Hezekiah becomes sick and the Lord heals him
(Also in 2 Kings 20:1-6, 2 Chronicles 32:24)
1At that time King Hezekiah became very sick and the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, came to him and said: ‘You must tell your family what you want them to do because you are going to die. You will not be healed.’
2Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and he prayed to the Lord. 3He said: ‘O Lord, please remember how I have obeyed You with all my heart and that I always did what You wanted.’ And Hezekiah cried loudly.
4The Lord talked to Isaiah 5and He told Isaiah to go back to Hezekiah and tell him: ‘I am the God of your forefather David and I say to you: I listened to your prayer and I saw your tears. I will let you live 15 more years, 6and I will save you and this city from the king of Assyria. 7This will be the sign that I will do what I said: 8The sun is already low and the shadow on the stairs of the sundial of Ahaz shows that it is late, but I will make the shadow go back 10 stairs. I will make the sun go back high up in the sky.’
Then the shadow went back 10 steps and the sun was high up in the sky again.
Hezekiah writes a song
9King Hezekiah of Judah was sick and he became better again. He then wrote a song and said:
10‘I thought that I would still
be young when I died.
I thought that I would go to my grave
before I had become old.
11I thought that I would
not see the Lord again,
here where people live on earth.
I thought that I would never
see any person again
who lives here in the world.
12The Lord broke me down
and put me away like a shepherd
who takes down and puts away his tent.
He cut my life off like the cloth
that a weaver rolls up
and cuts from the loom.
In one day He ended my life.
13He broke me like a lion
that catches a deer and
breaks its bones when he chews it.
In one day the Lord made an end to my life.
14I sighed and moaned like a bird, like a dove.
I looked up to heaven
until my eyes became small.
Lord, I am deep in trouble. Please help me.
15There is nothing that I can say.
It is the Lord who has done this to me.
Do I have to suffer like this all my life?
16Lord, You are the One who causes people to live.
You have made me better
and You will make me live.
You will help me become strong again
and keep me alive.
17Now I know that it was good for me
to have trouble and to suffer like that.
You love me, and You did not cause me to die.
Yes, You have forgiven all my sins.
18You caused me to live
because people who are dead
can not praise You or sing to You,
and those who have died
can not trust You to be faithful.
19Only people who are alive
can praise You like I do today.
A father can tell his children
that You are faithful.
20The Lord will save me
and we will play our lyres
in the temple as long as we live.’
21Isaiah then told them to take a cake of figs and to put it onto the king's wound, and then the king would be healed. 22Hezekiah asked God to give him a sign so that he could know that he would be able to go to the temple again.
