In those days provides a general link to the events in chapters 36–37. It is likely that Hezekiah died in 696 B.C., five years after Sennacherib’s invasion of Judah. Since there is a promise of an extra fifteen years to Hezekiah’s life in verse 5, the events in this section took place around ten years before Sennacherib’s invasion. Both Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version render this phrase as “About this time,” while New Jerusalem Bible has “At that time.”

Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death is literally “Hezekiah became sick to/for dying,” which means his illness was going to kill him. Verse 21 mentions that he had a boil, but this is not normally life-threatening unless it becomes gangrenous. The parallel account in 2 Kgs 20 identifies the boil as his illness.

And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him: Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz is literally “Isaiah son of Amoz the prophet.” Both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation change the order of this phrase to clarify that Isaiah is the prophet, not Amoz. For Isaiah … the son of Amoz, see 1.1; for prophet see 3.2.

Thus says the LORD introduces the divine speech that follows. For this fixed formula, which is characteristic of prophetic speech, see the comments on 7.7.

Set your house in order; for you shall die, you shall not recover: Yahweh tells Hezekiah to settle his affairs because he will die soon. Set your house in order means that the king should do all that is necessary for his family and the nation to ensure an orderly state of affairs after he has died (compare 2 Sam 17.23). The Hebrew verb rendered shall die is a participle, which indicates that Hezekiah will die soon. The negative clause, you shall not recover (literally “you will not live”), has the same meaning, so it emphasizes further his imminent death.

There is an embedded quote in this verse since Isaiah quotes Yahweh. Good News Translation uses indirect speech for Yahweh’s words (see also the second example below).

Translation examples for this verse are:

• At that time Hezekiah became fatally ill. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, “This is what Yahweh says: ‘Put your affairs in order since you are about to die; you will not live.’”

• At that time Hezekiah became so ill that he was at death’s door. Then the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said, “The LORD says you should put your household affairs in order because you are about to die. You will not live long.”

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .