6. I will add 15 years to your life. I will save you and this city from the king of Assyria. I will protect this city. I will do this for myself and because of the promise I made to my servant David.’”
7. Then Isaiah said, “Crush figs together and put them on your sore; you will get well.” So they took the mixture of figs and put it on Hezekiah’s sore place, and he got well.
8. Hezekiah asked Isaiah, “What will be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I will go up to the Temple of the Lord on the third day?”
9. Isaiah said, “Which do you want? Should the shadow go forward ten steps or go back ten steps? This is the sign for you from the Lord to show that the Lord will do what he said he would do.”
10. Hezekiah answered, “It is an easy thing for the shadow to go down ten steps. No, make the shadow go back ten steps.”
11. Then Isaiah prayed, and the Lord made the shadow move back ten steps. It went back up the steps that it had already been on.
12. At that time Merodach Baladan son of Baladan was king of Babylon. He sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah when he heard that Hezekiah had been sick.
13. Hezekiah listened to the messengers and then showed them all the valuable things he owned. He showed them the silver, the gold, the spices, the expensive perfume, and the building where he stored the weapons. He showed them everything in his treasuries, in his palace, and in his kingdom.
14. Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and asked him, “What did these men say? Where did they come from?” Hezekiah said, “These men came from a faraway country, from Babylon.”