, "Let them take a lump of figs and lay it as a dressing on the boil, and he will recover."
22Hezekiah had also said, "What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?"