Hezekiah’s sickness and his recovery

20 About that time, Hezekiah became very ill. He thought that he was about to die. Isaiah the prophet came to him and said, “This is what Yahweh says: ‘You should tell the people in your palace what you want them to do after you die, because you are not going to recover from this illness. You are going to die.’ ”

2 Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall and prayed, 3 “Yahweh, do not forget that I have always served you faithfully, and I have done things that pleased you.” Then Hezekiah started to cry loudly.

4 Isaiah left the king, but before he had crossed the middle courtyard of the palace, Yahweh gave him a message 5 which said, “Go back to Hezekiah, the ruler of my people, and say to him, ‘I, Yahweh, the God whom your ancestor King David worshiped, have heard what you prayed. And I have seen your tears. So, listen: I will heal you. Two days from now you will be able to go up to my temple. 6 I will enable you to live for 15 more years. And I will rescue you and this city again from the power [MTY] of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for the sake of my own reputation and because of what I promised King David, who served me well.’ ”

7 So Isaiah returned to the palace and told Hezekiah what Yahweh had said. Then he saidto Hezekiah’s servants, “Bring a paste made of boiled figs. Put some of it on his boil, and he will get well.”

8 Then Hezekiah replied to Isaiah, “What will Yahweh do to prove that he will heal me and that two days from now I will be able to go up to the temple?”

9 Isaiah replied, “Yahweh will do something that will prove to you that he will do what he promised. Do you want him to cause the shadow on the stairway/sundial to go back ten steps/degrees, or to go forward ten steps/degrees?”

10 Hezekiah replied, “It is easy to cause the shadow to move forward, because that is what it always does. Tell him to cause it to move backward ten steps/degrees.”

11 So Isaiah prayed earnestly to Yahweh, and Yahweh caused the shadow to go backward ten steps/degrees on the stairway/sundial that King Ahaz had made (OR, that workers had built for King Ahaz).