Chapter 38

38:1In those days Hezekiah became terminally ill. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came and said to him, "This is what the Lord says: 'Put your affairs in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.'"
2Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord. 3He said, "Please, Lord, remember how I have walked before You faithfully and wholeheartedly, and have done what pleases You." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
4Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah: 5"Go and tell Hezekiah that this is what the Lord God of your ancestor David says: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I am going to add 15 years to your life. 6And I will deliver you and this city from the power of the king of Assyria; I will defend this city. 7This is the sign to you from the Lord that He will do what He has promised: 8I am going to make the sun's shadow that goes down on Ahaz's stairway go back by 10 steps." So the sun's shadow went back the 10 steps it had descended.
9A poem by Hezekiah king of Judah after he had been sick and had recovered from his illness:
10I said: In the prime of my life
I must go to the gates of Sheol;
I am deprived of the rest of my years.
11I said: I will never see the Lord,
the Lord in the land of the living;
I will not look on humanity any longer
with the inhabitants of what is passing away.
12My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me
like a shepherd's tent.
I have rolled up my life like a weaver;
He cuts me off from the loom.
You make an end of me from day until night.
13I thought until the morning:
He will break all my bones like a lion;
You make an end of me day and night.
14I chirp like a swallow or a crane;
I moan like a dove.
My eyes grow weak looking upward.
Lord, I am oppressed; support me.
15What can I say?
He has spoken to me,
and He Himself has done it.
I walk along slowly all my years
because of the bitterness of my soul,
16Lord, because of these promises people live,
and in all of them is the life of my spirit as well;
You have restored me to health
and let me live.
17Indeed, it was for my own welfare
that I had such great bitterness;
but Your love has delivered me
from the Pit of destruction,
for You have thrown all my sins behind Your back.
18For Sheol cannot thank You;
Death cannot praise You.
Those who go down to the Pit
cannot hope for Your faithfulness.
19The living, only the living can thank You,
as I do today;
a father will make Your faithfulness known to children.
20The Lord will save me;
we will play stringed instruments
all the days of our lives
at the house of the Lord.
21Now Isaiah had said, "Let them take a lump of pressed figs and apply it to his infected skin, so that he may recover." 22And Hezekiah had asked, "What is the sign that I will go up to the Lord's temple?"

Chapter 39

39:1At that time Merodach-baladan son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah since he heard that he had been sick and had recovered. 2Hezekiah was pleased with them, and showed them his treasure house-the silver, the gold, the spices, and the precious oil-and all his armory, and everything that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his palace and in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them.
3Then the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah and asked him, "Where did these men come from and what did they say to you?"
Hezekiah replied, "They came to me from a distant country, from Babylon."
4Isaiah asked, "What have they seen in your palace?"
Hezekiah answered, "They have seen everything in my palace. There isn't anything in my treasuries that I didn't show them."
5Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the Lord of Hosts: 6'The time will certainly come when everything in your palace and all that your fathers have stored up until this day will be carried off to Babylon; nothing will be left,' says the Lord. 7'Some of your descendants who come from you will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.'"
8Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good," for he thought: There will be peace and security during my lifetime.