And I will add unto your days fifteen years; and I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for my own sake, and for my servant David's sake.
All Commentaries on 2 Kings 20:6 Go To 2 Kings 20
John Cassian
AD 435
Now let us rise to still more sublime examples. Speaking in the person of God, the prophet Isaiah addressed King Hezekiah as he was lying in bed and laboring under a grave illness: “The Lord says this: Set your house in order, because you shall die, and you shall not live. And Hezekiah,” it says, “turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord and said, I beseech you, Lord, remember, I pray, how I walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart and did what was good in your sight. And Hezekiah wept with much weeping.” After this it was said to him again: “Turn back and speak to Hezekiah, king of Judah, and say, The Lord, the God of David your father, says this: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears, and behold, I will add fifteen years to your days, and I will free you from the hand of the king of the Assyrians, and I will defend this city for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.” What is clearer than this text, according to which the Lord, with a view to mercy and kindness, chose to break his own word and to extend the life of the one praying by fifteen years beyond the appointed time of his death rather than show himself inexorable because of an inflexible decree?
