2 Kings
Chapter 20
1 During that time, Hezekiah became very sick and was about to die. Then the prophet Isaiah, Amoz’s son, visited him and said, “This is what God says: ‘Get your affairs in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.’”
2 He turned toward the wall and prayed to God, saying,
3 I ask you, God, please remember how I have lived truthfully before you with a sincere heart, and have done what is good in your eyes. And Hezekiah cried a lot.
4 Before Isaiah had left the inner courtyard, God spoke to him, saying,
5 Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people, “God says, I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will make you well. In three days, you will go to God’s house.”
6 I will extend your life by fifteen years; I will save you and this city from the king of Assyria’s control; and I will protect this city for myself and for David, my servant.
7 Isaiah said, “Get some figs.” They got them and put them on the sore, and he got better.
8 Hezekiah asked Isaiah, “What is the sign that God will heal me and I will go to God’s house on the third day?”
9 Isaiah said, “This is the sign from God that he will do what he promised: will the shadow move forward ten steps, or go back ten steps?”
10 Hezekiah replied, “It’s easy for the shadow to move forward ten steps; rather, let it go back ten steps.”
11 Prophet Isaiah called out to God, and He made the shadow go back ten steps on King Ahaz’s sundial, where it had gone down.
12 At that time, Berodachbaladan, Baladan’s son and king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah because he had heard that Hezekiah was sick.
13 Hezekiah listened to them and showed them everything in his treasure house—the silver, the gold, the spices, the fine oil, his armory, and everything in his treasury. There was nothing in his house or in his entire realm that Hezekiah did not show them.
14 The prophet Isaiah went to King Hezekiah and asked, “What did these men say? Where did they come from to visit you?” Hezekiah replied, “They have come from a far country, from Babylon.”
15 He said, “What did they see in your house?” And Hezekiah replied, “They saw everything in my house. There is nothing in my treasures that I did not show them.”
16 Isaiah told Hezekiah, “Listen to God’s message.”
17 Look, the time will come when everything in your house, and all your ancestors have stored up until now, will be taken to Babylon; nothing will remain, says God.
18 Some of your sons, whom you will father, will be taken away to become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.
19 Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “God’s message that you gave is good.” And he added, “Isn’t it good if there is peace and honesty during my life?”
20 The other things Hezekiah did, his power, and how he built a pool and a channel to bring water into the city, are written in the history book of the kings of Judah, aren’t they?
21 Hezekiah died and was buried with his ancestors, and his son Manasseh became king after him.