MELAKIM 2-20

1 In those days Ḥizqiyahu was sick unto death. And Yeshayahu the naḇi, son of Amots, went to him and said to him, “Thus said 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, ‘Put your house in order, for you are going to die, and not live.’ ”

2 And he turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, saying,

3 “I pray to You, O 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, remember how I have walked before You in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done what was good in Your eyes.” And Ḥizqiyahu wept bitterly.

4 And it came to be, before Yeshayahu had gone out into the middle court, that the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 came to him, saying,

5 “Return and say to Ḥizqiyahu the leader of My people, ‘Thus said 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, the Elohim of Dawiḏ your father, “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears. See, I am going to heal you. On the third day go up to the House of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.

6 “And I shall add to your days fifteen years, and deliver you and this city from the hand of the sovereign of Ashshur, and shall defend this city for My own sake, and for the sake of Dawiḏ My servant.” ’ ”

7 And Yeshayahu said, “Take a cake of figs.” And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.

8 And Ḥizqiyahu said to Yeshayahu, “What is the sign that 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 heals me, and that I shall go up to the House of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 the third day?”

9 And Yeshayahu said, “This is the sign for you from 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, that 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 does the word which He has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees or go backward ten degrees?”

10 And Ḥizqiyahu said, “It would be easy for the shadow to go down ten degrees; no, but let the shadow go backward ten degrees.”

11 And Yeshayahu the naḇi cried out to 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, and He brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down on the sundial of Aḥaz.

12 At that time Beroḏaḵ-Balaḏan son of Balaḏan, sovereign of Baḇel, sent letters and a present to Ḥizqiyahu, for he heard that Ḥizqiyahu had been sick.

13 And Ḥizqiyahu listened to them, and showed them all his treasure house, the silver and the gold, and the spices and the precious ointment, and all his armoury, and all that was found among his treasures. There was not an object in his house or in all his rule that Ḥizqiyahu did not show them.

14 And Yeshayahu the naḇi came to Sovereign Ḥizqiyahu, and said to him, “What did these men say, and from where did they come to you?” And Ḥizqiyahu said, “They came from a distant land, from Baḇel.”

15 And he said, “What have they seen in your house?” And Ḥizqiyahu answered, “They saw all that is in my house; there is not an object among my treasures that I did not show them.”

16 And Yeshayahu said to Ḥizqiyahu, “Hear the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄:

17 ‘See, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have treasured up until this day, shall be brought to Baḇel – no object is to be left,’ said 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.

18 ‘And they are going to take away some of your sons who are to be born to you, whom you bring forth, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the sovereign of Baḇel.’ ”

19 And Ḥizqiyahu said to Yeshayahu, “The word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 which you have spoken is good!” And he said, “Is it not so, if peace and truth are to be in my days?”

20 And the rest of the acts of Ḥizqiyahu, and all his might and how he made a pool and a channel and brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the annals of the sovereigns of Yahuḏah?

21 So Ḥizqiyahu slept with his fathers. And Menashsheh his son reigned in his place.