2 Kings 20

1In those days Hezekiah became sick, near to death. And Isaiah son of Amoz the prophet came to him and said to him, “Thus says Yahweh: Set your house in order, for you are about to die; you will not live.”

2Then he turned his face to the wall and prayed to Yahweh, saying,

3“Please, O Yahweh, remember, I pray, how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

4And it happened, before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, that the word of Yahweh came to him, saying,

5Go back and say to Hezekiah, the leader of my people, ‘Thus says Yahweh, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I am healing you. On the third day you will go up to the house of Yahweh.’

6And I will add fifteen years to your life, and I will deliver 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 cake of figs.” So they took it and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.

8And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What is the sign that Yahweh will heal me and that I will go up to the house of Yahweh on the third day?”

9And Isaiah said, “This is the sign for you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do the thing that he has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or shall it turn back ten steps?”

10And Hezekiah said, “It is an easy thing for the shadow to stretch forward ten steps. No, but let the shadow go back ten steps.”

11And Isaiah the prophet cried out to Yahweh, and he brought the shadow back the ten steps by which it had gone down on the steps of Ahaz.

12At 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 sick.

13And Hezekiah listened to them and showed them all his treasure house—the silver, the gold, the spices, the fine oil, his armory, and everything that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm 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?” And Hezekiah said, “They came to me from a distant land, from Babylon.”

15And he said, “What did they see in your house?” And Hezekiah said, “They saw everything that is in my house. There was nothing that I did not show them among my treasuries.”

16Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of Yahweh.”

17Look, days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried to Babylon. Not a thing will be left, says the LORD.

18And some of your sons who will come from you, whom you will father, will be taken, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.

19Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of Yahweh that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “Will there not be peace and stability in my days?”

20The rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made the pool and the conduit and brought the water into the city—are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

21And Hezekiah lay down with his fathers, and Manasseh his son became king in his place.