4. Then the Lord spoke his word to Isaiah:
5. “Go to Hezekiah and tell him: ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your ancestor David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. So I will add fifteen years to your life.
6. I will save you and this city from the king of Assyria; I will defend this city.
7. “ ‘The Lord will do what he says. This is the sign from the Lord to show you:
8. The sun has made a shadow go down the stairway of Ahaz, but I will make it go back ten steps.’ ” So the shadow made by the sun went back up the ten steps it had gone down.
9. After Hezekiah king of Judah got well, he wrote this song:
10. I said, “I am in the middle of my life.Do I have to go through the gates of death?Will I have the rest of my life taken away from me?”
11. I said, “I will not see the Lordin the land of the living again.I will not again see the peoplewho live on the earth.
12. Like a shepherd’s tent,my home has been pulled down and taken from me.I am finishedlike the cloth a weaver rolls up and cuts from the loom.In one day you brought me to this end.
13. All night I cried loudly.Like a lion, he crushed all my bones.In one day you brought me to this end.
14. I cried like a birdand moaned like a dove.My eyes became tired as I looked to the heavens.Lord, I have troubles. Please help me.”
15. What can I say?The Lord told me what would happen and then made it happen.I have had these troubles in my soul,so now I will be humble all my life.
16. Lord, because of you, people live.Because of you, my spirit also lives;you made me well and let me live.
17. It was for my own goodthat I had such troubles.Because you love me very much,you did not let me diebut threw my sinsfar away.
18. People in the place of the dead cannot praise you;those who have died cannot sing praises to you;those who die don’t trust youto help them.