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, doing always what was pleasing to you.” And he wept bitterly.
4But before Isaiah had left the citadel, the word of the LORD came to him:
5“Go back and say to Hezekiah, the prince of my people: This is the word of the LORD the God of your father David: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I shall heal you, and on the third day you will go up to the house of the LORD.
6I shall add fifteen years to your life and deliver you and this city from the king of Assyria. I shall protect this city for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”
7Isaiah told them to prepare a fig-plaster; when it was made and applied to the inflammation, Hezekiah recovered.
8He asked Isaiah what proof there was that the LORD would cure him and that he would go up to the house of the LORD on the third day.
9Isaiah replied, “This will be your proof from the LORD that he will do what he has promised; will the shadow go forward ten steps or back ten steps?”
10Hezekiah answered, “It is an easy thing for the shadow to move forward ten steps; rather let it go back ten steps.”
11Isaiah the prophet called to the LORD, and he made the shadow go back ten steps where it had advanced down the stairway of Ahaz.
12At that time the king of Babylon, Merodach-baladan son of Baladan, sent envoys with a gift to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been ill.
13Hezekiah welcomed them and showed them all his treasury, the silver and gold, the spices and fragrant oil, his armoury, and everything to be found among his treasures; there was nothing in his palace or in his whole realm that Hezekiah did not show them.
14The prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah and asked, “What did these men say? Where did they come from?” “They came from a distant country,” Hezekiah answered, “from Babylon.”
15“What did they see in your palace?” Isaiah demanded. “They saw everything,” was the reply; “there was nothing among my treasures that I did not show them.”
16Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD:
17The time is coming, says the LORD, when everything in your palace, and all that your forefathers have amassed till the present day, will be carried away to Babylon; not a thing will be left.
18And some of your sons, your own offspring, will be taken from you to serve as eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”
19Hezekiah answered, “The word of the LORD which you have spoken is good,” for he was thinking to himself that peace and security would last out his lifetime.
20The other events of Hezekiah's reign, his exploits, and how he made the pool and the conduit and brought water into the city, are recorded in the annals of the kings of Judah.
21Hezekiah rested with his forefathers, and his son Manasseh succeeded him.