5. ‘Go and tell Hezekiah, “This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life.
6. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city.
7. ‘ “This is the Lord’s sign to you that the Lord will do what he has promised:
8. I will make the shadow cast by the sun go back the ten steps it has gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.” ’ So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had gone down.
9. A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery:
10. I said, ‘In the prime of my lifemust I go through the gates of deathand be robbed of the rest of my years?’
11. I said, ‘I will not again see the Lord himselfin the land of the living;no longer will I look on my fellow man,or be with those who now dwell in this world.
12. Like a shepherd’s tent my househas been pulled down and taken from me.Like a weaver I have rolled up my life,and he has cut me off from the loom;day and night you made an end of me.
13. I waited patiently till dawn,but like a lion he broke all my bones;day and night you made an end of me.
14. I cried like a swift or thrush,I moaned like a mourning dove.My eyes grew weak as I looked to the heavens.I am being threatened; Lord, come to my aid!’
15. But what can I say?He has spoken to me, and he himself has done this.I will walk humbly all my yearsbecause of this anguish of my soul.