World English Bible
- In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him, and said to him, “The LORD says, ‘Set your house in order, for you will die, and not live.’”
- Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD,
- and said, “Remember now, LORD, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight.” Then Hezekiah wept bitterly.
- Then the LORD’s word came to Isaiah, saying,
- “Go, and tell Hezekiah, ‘The LORD, the God of David your father, says, “I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.
- I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city.
- This shall be the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he has spoken.
- Behold, I will cause the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down on the sundial of Ahaz with the sun, to return backward ten steps.”’” So the sun returned ten steps on the sundial on which it had gone down.
- The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and had recovered of his sickness:
- I said, “In the middle of my life I go into the gates of Sheol. I am deprived of the residue of my years.”
- I said, “I won’t see the LORD, the LORD in the land of the living. I will see man no more with the inhabitants of the world.
- My dwelling is removed, and is carried away from me like a shepherd’s tent. I have rolled up my life like a weaver. He will cut me off from the loom. From day even to night you will make an end of me.
- I waited patiently until morning. He breaks all my bones like a lion. From day even to night you will make an end of me.
- I chattered like a swallow or a crane. I moaned like a dove. My eyes weaken looking upward. Lord, I am oppressed. Be my security.”
- What will I say? He has both spoken to me, and himself has done it. I will walk carefully all my years because of the anguish of my soul.
- Lord, men live by these things; and my spirit finds life in all of them. You restore me, and cause me to live.
- Behold, for peace I had great anguish, but you have in love for my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for you have cast all my sins behind your back.
- For Sheol can’t praise you. Death can’t celebrate you. Those who go down into the pit can’t hope for your truth.
- The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do today. The father shall make known your truth to the children.
- The LORD will save me. Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments all the days of our life in the LORD’s house.
- Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a poultice on the boil, and he shall recover.”
- Hezekiah also had said, “What is the sign that I will go up to the LORD’s house?”
Isaiah has just told us how Jerusalem survived an empire. Now its king lies helpless in his own room. Verse 6 even promises deliverance from Assyria, though chapter 37 has already described it. The stories are not arranged simply to mark time. They ask a harder question: What does it mean to be saved from an enemy when no one can save himself from death?
Hezekiah turns his face to the wall. A king who could pray over a threatening letter now has no strength for a public display of faith. His poem makes suffering sound as disordered as it feels: a shepherd’s tent pulled up, a life cut from a weaver’s loom, a bird’s thin cry, a lion breaking bones. Even in a palace, Hezekiah discovers that his life is as movable as a tent. Faith does not require him to make that discovery sound peaceful.
His most startling prayer comes in verse 14. The Hebrew ʿorvēnî, rendered by the World English Bible as “Be my security,” asks God to stand surety for him—to take responsibility for someone who cannot secure his own future. Earlier, Hezekiah appealed to the integrity of his life. Later, he marvels that God has put his sins behind him. His prayer has moved from what he has done to what God alone can do.
Then the shadow moves backward on the steps associated with Ahaz, Hezekiah’s father. Ahaz had refused God’s offer of a sign (Isaiah 7:12). We need not imagine a clock like ours; the steps may have marked the sun’s movement. On something bearing the father’s name, God gives the son a sign of mercy. Yet the returning shadow does not make Hezekiah young again. His fifteen years are a gift, not a victory over death. The shadow goes back; the king’s life still moves forward.
That is why his final concern matters. He wants to return to the LORD’s house, where his songs can be heard and children can learn God’s faithfulness. He was told to put his own house in order; restored, he longs for God’s house. Healing gives him more than time to keep. It gives him praise to pass on.
Athanasius taught that Christ did more than postpone death: he entered it and broke its hold. Hezekiah received fifteen years. In Jesus, our true surety (Hebrews 7:22), we are promised life death cannot measure. Until then, we may receive both the extraordinary sign and the ordinary poultice of figs, and use whatever days are given us to tell the next generation who held us fast.
Prayer: Lord, when I cannot secure even tomorrow, be my security. Receive my fear without scorn, forgive my sin, and turn the days you give me into praise that outlives me. Amen.
For further reading: Isaiah 7:10–14; Isaiah 26:19; Hebrews 7:22; 1 Corinthians 15:54–57.