CHAPTER 20
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.'"
“Please,
O LORD,
remember
how
I have walked
before You
faithfully
and with wholehearted
devotion;
I have done
what is good
in Your sight.”
And Hezekiah
wept
bitterly.
“Go back
and tell
Hezekiah,
the leader
of My people,
‘This is what
the LORD,
the God
of your father
David,
says:
I have heard
your prayer;
I have seen
your tears.
I will surely heal you.
On the third
day from now
you will go up
to the house
of the LORD.
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
for My sake
and for the sake of
My servant
David.’”
Then Isaiah
said,
“Prepare
a poultice
of figs.”
So they brought it
and applied
it to
the boil,
and he recovered.
Now Hezekiah
had asked
Isaiah,
“What
is the sign
that
the LORD
will heal
me and that I will go up
to the house
of the LORD
on the third
day?”
And Isaiah
replied,
“This
will be a sign
to you
from
the LORD
that
He
will do
what
He has promised:
Would you like the shadow
to go
forward ten
steps,
or
back
ten
steps?”
“It is easy
for the shadow
to lengthen
ten
steps,”
answered
Hezekiah,
“but not
for it
to go
back
ten
steps.”
So Isaiah
the prophet
called out
to
the LORD,
and He brought
the shadow
back
the ten
steps
it had descended
on the stairway
of Ahaz.
At that
time
Merodach-baladan
son
of Baladan
king
of Babylon
sent
letters
and a gift
to
Hezekiah,
for
he had heard
about
Hezekiah’s
illness.
And Hezekiah
received
the messengers
and showed them
all that was
in his treasure
house—
the silver,
the gold,
the spices,
and the precious
oil—
along with his armory
and everything
that
was found
in his storehouses.
There was
nothing
in his palace
or in all
his dominion
that
Hezekiah
did not
show them.
Then the prophet
Isaiah
went
to
King
Hezekiah
and asked,
“From where
did those
men
come,
and what
did they say
to you?”
“They came
from a distant
land,”
Hezekiah
replied,
“from Babylon.”
“What
have they seen
in your palace?”
Isaiah asked.
“They have seen
everything
in my palace,”
answered
Hezekiah.
“There is nothing
among my treasures
that
I did not
show them.”
The time
will surely
come
when everything
in your palace
and all that
your fathers
have stored up
until
this
day
will be carried off
to Babylon.
Nothing
will be left,
says
the LORD.
And some of
your descendants,
your own
flesh and blood,
will be taken away
to be
eunuchs
in the palace
of the king
of Babylon.”
But Hezekiah
said
to
Isaiah,
“The word
of the LORD
that
you have spoken
is good.”
For he thought,
“Will there not
at least
be
peace
and security
in my lifetime?”
As for the rest
of the acts
of Hezekiah,
along with all
his might
and how
he constructed
the pool
and the tunnel
to bring
water
into the city,
are they not written
in the Book
of the Chronicles
of the Kings
of Judah?