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 fifteen years to your life.
6. I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city."'
7. "This shall be the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that He has spoken:
8. Behold, I will cause the shadow on the stairway, which has gone down with the sun on the stairway of Ahaz, to go back ten steps." So the sun'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, "In the middle of my life I am to enter the gates of Sheol; I am to be deprived of the rest of my years."
11. I said, "I will not see the Lord, The Lord in the land of the living; I will look on man no more among the inhabitants of the world.
12. "Like a shepherd's tent my dwelling is pulled up and removed from me; As a weaver I rolled up my life. He cuts me off from the loom; From day until night You make an end of me.
13. "I composed my soul until morning. Like a lion-so He breaks all my bones, From day until night You make an end of me.
14. "Like a swallow, like a crane, so I twitter; I moan like a dove; My eyes look wistfully to the heights; O Lord, I am oppressed, be my security.