Hezekiah's Illness and the Babylonian Envoys

Hezekiah became sick unto death, and the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amoz, came to him and stated that he should set his house in order because he would die and not live. In response, Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD to remember how he had walked before Him in truth and with a perfect heart. Hezekiah wept sore (2 Kings 20:1-3). Before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him, instructing him to return to Hezekiah and tell him that his prayer was heard and his tears were seen. The text states Hezekiah would be healed, go up to the house of the LORD on the third day, and have fifteen years added to his life. Isaiah ordered a lump of figs to be laid on the boil, and Hezekiah recovered (2 Kings 20:4-7).

Hezekiah asked Isaiah for a sign that the LORD would heal him. Isaiah offered a choice between the shadow going forward ten degrees or back ten degrees. Hezekiah noted it was a light thing for the shadow to go down, so he requested it return backward. The prophet cried unto the LORD, and the shadow was brought ten degrees backward by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz (2 Kings 20:8-11). At that time, Merodach-baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick. Hezekiah hearkened unto the messengers and showed them all the house of his precious things, including the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious ointment, and all the house of his armor (2 Kings 20:12-13).

Isaiah then asked Hezekiah what the men had seen. Hezekiah answered that they had seen everything in his house and there was nothing among his treasures he had not shown them. Isaiah then prophesied that the days would come when everything in his house and that which his fathers had laid up in store would be carried into Babylon; nothing would be left. He also stated that some of Hezekiah's sons would be taken away to be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. Hezekiah responded that the word of the LORD was good, as there would be peace and truth in his days (2 Kings 20:14-19).