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Hezekiah’s Illness

38In 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 Lord: 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 Lord: ³‘Remember now, O Lord, 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 Lord came to Isaiah: ⁵‘Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the Lord, 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 Lord, that the Lord 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:
¹⁰ 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.
¹¹ I said, I shall not see the Lord
   in the land of the living;
I shall look upon mortals no more
   among the inhabitants of the world.
¹² 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;^*
13   I cry for help^* until morning;
like a lion he breaks all my bones;
   from day to night you bring me to an end.^*

¹⁴ Like a swallow or a crane^* I clamour,
   I moan like a dove.
My eyes are weary with looking upwards.
   O Lord, I am oppressed; be my security!
¹⁵ 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.

¹⁶ O Lord, by these things people live,
   and in all these is the life of my spirit.^*
   O restore me to health and make me live!
¹⁷ 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.
¹⁸ For Sheol cannot thank you,
   death cannot praise you;
those who go down to the Pit cannot hope
   for your faithfulness.
¹⁹ The living, the living, they thank you,
   as I do this day;
fathers make known to children
   your faithfulness.

²⁰ The Lord will save me,
   and we will sing to stringed instruments^*
all the days of our lives,
   at the house of the Lord.

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 Lord?’

Envoys from Babylon Welcomed

39At that time King Merodach-baladan son of Baladan of Babylon sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick and had recovered. ²Hezekiah welcomed them; he showed them his treasure-house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his whole armoury, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them. ³Then the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah and said to him, ‘What did these men say? From where did they come to you?’ Hezekiah answered, ‘They have come to me from a far country, from Babylon.’ ⁴He said, ‘What have they seen in your house?’ Hezekiah answered, ‘They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them.’

5 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, ‘Hear the word of the Lord of hosts: ⁶Days are coming when all that is in your house, and that which your ancestors have stored up until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left, says the Lord. ⁷Some of your own sons who are born to you shall be taken away; they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’ ⁸Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, ‘The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.’ For he thought, ‘There will be peace and security in my days.’

God’s People Are Comforted

40Comfort, O comfort my people,
   says your God.
² Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
   and cry to her
that she has served her term,
   that her penalty is paid,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
   double for all her sins.

³ A voice cries out:
‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
   make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
⁴ Every valley shall be lifted up,
   and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
   and the rough places a plain.
⁵ Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
   and all people shall see it together,
   for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’

⁶ A voice says, ‘Cry out!’
   And I said, ‘What shall I cry?’
All people are grass,
   their constancy is like the flower of the field.
⁷ The grass withers, the flower fades,
   when the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
   surely the people are grass.
⁸ The grass withers, the flower fades;
   but the word of our God will stand for ever.
⁹ Get you up to a high mountain,
   O Zion, herald of good tidings;^*
lift up your voice with strength,
   O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings,^*
   lift it up, do not fear;
say to the cities of Judah,
   ‘Here is your God!’
¹⁰ See, the Lord God comes with might,
   and his arm rules for him;
his reward is with him,
   and his recompense before him.
¹¹ He will feed his flock like a shepherd;
   he will gather the lambs in his arms,
and carry them in his bosom,
   and gently lead the mother sheep.

¹² Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
   and marked off the heavens with a span,
enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure,
   and weighed the mountains in scales
   and the hills in a balance?
¹³ Who has directed the spirit of the Lord,
   or as his counsellor has instructed him?
¹⁴ Whom did he consult for his enlightenment,
   and who taught him the path of justice?
Who taught him knowledge,
   and showed him the way of understanding?
¹⁵ Even the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
   and are accounted as dust on the scales;
   see, he takes up the isles like fine dust.
¹⁶ Lebanon would not provide fuel enough,
   nor are its animals enough for a burnt-offering.
¹⁷ All the nations are as nothing before him;
   they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.

¹⁸ To whom then will you liken God,
   or what likeness compare with him?
¹⁹ An idol? —A workman casts it,
   and a goldsmith overlays it with gold,
   and casts for it silver chains.
²⁰ As a gift one chooses mulberry wood^*
   —wood that will not rot—
then seeks out a skilled artisan
   to set up an image that will not topple.

²¹ Have you not known? Have you not heard?
   Has it not been told you from the beginning?
   Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
²² It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
   and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
   and spreads them like a tent to live in;
²³ who brings princes to naught,
   and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.

²⁴ Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
   scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,
when he blows upon them, and they wither,
   and the tempest carries them off like stubble.

²⁵ To whom then will you compare me,
   or who is my equal? says the Holy One.
²⁶ Lift up your eyes on high and see:
   Who created these?
He who brings out their host and numbers them,
   calling them all by name;
because he is great in strength,
   mighty in power,
   not one is missing.

²⁷ Why do you say, O Jacob,
   and speak, O Israel,
‘My way is hidden from the Lord,
   and my right is disregarded by my God’?
²⁸ Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
   the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
   his understanding is unsearchable.
²⁹ He gives power to the faint,
   and strengthens the powerless.
³⁰ Even youths will faint and be weary,
   and the young will fall exhausted;
³¹ but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
   they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
   they shall walk and not faint.