1In those days Hezekiah became weak to the point of death. Isaiah son of Amoz the prophet came to him and said to him, "Thus says the LORD: Set your house in order, for you are dying and shall not live."2Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall and prayed to the LORD.3He said, "Please, O LORD, remember, I beg you, that which I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and the good that I have done in your sight." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.4Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah: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 fifteen years to your days.'6I will rescue you from the palm of the king of Assyria, and this city; and I will defend this city."7This shall be the sign to you from the LORD that the LORD will fulfill the word that he has spoken:8'Behold, I am returning the shadow of the steps that has gone down on the steps of Ahaz in the sun ten steps backwards.' So the sun returned ten steps on the steps on which it had gone down.9A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah when he had been weak and lived after his sickness:10"I said, In the middle of my days I must depart to the gates of Sheol; I am deprived of the rest of my years."11I said, I shall not see the LORD, the LORD, in the land of the living; I shall no longer look on any of the inhabitants of the world.12My generation is plucked up and carried away from me like a shepherd's tent; I have rolled up my life like a weaver; he cuts me off from the thread; from day to night you bring me to an end.13I set myself until morning; like a lion he breaks all my bones; from day to night you bring me to an end.14Like a swallow, a crane, so I chirp; I mutter like a dove; my eyes languish to the height; O the LORD, oppression is upon me; be my pledge.15What shall I speak? And he has said to me, and he himself has done it; I walk slowly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.16O the LORD, by them they live, and in all these is the life of my spirit; and you make me healthy and make me live.17Behold, for peace bitterness was to me, bitter; but you have delivered my soul from the pit of destruction, for you have thrown all my sins behind your back.18For Sheol does not give you thanks; death does not praise you; those who go down to the pit do not await your faithfulness.19The living, the living, he gives you thanks, as I do this day; a father makes your faithfulness known to sons.20The LORD will save me, and we will play my stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the LORD.21Then Isaiah said, "Let them lift a cake of figs and rub it upon the boil, and he will live."22Hezekiah also asked, "What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?"