The Hebrew Prophets

"'But I know when you sit, when you leave, when you enter - and when you rage against me.

And because of your rage against me, because of your pride that has reached my ears, I am putting my hook in your nose and my bridle on your lips; and I will make you return by the way on which you came.

"'This will be the sign for you [people of Isra'el]: this year, you will eat the grain that grows of itself; the second year, you will eat what grows from that; but in the third year, you will sow, reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

"'Meanwhile, the remnant of the house of Y'hudah that has escaped will again take root downward and bear fruit upward;

for a remnant will go out from Yerushalayim, those escaping will go out from Mount Tziyon. The zeal of ADONAI-Tzva'ot will accomplish this.'

"Therefore this is what ADONAI says concerning the king of Ashur: "'He will not come to this city or even shoot an arrow there; he will not confront it with a shield or erect earthworks against it.

"'By the way he came he will return; he will not come to this city,' says ADONAI.

'For I will defend this city and save it, both for my own sake and for my servant David's sake.'"

Then the angel of ADONAI went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of Ashur. Early the next morning, there they were, all of them, corpses - dead.

So Sancheriv king of Ashur left, went and returned to live in Ninveh.

One day, as he was worshipping in the temple of Nisrokh his god, his sons Adramelekh and Shar'etzer struck him with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat. So his son Esar-Hadon took his place as king.

Around this time Hizkiyahu became ill to the point of death. Yesha'yahu the prophet, the son of Amotz, came and said to him, "Here is what ADONAI says: 'Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not live.'"

Hizkiyahu turned his face toward the wall and prayed to ADONAI:

"I plead with you, ADONAI, remember now how I have lived before you truly and wholeheartedly, and how I have done what you see as good." And he cried bitter tears.

Then the word of ADONAI came to Yesha'yahu:

"Go and tell Hizkiyahu that this is what ADONAI, the God of David your ancestor, says: 'I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; therefore I will add fifteen years to your life.

Also I will rescue you and this city from the power of the king of Ashur; I will defend this city.

The sign for you from ADONAI that ADONAI will do what he said is

that I will cause the shadow of the sundial, which has started going down on the sundial of Achaz, to go backward ten intervals.'" So the sun went back ten intervals of the distance it had already gone down.

After Hizkiyahu king of Y'hudah had been ill and had recovered, he wrote the following:

"I once said: 'In the prime of life I am going off to the gates of Sh'ol. I am being deprived of living out the full span of my life.'

"I said, 'I will never again see Yah, Yah in the land of the living; I will look on human beings no more or be with those who live in this world.

My home is uprooted and taken away from me like a shepherd's tent. Like a weaver, I have rolled up my life; he cuts me off from the loom. Between day and night you could finish me off.

I try to be strong like a lion till morning, but still my illness breaks all my bones - between day and night you could finish me off.

I make little chattering sounds like a swallow, I moan aloud like a dove, My eyes are weary with looking upward. Adonai, I am overwhelmed; guarantee my life!'