1 Around that time, Hezekiah became ill, near death, and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said, “This is what the LORD {YHWH, Sovereign Judge} says: ‘Put your house {beit: household legacy} in order, for you will die; you will not live.’”
2 Then he turned his face toward the wall and offered a prayer to the LORD {YHWH, Prayer Receiver}, saying {leʾemor: introducing a spoken plea}.
3 Please, LORD {YHWH, Prayer Recipient}, call to mind that I have lived in your presence with truth and with an undivided heart, and that I have done what is good in your eyes. Hezekiah wept with great weeping {bekhi gadol: intense lamentation}.
4 Before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court {chatser: inner enclosure} of the city, the word of the LORD {YHWH, Divine Messenger} came to him, saying,
5 Go back and speak to Hezekiah, the ruler of my people: “This is what the LORD {YHWH, Covenant Restorer}—the God {Elohei, Ancestral Protector} of your father David—says: I have heard your prayer {tefillah: earnest petition} and I have seen your tears; see, I am restoring your health. On the third day you will go up to the house {beit: sanctuary} of the LORD.”
6 I {YHWH, Life-Extender} will increase your days by fifteen years, and I will deliver you and this city from the hand {mikkaf: controlling authority} of the king of Assyria. I will guard this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.
7 Then Isaiah {Yeshayahu: court prophet} said, “Bring a cake of figs.” They brought it and placed it on the boil, and he recovered {vayechi: regained life}.
8 And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What sign will show that the LORD {YHWH, Divine Healer} will heal {yirpa: restore to health} me and that I will go up to the house of the LORD on the third day?”
9 Isaiah replied, “This will be your sign from the LORD {YHWH, Sign-Giver} that the LORD will carry out the thing {davar: spoken promise} he has said: should the shadow advance ten steps, or should it go back ten steps?”
10 And Hezekiah {yechizkiyahu: Strengthened by Yah} said, “It is easy for the shadow to move forward ten steps {maalot: ascending marks}; no—let the shadow turn back ten steps.”
11 And Isaiah the prophet called out to the LORD {YHWH, Miracle Worker}, and He restored the shadow on the steps {ma‘ălôṯ: ascending platforms} of Ahaz’s stairway, bringing it back by ten steps—the steps by which it had descended.
12 During that period, Berodach-Baladan, Baladan’s son and king of Babylon, dispatched letters {sefarim: formal correspondence} and a gift {minchah: diplomatic tribute} to Hezekiah because he had learned that Hezekiah was unwell.
13 Hezekiah welcomed them and then showed them the whole house of his treasures {nechotoh: royal valuables}: silver and gold, spices, precious oil, the house of his weapons, and everything found in his storehouses {otzrotav: storage vaults}. Nothing in his palace or in all his dominion was left unshown to them.
14 Isaiah the prophet {navi: messenger of God’s word} came to King Hezekiah and asked him, “What did these men discuss, and from which region did they arrive to you?” Hezekiah replied, “They came to me from a distant land, from Babylon {Bavel: ancient Mesopotamian empire}.”
15 And he said, “What have they looked at in your house?” And Hezekiah replied, “They have seen all {kol: total scope} that is in my house; there is nothing in my treasures {otzarotai: royal storehouses} that I did not show them.”
16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear {shema: solemn summons} the word of the LORD {YHWH, Sovereign Speaker}.”
17 Look—days are coming when everything in your house and everything your fathers {avot: ancestral lineage} have stored up to this day will be taken away to Babylon. Nothing will be left behind, says the LORD {YHWH, Fulfiller of Decree}.
18 And from your sons {bannim: direct male descendants} whom you will beget and who will come forth from you, some will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs {sarisim: castrated palace officials} in the palace of the king of Babylon.
19 And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “Good is the word {devar: divine declaration} of the LORD {YHWH, Faithful Speaker} that you have spoken.” Then he added, “Will there not be peace and truth in my days?”
20 As for the remaining deeds of Hezekiah {Chizkiyahu: righteous reformer}—all his mighty deeds and how he made the pool {berakhah: engineered reservoir} and the conduit that brought water into the city—are they not inscribed in the scroll of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
21 Then Hezekiah {Chizqiyahu: Yahweh Strengthens} lay down with his fathers, and his son Menasheh {Menasheh: One Who Causes Forgetting} became king in his place.