1. In those days Hezekiah was sick to death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him and said to him, So says Jehovah, Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.
2. Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to Jehovah,
3. and said, Remember now, O Jehovah, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart, and have done the good in Your sight. And Hezekiah wept with a great weeping.
4. Then came the Word of Jehovah to Isaiah, saying,
5. Go and say to Hezekiah: So says Jehovah, 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 Jehovah that Jehovah will do this thing that He has spoken:
8. behold, I will bring again the shadow of the steps, which has gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten steps backward. So the sun returned ten steps, by which steps it had gone down.
9. The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:
10. I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave; I have numbered the rest of my years.
11. I said, I shall not see Jah, Jehovah, in the land of the living; I shall look on man no more with the people of the world.
12. My generation is departed and removed from me like a shepherd's tent; I have cut off my life like a weaver; He will cut me off from the loom; from day even to night You will make an end of me.
13. I place Him before me until morning, that, as a lion, so He breaks all my bones; from day even until night You make an end of me.
14. Like a twittering swallow, so I chatter; I mourn as a dove; my eyes look weakly to the heights. O Jehovah, I am pressed down; be surety for me.
15. What shall I say? He has spoken to me, and He Himself has acted; I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul.
16. O Jehovah, by these things men live, and in all these is the life of my spirit; so You will recover me, and make me to live.
17. Behold, I had great bitterness for peace; but You loved my soul from the pit of destruction. You have cast all my sins behind Your back.
18. For the grave cannot praise You, death can not rejoice in You; they 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 shall make Your truth known to the sons.
20. For Jehovah is for my salvation; and we will sing my songs on the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of Jehovah.
21. For Isaiah had said, Let them take a cake of figs and rub it on the ulcer; and he will live.
22. And Hezekiah said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of Jehovah?