Dual Panel1At this time Hezekiah became mortally ill, and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him with this message from the LORD: “Give your last instructions to your household, for you are dying; you will not recover.”
2Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and offered this prayer to the LORD:
3“LORD, remember how I have lived before you, faithful and loyal in your service, always doing what was pleasing to you.” And he wept bitterly.
4Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah:
5“Go and say to Hezekiah: ‘This is the word of the LORD the God of your father David: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I am going to add fifteen years to your life,
6and I shall deliver you and this city from the king of Assyria. I shall protect this city.’”
7Isaiah replied, “This will be your proof from the LORD that he will do what he has promised:
8I shall bring back by ten steps the shadow cast by the setting sun on the stairway of Ahaz.” And the sun went back ten steps on the stairway down which it had gone.
9A poem written by King Hezekiah of Judah on his recovery from his illness:
10I said, In the prime of life I must pass away; for the rest of my days I am consigned to the gates of Sheol.
11I said, I shall no longer see the LORD as I did in the land of the living; I shall no longer see my fellow-men as I did when I lived in the world.
12My dwelling is taken from me, pulled up like a shepherd's tent; you have rolled up my life like a weaver when he cuts the web from the thrum. Day and night you torment me;
13I am racked with pain till the morning. All my bones are broken, as if by a lion; day and night you torment me.
14I twitter as if I were a swallow, I moan like a dove. My eyes are raised to heaven: “Lord, pay heed; stand surety for me.”
15How can I complain, what can I say to the LORD when he himself has done this? I shall wander to and fro all my life long in bitterness of soul.
16Yet, Lord, because of you my soul will live. Give my spirit rest; restore me and give me life.
17Bitterness, not prosperity, had indeed been my lot, but your love saved me from the pit of destruction; for you have thrust all my sins behind you.
18Sheol cannot confess you, Death cannot praise you, nor can those who go down to the abyss hope for your truth.
19The living, only the living can confess you as I do this day, my God, just as a father makes your faithfulness known to his sons.
20The LORD is at hand to save me; so let the music of our praises resound all our life long in the house of the LORD.
21Isaiah told them to prepare a fig-plaster; when it was made and applied to the inflammation, Hezekiah recovered.
22He asked Isaiah what proof there was that he would go up to the house of the LORD.