1. In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, Thus says the LORD, Set your house in order: for you shall die, and not live.
2. Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the LORD,
3. And said, Remember now, O LORD, I plead with you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight. And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
4. Then came the word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying,
5. Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father, I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears: behold, I will add to your days fifteen years.
6. And I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria: and I will defend this city.
7. And this shall be a sign to you from the LORD that the LORD will do this thing that he has spoken;
8. Behold, I will bring back the shadow of the degrees, which has gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it had gone down.
9. The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and was recovered from his sickness:
10. I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the remainder of my years.
11. I said, I shall not see the LORD, even the LORD, in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world.
12. My years are departed, and are removed from me like a shepherd's tent: I have cut off my life like a weaver: he will cut me off with wasting sickness: from day even to night will you make an end of me.
13. I was troubled till morning, that, as a lion, so will he break all my bones: from day even to night will you make an end of me.
14. Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I mourned like a dove: my eyes fail with looking upward: O LORD, I am oppressed; come and help me.
15. What shall I say? he has both spoken to me, and himself has done it: I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul.
16. O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit: so will you restore me, and make me to live.
17. Behold, instead of peace I had great bitterness: but you have in love for my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for you have put all my sins behind your back.
18. For the grave cannot praise you, death can not honor you: those who go down into the pit cannot hope for your truth.
19. The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known your truth.
20. The LORD was ready to save me: therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the LORD.
21. For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaster upon the boil, and he shall recover.
22. Hezekiah also had said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?