Ezechias being sick, is told by Isaias that he shall die; but praying to God, he obtains longer life, and in confirmation thereof receives a sign by the sun’s returning back. He shows all his treasures to the ambassadors of the king of Babylon: Isaias reproving him for it, foretells the Babylonish captivity.

¹ In those days, Hezekiah was sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amoz, came and said to him: “Thus says the Lord God: Instruct your house, for you will die, and not live.”

² And he turned his face to the wall, and he prayed to the Lord, saying:

³ “I beg you, O Lord, I beseech you, remember how I have walked before you in truth, and with a perfect heart, and how I have done what is pleasing before you.” And then Hezekiah wept with a great weeping.

⁴ And before Isaiah departed from the middle part of the atrium, the word of the Lord came to him, saying:

⁵ “Return and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people: Thus says the Lord, the God of your father David: I have heard your prayer, and I have seen your tears. And behold, I have healed you. On the third day, you shall ascend to the temple of the Lord.

⁶ And I will add fifteen years to your days. Then too, I will free you and this city from the hand of the king of the Assyrians. And I will protect this city for my own sake, and for the sake of my servant David.”

⁷ And Isaiah said, “Bring me a mass of figs.” And when they had brought it, and they had placed it on his sore, he was healed.

⁸ But Hezekiah had said to Isaiah, “What will be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I will ascend to the temple of the Lord on the third day?”

⁹ And Isaiah said to him: “This will be the sign from the Lord, that the Lord will do the word that he has spoken: Do you wish that the shadow may ascend ten lines, or that it may turn back for the same number of degrees?”

¹⁰ And Hezekiah said: “It is easy for the shadow to increase for ten lines. And so I do not wish that this be done. Instead, let it turn back for ten degrees.”

¹¹ And so the prophet Isaiah called upon the Lord. And he led back the shadow, along the lines by which it had already descended on the sundial of Ahaz, in reverse for ten degrees.

¹² At that time, Merodach-baladan, the son of Baladan, the king of the Babylonians, sent letters and gifts to Hezekiah. For he had heard that Hezekiah had been ill.

¹³ Now Hezekiah rejoiced at their arrival, and so he revealed to them the house of aromatic spices, and the gold and silver, and the various pigments and ointments, and the house of his vessels, and all that he was able to have in his treasuries. There was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominions, that Hezekiah did not show to them.¹

1. 20:13Cast not pearls before swine.(Conte)

¹⁴ Then the prophet Isaiah came to king Hezekiah, and said to him: “What did these men say? And from where did they come to you?” And Hezekiah said to him, “They came to me from Babylon, from a far away land.”

¹⁵ And he responded, “What did they see in your house?” And Hezekiah said: “They saw all things whatsoever that are in my house. There is nothing in my treasuries that I did not show to them.”

¹⁶ And so Isaiah said to Hezekiah: “Listen to the word of the Lord.

¹⁷ Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and all that your fathers have stored up even to this day, will be carried away to Babylon. Nothing at all shall remain, says the Lord.

¹⁸ Then too, they will take from your sons, who will go forth from you, whom you will conceive. And they will be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

¹⁹ Hezekiah said to Isaiah: “The word of the Lord, which you have spoken, is good. Let peace and truth be in my days.”

²⁰ Now the rest of the words of Hezekiah, and all his strength, and how he made a pool, and an aqueduct, and how he brought waters into the city, have these not been written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Judah?

²¹ And Hezekiah slept with his fathers. And Manasseh, his son, reigned in his place.