Hezekiah Healed
aIn those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. And bIsaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘cSet your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’” 2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, 3 and said, “aRemember now, O Lord, I beseech You, how I have bwalked before You in truth and with a cwhole heart, and dhave done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah ewept bitterly.
4 Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying, 5 “Go and say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of your father David, “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will add afifteen years to your life. 6 I will adeliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city.”’
7 “This shall be the asign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that He has spoken: 8 Behold, I will acause the shadow on the stairway, which has gone down with the sun on the stairway of Ahaz, to go back ten steps.” So the bsun’s shadow went back ten steps on the stairway on which it had gone down.
9 A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery:
10 I said, “aIn the middle of my life
I am to enter the bgates of Sheol;
I am to be cdeprived of the rest of my years.”
11 I said, “I will not see the Lord,
The Lord ain the land of the living;
I will look on man no more among the inhabitants of the world.
12 “Like a shepherd’s atent my dwelling is pulled up and removed from me;
As a bweaver I crolled up my life.
He dcuts me off from the loom;
From eday until night You make an end of me.
13 “I composed my soul until morning.
aLike a lion—so He bbreaks all my bones,
From cday until night You make an end of me.
14 “aLike a swallow, like a crane, so I twitter;
I bmoan like a dove;
My ceyes look wistfully to the heights;
O Lord, I am oppressed, be my dsecurity.
15 “aWhat shall I say?
For He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done it;
I will bwander about all my years because of the cbitterness of my soul.
16 “O Lord, aby these things men live,
And in all these is the life of my spirit;
bO restore me to health and clet me live!
17 “Lo, for my own welfare I had great bitterness;
It is You who has akept my soul from the pit of nothingness,
For You have bcast all my sins behind Your back.
18 “For aSheol cannot thank You,
Death cannot praise You;
Those who go down bto the pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness.
19 “It is the aliving who give thanks to You, as I do today;
A bfather tells his sons about Your faithfulness.
20 “The Lord will surely save me;
So we will aplay my songs on stringed instruments
bAll the days of our life cat the house of the Lord.”
21 Now aIsaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may recover.” 22 Then Hezekiah had said, “What is the asign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?”
Hezekiah Shows His Treasures
aAt that time Merodach-baladan son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick and had recovered. 2 Hezekiah was apleased, and showed them all his treasure house, the bsilver and the gold and the spices and the precious oil and his whole armory and all that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his house nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them. 3 Then Isaiah the aprophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him, “What did these men say, and from where have they come to you?” And Hezekiah said, “They have come to me from a far bcountry, from Babylon.” 4 He said, “What have they seen in your house?” So Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasuries that I have not shown them.”
5 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the aword of the Lord of hosts, 6 ‘Behold, the days are coming when aall that is in your house and all that your fathers have laid up in store to this day will be carried to Babylon; nothing will be left,’ says the Lord. 7 ‘And some of your sons who will issue from you, whom you will beget, awill be taken away, and bthey will become officials in the palace of the king of Babylon.’” 8 aThen Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “For there will be peace and truth bin my days.”
The Greatness of God
“aComfort, O comfort My people,” says your God.
2 “aSpeak kindly to Jerusalem;
And call out to her, that her bwarfare has ended,
That her ciniquity has been removed,
That she has received of the Lord’s hand
dDouble for all her sins.”
3 aA voice is calling,
“bClear the way for the Lord in the wilderness;
Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.
4 “Let every valley be lifted up,
And every mountain and hill be made low;
And let the rough ground become a plain,
And the rugged terrain a broad valley;
5 Then the aglory of the Lord will be revealed,
And ball flesh will see it together;
For the cmouth of the Lord has spoken.”
6 A voice says, “Call out.”
Then he answered, “What shall I call out?”
aAll flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.
7 The agrass withers, the flower fades,
When the bbreath of the Lord blows upon it;
Surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades,
But athe word of our God stands forever.
9 Get yourself up on a ahigh mountain,
O Zion, bearer of bgood news,
Lift up your voice mightily,
O Jerusalem, bearer of good news;
Lift it up, do not fear.
Say to the ccities of Judah,
“dHere is your God!”
10 Behold, the Lord God will come awith might,
With His barm ruling for Him.
Behold, His creward is with Him
And His recompense before Him.
11 Like a shepherd He will atend His flock,
In His arm He will gather the lambs
And carry them in His bosom;
He will gently lead the nursing ewes.
12 Who has ameasured the waters in the hollow of His hand,
And marked off the heavens by the span,
And calculated the dust of the earth by the measure,
And weighed the mountains in a balance
And the hills in a pair of scales?
13 aWho has directed the Spirit of the Lord,
Or as His bcounselor has informed Him?
14 aWith whom did He consult and who bgave Him understanding?
And who taught Him in the path of justice and taught Him knowledge
And informed Him of the way of understanding?
15 Behold, the anations are like a drop from a bucket,
And are regarded as a speck of bdust on the scales;
Behold, He lifts up the islands like fine dust.
16 Even Lebanon is not enough to burn,
Nor its abeasts enough for a burnt offering.
17 aAll the nations are as nothing before Him,
They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless.
18 aTo whom then will you liken God?
Or what likeness will you compare with Him?
19 As for the aidol, a craftsman casts it,
A goldsmith bplates it with gold,
And a silversmith fashions chains of silver.
20 He who is too impoverished for such an offering
Selects a atree that does not rot;
He seeks out for himself a skillful craftsman
To prepare an idol that bwill not totter.
21 aDo you not know? Have you not heard?
Has it not been declared to you from the beginning?
Have you not understood bfrom the foundations of the earth?
22 It is He who sits above the acircle of the earth,
And its inhabitants are like bgrasshoppers,
Who cstretches out the heavens like a dcurtain
And spreads them out like a etent to dwell in.
23 He it is who reduces arulers to nothing,
Who bmakes the judges of the earth meaningless.
24 Scarcely have they been planted,
Scarcely have they been sown,
Scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth,
But He merely blows on them, and they wither,
And the astorm carries them away like stubble.
25 “aTo whom then will you liken Me
That I would be his equal?” says the Holy One.
26 aLift up your eyes on high
And see bwho has created these stars,
The cOne who leads forth their host by number,
He calls them all by name;
Because of the dgreatness of His might and the strength of His power,
eNot one of them is missing.
27 aWhy do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel,
“My way is bhidden from the Lord,
And the cjustice due me escapes the notice of dmy God”?
28 aDo you not know? Have you not heard?
The bEverlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth
Does not become weary or tired.
His understanding is cinscrutable.
29 He gives strength to the aweary,
And to him who lacks might He bincreases power.
30 Though ayouths grow weary and tired,
And vigorous byoung men stumble badly,
31 Yet those who wait for the Lord
Will again new strength;
They will bmount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary.