Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery

In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Put your house in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.’ ”

Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, saying, “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before You faithfully and with wholehearted devotion; I have done what was good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

And the word of the LORD came to Isaiah, saying, “Go and tell Hezekiah that this is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: ‘I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city. This will be a sign to you from the LORD that He will do what He has promised: I will make the sun’s shadow that falls on the stairway of Ahaz go back ten steps.’ ”

So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had descended.

This is a writing by Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery:

I said, “In the prime of my life

I must go through the gates of Sheol

and be deprived of the remainder of my years.”

I said, “I will never again see the LORD,

even the LORD, in the land of the living;

I will no longer look on mankind

with those who dwell in this world.

My dwelling has been picked up and removed from me

like a shepherd’s tent.

I have rolled up my life like a weaver;

He cuts me off from the loom;

from day until night You make an end of me.

I composed myself until the morning.

Like a lion He breaks all my bones;

from day until night You make an end of me.

I chirp like a swallow or crane;

I moan like a dove.

My eyes grow weak as I look upward.

O Lord, I am oppressed; be my security.”

What can I say?

He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done this.

I will walk slowly all my years

because of the anguish of my soul.

O Lord, by such things men live,

and in all of them my spirit finds life.

You have restored me to health

and have let me live.

Surely for my own welfare

I had such great anguish;

but Your love has delivered me from the pit of oblivion,

for You have cast all my sins behind Your back.

For Sheol cannot thank You;

Death cannot praise You.

Those who descend to the Pit

cannot hope for Your faithfulness.

The living, only the living, can thank You,

as I do today;

fathers will tell their children

about Your faithfulness.

The LORD will save me;

we will play songs on stringed instruments

all the days of our lives

in the house of the LORD.

Now Isaiah had said, “Prepare a lump of pressed figs and apply it to the boil, and he will recover.”

And Hezekiah had asked, “What will be the sign that I will go up to the house of the LORD?”