Hezekiah's illness is healed and a shadow reverses

A death sentence is spoken, then tears are seen

In those days Hezekiah is sick unto death. Isaiah comes and says, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live. Hezekiah turns his face to the wall, prays, and weeps sore. He asks the LORD to remember how he has walked in truth and with a perfect heart and done what is good in God's sight.

Before Isaiah has gone out into the middle court, the word returns: I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears; behold, I will heal thee. On the third day he shall go up unto the house of the LORD. Fifteen years are added to his days, and the city will be delivered from the king of Assyria for the LORD's sake and for David's sake. Prayer here is heard. Tears are seen. Neither is offered as a technique that extends every life.

Figs are laid on the boil, and a shadow is asked to run backward

Isaiah says, Take a lump of figs. They take and lay it on the boil, and he recovers. Hezekiah asks for a sign that the LORD will heal him and that he will go up to the house on the third day. Isaiah offers the shadow ten degrees forward or ten backward on the dial of Ahaz. Hezekiah calls the downward movement a light thing and asks for the shadow to return backward ten degrees. Isaiah cries unto the LORD, and the shadow returns.

A poultice accompanies the healing; the text neither rejects practical treatment nor publishes a universal cure. The reversed shadow is a sign for this king on this dial, not a clock believers can command. People who die after faithful prayer are not thereby exposed as less heard than Hezekiah. The placement of this illness beside the Assyrian crisis is historically discussed; the unit itself is a sickbed, a sign, and a limit.