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¹ In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him: 'Thus saith the LORD: Set thy house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.'² Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the LORD,³ and said: 'Remember now, O LORD, I beseech Thee, how I have walked before Thee in truth and with a whole heart, and have done that which is good in Thy sight.' And Hezekiah wept sore. ⁴ Then came the word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying:⁵ 'Go, and say to Hezekiah: Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father: I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears; behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.⁶ And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city.⁷ And this shall be the sign unto thee from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that He hath spoken:⁸ behold, I will cause the shadow of the dial, which is gone down on the sun-dial of Ahaz, to return backward ten degrees.' So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was 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 noontide of my days I shall go, even to the gates of the nether-world; I am deprived of the residue of my years.¹¹ I said: I shall not see the LORD, even the LORD in the land of the living; I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world.¹² My habitation is plucked up and carried away from me as a shepherd's tent; I have rolled up like a weaver my life; He will cut me off from the thrum; from day even to night wilt Thou make an end of me.¹³ The more I make myself like unto a lion until morning, the more it breaketh all my bones; from day even to night wilt Thou make an end of me.¹⁴ Like a swallow or a crane, so do I chatter, I do moan as a dove; mine eyes fail with looking upward. O LORD, I am oppressed, be Thou my surety.¹⁵ What shall I say? He hath both spoken unto me, and Himself hath done it; I shall go softly all my years for the bitterness of my soul.¹⁶ O Lord, by these things men live, and altogether therein is the life of my spirit; wherefore recover Thou me, and make me to live.¹⁷ Behold, for my peace I had great bitterness; but Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back.¹⁸ For the nether-world cannot praise Thee, death cannot celebrate Thee; they that go down into the pit cannot hope for Thy truth.¹⁹ The living, the living, he shall praise Thee, as I do this day; the father to the children shall make known Thy truth.²⁰ The LORD is ready to save me; therefore we will sing songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the LORD.²¹ And Isaiah said: 'Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a plaster upon the boil, and he shall recover.'²² And Hezekiah said. 'What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?'