2 Kings 20

1In those days Hezekiah fell mortally ill. Isaiah the prophet, son of Amoz, came to him and said, "Yahweh commands: Order your house, for you will die and not live."

2He turned his face toward the wall and prayed to Yahweh, saying,

3Please, Yahweh, remember how I have walked before you faithfully and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your eyes. Hezekiah wept greatly.

4Before Isaiah had gone out to the middle court of the city, the word of Yahweh came to him, saying.

5Return and tell Hezekiah, leader of my people, "Yahweh God of your father David says this: I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. See, I will heal you. On the third day you will go up to the house of Yahweh."

6I will add fifteen years to your days, deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, and defend this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.

7Isaiah said, "Take a cake of figs." They took it and placed it on the boil, and he recovered.

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

9Isaiah said, "This is the sign for you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will accomplish what he has declared: shall the shadow advance ten steps, or return ten steps?"

10Hezekiah answered, "It is easy for the shadow to extend ten steps—no, rather let the shadow return backward ten steps."

11Isaiah the prophet called to Yahweh, and he turned the shadow back ten steps on the steps of Ahaz, on which it had gone down.

12At that time Berodach-Baladan son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick.

13Hezekiah heard them and showed them his entire house of precious things—the silver, the gold, the spices, the fine oil, his armory, and everything found in his treasuries; nothing in his house or throughout his dominion did he keep from their sight.

14Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him, "What did these men say, and from where did they come to you?" Hezekiah said, "They came from a distant land, from Babylon."

15He said, "What have they seen in your house?" Hezekiah said, "Everything in my house they have seen; there is nothing in my treasuries that I did not show them."

16Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of Yahweh."

17Behold, days are coming when everything in your house and what your fathers have stored up until today will be carried to Babylon; nothing will remain, says Yahweh.

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

19Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "The word of Yahweh that you have spoken is good." He said, "Is it not good if peace and truth will be in my days?"

20The rest of Hezekiah's deeds, all his strength, how he built the pool and the conduit and brought water into the city—are they not recorded in the book of the daily records of the kings of Judah?

21Hezekiah lay down with his fathers, and his son Manasseh reigned in his place.