Hezekiah was sick and dying. Isaiah came to him and said, “Set your house in order, for you will die.” Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord. He wept bitterly and asked God to remember how faithfully he had served him. Before Isaiah had come to the middle courtyard, the Lord said to him, “Turn back, tell my prince Hezekiah, ‘I have heard your prayer and have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you. On the third day you will go up to the house of the Lord. I will add fifteen years to your life and deliver you and this city out of the hand of king of Assyria for my own sake and for my servant David’s sake.’ ” Isaiah said, “Take a cake of figs.” They laid it on the boil and Hezekiah recovered. Hezekiah said, “What will be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I will go up to the house of the Lord?” Isaiah answered, “This will be the sign to you from the Lord: should the shadow on the sundial go forward ten steps, or back?” Hezekiah replied, “It is an easy thing for the shadow to go forward ten steps, but not backward.” Then Isaiah called on the Lord and the shadow went back ten steps.