2 Kings 20:1

¹In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him, and said to him, “The LORD^[+] says, ‘Set your house in order, for you will die, and not live.’”

²Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, ³and said, “Remember now, LORD, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight.” Then Hezekiah wept bitterly.

⁴Then the LORD’s word came to Isaiah, saying, ⁵“Go, and tell Hezekiah, ‘The LORD, the God of David your father, says, “I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. ⁶I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city. ⁷This shall be the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he has spoken. ⁸Behold, I will cause the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down on the sundial of Ahaz with the sun, to return backward ten steps.”’” So the sun returned ten steps on the sundial on which it had gone down.

⁹The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and had recovered of his sickness: ¹⁰I said, “In the middle of my life I go into the gates of Sheol.^[+] I am deprived of the residue of my years.” ¹¹I said, “I won’t see the LORD,^[+] the LORD^[+] in the land of the living. I will see man no more with the inhabitants of the world. ¹²My dwelling is removed, and is carried away from me like a shepherd’s tent. I have rolled up my life like a weaver. He will cut me off from the loom. From day even to night you will make an end of me. ¹³I waited patiently until morning. He breaks all my bones like a lion. From day even to night you will make an end of me. ¹⁴I chattered like a swallow or a crane. I moaned like a dove. My eyes weaken looking upward. Lord, I am oppressed. Be my security.” ¹⁵What will I say? He has both spoken to me, and himself has done it. I will walk carefully all my years because of the anguish of my soul. ¹⁶Lord, men live by these things; and my spirit finds life in all of them. You restore me, and cause me to live. ¹⁷Behold, for peace I had great anguish, but you have in love for my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for you have cast all my sins behind your back. ¹⁸For Sheol^[+] can’t praise you. Death can’t celebrate you. Those who go down into the pit can’t hope for your truth. ¹⁹The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do today. The father shall make known your truth to the children. ²⁰The LORD will save me. Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments all the days of our life in the LORD’s house.

²¹Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a poultice on the boil, and he shall recover.” ²²Hezekiah also had said, “What is the sign that I will go up to the LORD’s house?”

²⁴In those days Hezekiah was terminally ill, and he prayed to the LORD; and he spoke to him, and gave him a sign. ²⁵But Hezekiah didn’t reciprocate appropriate to the benefit done for him, because his heart was lifted up. Therefore there was wrath on him, Judah, and Jerusalem. ²⁶However, Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the LORD’s wrath didn’t come on them in the days of Hezekiah.

²⁷For indeed he was sick nearly to death, but God had mercy on him, and not on him only, but on me also, that I might not have sorrow on sorrow.

⁴Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried out, and said, “In forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!”

⁵The people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from their greatest even to their least. ⁶The news reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. ⁷He made a proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, “Let neither man nor animal, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water; ⁸but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and animal, and let them cry mightily to God. Yes, let them turn everyone from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. ⁹Who knows whether God will not turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so that we might not perish?”

¹⁰God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way. God relented of the disaster which he said he would do to them, and he didn’t do it.

²⁰Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “The LORD, the God of Israel, says ‘You have prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, and I have heard you.

⁷At the instant I speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it, ⁸if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them. ⁹At the instant I speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, ¹⁰if they do that which is evil in my sight, that they don’t obey my voice, then I will repent of the good with which I said I would benefit them.

²³When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey, arose, and went home to his city, set his house in order, and hanged himself; and he died, and was buried in the tomb of his father.

³⁰because for the work of Christ he came near to death, risking his life to supply that which was lacking in your service toward me.

¹Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus from Bethany, of the village of Mary and her sister, Martha. ²It was that Mary who had anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. ³The sisters therefore sent to him, saying, “Lord, behold, he for whom you have great affection is sick.”

⁴But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God, that God’s Son may be glorified by it.” ⁵Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.

²He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.