Hezekiah at Death's Door
Told by our Father he will not recover, Hezekiah turns his face to the wall and weeps. Fifteen years are added, and the sun's shadow moves back as proof. His written prayer is unsparing about the terror of dying, and ends knowing the living praise him.
38 1In those days Hezekiah fell mortally ill. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said, "This is what our Father says: Put your house in order, for you will die; you will not recover."
2Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to our Father, 3and said, "Please, my Father, remember how I walked faithfully before you with a whole heart, and did what was good in your eyes." Hezekiah wept bitterly.
4Then the word of our Father came to Isaiah:
5"Go tell Hezekiah, 'This is what our Father says, the Father of your ancestor David: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I am adding fifteen years to your life.' 6I will rescue you and this city from the king of Assyria; I will defend this city.
7"This is your sign from our Father that he will do what he has promised: 8Look, I'll turn back the shadow ten steps the sun has descended on Ahaz's stairway." So the sun turned back the ten steps it had gone down.
9A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, after his illness and recovery: 10I said, "In the middle of my days I must go through the gates of the grave; I am robbed of the rest of my years." 11I said, "I will not see our Father himself in the land of the living; I will look on humanity no longer, among those who dwell in this passing world. 12My dwelling is pulled up and carried off from me like a shepherd's tent. I have rolled up my life like a weaver; he cuts me off from the loom; from day to night you bring me to an end. 13I waited quietly until morning, but like a lion he breaks all my bones; from day to night you bring me to an end. 14Like a swift or a crane I chirp; I moan like a dove. My eyes grow weary looking upward. O Sovereign Father, I am hard-pressed; be my guarantee of safety!" 15What can I say? He has spoken to me, and he himself has done it. I will walk slowly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul. 16O Sovereign Father, by such things people live, and in all of them is the life of my spirit. So restore me to health and let me live! 17Surely it was for my own good that I suffered such bitterness. In your love you held back my life from the pit of destruction, for you have thrown all my sins behind your back. 18For the grave cannot praise you; death cannot sing your praise. Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for your faithfulness. 19The living, the living—they praise you, as I do this day; the father makes your faithfulness known to the children. 20Our Father will save me, and we will play my songs on stringed instruments all the days of our lives, in the house of our Father.
21Isaiah had said, "Let them take a fig cake, apply it to the boil, and he'll recover." 22Hezekiah had asked, "What is the sign that I will go up to the house of our Father?"
