4. Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah:
5. “Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life.
6. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city.
7. “ ‘This is the Lord’s sign to you that the Lord will do what he has promised:
8. I will make the shadow cast by the sun go back the ten steps it has gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.’ ” So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had gone down.
9. A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery:
10. I said, “In the prime of my life must I go through the gates of death and be robbed of the rest of my years?”
11. I said, “I will not again see the Lord himself in the land of the living; no longer will I look on my fellow man, or be with those who now dwell in this world.
12. Like a shepherd’s tent my house has been pulled down and taken from me. Like a weaver I have rolled up my life, and he has cut me off from the loom; day and night you made an end of me.
13. I waited patiently till dawn, but like a lion he broke all my bones; day and night you made an end of me.