5 Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I am adding to thy days ﬁfteen years.

6 And I will deliver thee and this city out of the grasp of the king of Assyria, and I will protect this city.

7 And this shall be the sign unto thee from the Lord, that the LORD will do this thing which he hath spoken

8 Behold, I am turning the shadow of the steps, which it has gone down on the steps. of Ahaz by the sun, ten steps back- ward. And the sun returned ten steps, on the steps whereon it was gone down.

9 Α writing of Hezekiah, king of Judah, when he had been sick, and come to life from his sickness:

10 I said, In the stillness of my days I shall go into the gates of hell; I am deprived of the residue of my years.

11 I said, I shall not see Jah, Jab in the land of the living; Ι shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of ceasing.

12 My habitation is plucked up, and carried away from me like a ’s tent. I have rolled up, like a weaver, my life; he ’ cutteth me off from the thrum; from day to night thou wilt make an end of me.

6, ‘grasp,’ lit lit. ‘palm of the hand.7. ‘thing,’ or ‘word,’8. i.e. probably, the shadow on the steps.10. ‘stillness,’ i.e. the noontide pause: cf. ‘solstice.11. ‘of ’ or almost ‘of ’ i.e. of this transitory life or world. Some would transpose two letters, giving HLD the world, as in Ps. xlix. 1, or rather time, duration, for HDL ceasing.12. ‘habitation’: or, ‘generation’: ‘rolled ’: or, ‘cut off.

13 I quieted myself till morning; as a lion, so he breaketh all my bones; from day to night thou wilt make an end of me.

14 Like a swift, a crane, so did I chatter; I did moan like a dove; mine eyes failed towards the height; LORD, I am oppressed; be thou surety for me.

15 What shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it; I shall go softly all my years, because of the bitterness of ’my soul.

16 O Lord, by these things men live, and wholly in them is the life of my spirit; and thou wilt recover me, and make me to live.

17 Behold, for peace it was bitter to me, bitter; and thou hast ’ loved my soul from the pit of destruction; for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. 18 For hell cannot give thee thanks, death praise thee; they that go down to the pit cannot hope for thy truth.

19 The living, the living, he shall give thee thanks, as I do this day; the father shall. make the sons to know concerning thy truth.

20 The LORD (was ready) to save me; and we will play on my stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the LORD.

21 And Isaiah said, They shall take a cake of ﬁgs, and apply it to the boil, and he shall live.

22 And Hezekiah said, What sign is there, that I shall go up to the house of the LORD? ’

XXXIX. 1 At that time Merodach Baladan, son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent a letter and a present to Hezekiah; and he heard that he had been sick, and was recovered.

13. ‘I, quieted ‘: or, ‘I ’ (lit. laid). Many would ‘ cried ’: this involves altering a letter (ABBREV) for ABBREV)15. ‘spoken:...done ’ i.e. prob. promised and performed. ‘softly’: or, ‘at ’ or, ‘solemnly’ (Ps. xlii. 4). ‘because ’: or, ‘in spite ’: lit. ‘upon the bitterness.17. Not meaning instead qf peace, but rather ‘to give ’ ‘Loved,’ i.e. so as to deliver ‘from the ’: some read (ABBREV) thou hast kept back for (ABBREV) (pronounced somewhat alike).19. ‘truth’: or, ‘faithfulness.21. Or, ‘rub it on the ’ [Some commentators consider that W. τι, 22 should stand after ver. 6, cf. the parallel passage in 2 Kings.]

2 And Hezekiah was glad because of them, and shewed them his treasure-house, the silver and the gold, and the spices, and the ﬁne oil, and all his armoury, and all that was found among his treasures; there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah showed them not.

3 Isaiah the prophet came unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him, What said men, and whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said, They came from a far country unto me, from Babylon.