Hezekiah's Illness and Prayer
Study note
This event likely occurred during or shortly before the Assyrian crisis described in the previous chapters. Hezekiah became seriously ill, and Isaiah delivered God's direct message: get your affairs in order, because you are going to die. Hezekiah turned his face to the wall for privacy and poured out his heart to God. He did not demand healing but reminded God of his faithfulness and wept bitterly.
1 Around that time, Hezekiah got extremely sick and was close to dying. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz visited him and delivered this message: 'The Lord says: Get your affairs in order, because you are not going to recover. You are going to die.' In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live.
2 Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall and prayed to the Lord. Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the LORD,
3 He said, 'Please, O Lord, remember how I have lived before you with honesty and wholehearted devotion. I have done what is good in your sight.' Then Hezekiah broke down and cried. And said, 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 sore.
God Grants Fifteen More Years
Study note
God heard Hezekiah's prayer and saw his tears. Through Isaiah, God promised to add fifteen years to Hezekiah's life and to deliver Jerusalem from the Assyrians. As a sign to confirm this promise, God made the shadow on the sundial of Ahaz move backward ten steps. This sundial was likely a staircase whose shadow served as a time-keeping device. The reversal of the shadow was a miraculous sign that God controls time and nature.
4 Then the Lord sent a message to Isaiah: Then came the word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying,
5 'Go tell Hezekiah, This is what the Lord, the God of your ancestor David, says: I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. I am going to add fifteen more years to your life.' 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 rescue you and this city from the king of Assyria. I will stand up for this city.' And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria: and I will defend this city.
7 'Here is the sign from the Lord that he will keep his promise:' And this shall be a sign unto thee from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he hath spoken;
8 'I will make the shadow on the stairway of Ahaz go backward ten steps.' And the sunlight went back the ten steps it had already moved down. Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down.
Hezekiah's Song of Praise
Study note
After his recovery, Hezekiah wrote a song describing his experience. He expressed the despair he felt when facing death, comparing his life to a tent being packed up or a weaver's cloth being cut from the loom. He cried out to God day and night. But God rescued him from the pit of death and cast all his sins behind his back. Hezekiah declares that the living, not the dead, are the ones who praise God, and he commits to singing praises in the temple for the rest of his life.
9 Here is what King Hezekiah of Judah wrote after he was sick and recovered: The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sickness:
10 I said, 'In the prime of my life, I am being forced through death's gates. The rest of my years are being stolen from me.' I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years.
11 I said, 'I will never see the Lord again among the living. I will never again look at another person in this world.' 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 life has been uprooted and carried off like a shepherd packing up his tent. I have rolled up my life like a weaver cutting the finished cloth from the loom. From morning to night, you bring me closer to the end. Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd's tent: I have cut off like a weaver my life: he will cut me off with pining sickness: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.
13 I lay still until dawn, but like a lion, he kept crushing all my bones. From morning to night, you bring me closer to the end. I reckoned till morning, that, as a lion, so will he break all my bones: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.
14 I chirped like a swift or a crane. I moaned like a dove. My eyes grew tired from looking up toward heaven. O Lord, I am suffering! Please come help me! Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove: mine eyes fail with looking upward: O LORD, I am oppressed; undertake for me.
15 What can I even say? He told me what would happen, and then he made it happen. I will walk humbly through all my remaining years because of the deep anguish I went through. What shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it: I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul.
16 Lord, people find life through these experiences, and my spirit finds life in them too. You brought me back to health and let me go on living. O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit: so wilt thou recover me, and make me to live.
17 Now I see that my suffering was for my benefit. Out of your love, you pulled me back from the pit of death, because you threw every one of my sins behind your back. Behold, for 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 The grave does not praise you. Death does not sing about how great you are. People who go down into the pit cannot count on your faithfulness anymore. For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.
19 Only the living, only the living can praise you — just as I am doing right now. Parents will pass the story of your faithfulness on to their children. 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! We will play and sing with stringed instruments every day of our lives in the Lord's temple. The LORD was ready to save me: therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the LORD.
The Remedy and the Sign
Study note
These final verses mention that Isaiah had prescribed a poultice of figs to be placed on Hezekiah's boil, and that Hezekiah had asked for a sign to confirm his healing. Figs were commonly used in ancient medicine. God used both natural means and supernatural power to heal the king.
21 Isaiah had said, 'Make a paste out of figs and spread it on the sore spot. Then he will get better.' For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaster upon the boil, and he shall recover.
22 Hezekiah had asked, 'What sign will prove that I will be able to go back to the Lord's temple?' Hezekiah also had said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?