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¹ IN those days Hezekiah became deathly sick, and Isaiah, the prophet, the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, Thus says the LORD: Set your house in order; for you shall die, and not live.² Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall and prayed to the LORD, saying,³ Remember now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept bitterly.⁴ Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah, saying,⁵ Go and say to Hezekiah, king of Judah, 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.⁶ And I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city.⁷ And this shall be a sign to you from the LORD that the LORD will do this thing that he has spoken:⁸ Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down on the sundial of Ahaz your father, ten degrees backward. So the shadow of the sun returned the ten degrees by which it had gone down.

⁹ The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick and was recovered of his sickness:¹⁰ I said, In the midst of my days I shall die, at the gates of Sheol I am deprived of the rest of my years.¹¹ I said, I shall not see the LORD in the land of the living; I shall behold man no more among the inhabitants of the world.¹² My age is departed and removed from me as a shepherds tent; my life has shrunk like a shoelace and as a weavers web which is nearly ready to be cut off; from morning even to night thou hast delivered me to my fate.¹³ Like a swallow twittering, so did I chatter; I did mourn like a dove; I have lifted my eyes on high; O LORD, deliver me and comfort me.¹⁴ What shall I say? He has both spoken to me, and himself has done it, and has caused my sleep to flee because of the bitterness of my soul;¹⁵ When the LORD is against men, shall they live? But because of the life of my spirit, heal me and make me to live.¹⁶ Behold, it was for peace that I had great bitterness; but thou hast been pleased with my soul, that it may not waste in corruption; for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.¹⁷ For Sheol cannot thank thee, death cannot praise thee; those that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.¹⁸ But the living shall give thanks to thee, as I do this day; the father to the children shall make known thy truth.¹⁹ The LORD shall save us; therefore we will sing his songs all the days of our life in the house of the LORD.²⁰ And Hezekiah said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?²¹ And Isaiah said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it as a plaster upon the boil and he shall recover,