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Hezekiah’s Illness

In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, “Thus says the L ord: Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.” ²Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, and prayed to the L ord: ³“Remember now, O L ord, I implore you, how I have walked before you in faithfulness with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

⁴ Then the word of the L ord came to Isaiah: ⁵“Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the L ord, the God of your ancestor David: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life. ⁶I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and defend this city.

⁷ “This is the sign to you from the L ord, that the L ord will do this thing that he has promised: ⁸See, I will make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the dial of Ahaz turn back ten steps.” So the sun turned back on the dial the ten steps by which it had declined.

⁹ A writing of King Hezekiah of Judah, after he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:

I said: In the noontide of my days

I must depart;

I am consigned to the gates of Sheol

for the rest of my years.

I said, I shall not see the L ord

in the land of the living;

I shall look upon mortals no more

among the inhabitants of the world.

My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me

like a shepherd’s tent;

like a weaver I have rolled up my life;

he cuts me off from the loom;

from day to night you bring me to an end;

I cry for help until morning;

like a lion he breaks all my bones;

from day to night you bring me to an end.

Like a swallow or a crane I clamor,

I moan like a dove.

My eyes are weary with looking upward.

O Lord, I am oppressed; be my security!

But what can I say? For he has spoken to me,

and he himself has done it.

All my sleep has fled

because of the bitterness of my soul.

O Lord, by these things people live,

and in all these is the life of my spirit.

Oh, restore me to health and make me live!

Surely it was for my welfare

that I had great bitterness;

but you have held back my life

from the pit of destruction,

for you have cast all my sins

behind your back.

For Sheol cannot thank you,

death cannot praise you;

those who go down to the Pit cannot hope

for your faithfulness.

The living, the living, they thank you,

as I do this day;

fathers make known to children

your faithfulness.

The L ord will save me,

and we will sing to stringed instruments

all the days of our lives,

at the house of the L ord.

²¹ Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a lump of figs, and apply it to the boil, so that he may recover.” ²²Hezekiah also had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the L ord?”

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

9. The writing of Hezekiah. Though sacred history gives no account of this writing, yet it deserves to be recorded, and is highly worthy of observation; for we see that Hezekiah was unwilling to pass in silence, or to bury in forgetfulness, so remarkable a blessing which he had received from God. By his example he shews what all believers ought to do, when God miraculously and in an unusual manner exerts his power on their behalf. They ought to make known their gratitude, not only to their contemporaries, but also to posterity; as we see that Hezekiah did by this song, which may be regarded as a public record. We see that David composed many psalms on this subject, when he had been delivered from very great dangers, so that he took care to celebrate till the end of the world what was worthy of being remembered by all ages. (Psalm 18:2, and 27:1.) Especially, the more eminent any man is, and the higher the station which he occupies, the more is he bound to consider himself as placed by God on a theater, and enjoined to perform this duty. ⁸⁰⁸⁰ “Doit considerer et savoir que ce que fait ici Ezechias, luy est enjoint en cas semblable.” “Ought to consider and know that what Hezekiah does here is enjoined on him in a similar case.” Yet all men, whether they be of ordinary rank or nobles and great men, ought to beware of ambition, lest, while they profess to imitate Hezekiah and David, they magnify their own name more than the name of God. ⁸¹⁸¹ “The conjecture of Grotius, that Isaiah dictated the psalm, or put it into Hezekiah’s mouth, is perfectly gratuitous. That Hezekiah should compose a psalm is not more strange than that he should make a collection of proverbs. (Proverbs 25:1.) It would have been far more strange if one so much like David, in character and spirit, had not followed his example in the practice of devotional composition.” — Alexander.

⁸⁰ “Doit considerer et savoir que ce que fait ici Ezechias, luy est enjoint en cas semblable.” “Ought to consider and know that what Hezekiah does here is enjoined on him in a similar case.”

⁸¹ “The conjecture of Grotius, that Isaiah dictated the psalm, or put it into Hezekiah’s mouth, is perfectly gratuitous. That Hezekiah should compose a psalm is not more strange than that he should make a collection of proverbs. (Proverbs 25:1.) It would have been far more strange if one so much like David, in character and spirit, had not followed his example in the practice of devotional composition.” — Alexander.