Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Kings 20:9
And Isaiah said, This sign shalt thou have of the LORD, that the LORD will do the thing that he hath spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees?
9. shall the shadow go forward ten degrees [R.V. steps ], or go back ten degrees ] R.V. steps. In the Hebrew there is no sign of interrogation in the first clause. But instances are not rare in which the interrogative sign is left out (cf. 1Sa 16:4; 2Sa 18:29). A greater difficulty is in the tense of the first verb. The clause, if it stood alone, would be translated, ‘The shadow hath gone forward ten steps, (what) if it shall go back ten steps? But Hezekiah’s answer implies that an alternative question was asked. Thus both A.V. and R.V. have translated it, but how the grammar is to be made to yield a double question is not easy to see. For if the omitted interrogation be supplied, we have still only, ‘Hath the shadow gone forward ten steps?’
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Ten degrees – literally, ten steps. It is not, perhaps, altogether certain whether the dial of Ahaz 2Ki 20:11 was really a dial with a gnomon in the center, and degrees marked round it, or a construction fur marking time by means of steps. Sundials proper had been invented by the Babylonians before the time of Herodotus; but the instrument here was probably an instrument consisting of a set of steps, or stairs, with an obelisk at the top, the shadow of which descended or ascended the steps according as the sun rose higher in the heavens or declined.
The question as to the mode whereby the return of the shadow was produced is one on which many opinions have been held. Recently, it has been urged that the true cause of the phenomenon was a solar eclipse, in which the moon obscured the entire upper limb of the sun; and it has been clearly shown that if such an occurrence took place a little before mid-day, it would have had the effect described as having taken place – i. e., during the obscuration of the suns upper limb shadows would be sensibly lengthened, and that of the obelisk would descend the stairs; as the obscuration passed off the reverse would take place, shadows would shorten, and that of the obelisk would once more retire up the steps. If this be the true account, the miracle would consist in Isaiahs supernatural foreknowledge of an event which the astronomy of the age was quite incapable of predicting, and in the providential guidance of Hezekiahs will, so that he chose the sign which in the natural course of things was about to be manifested.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
And Isaiah said, this sign shalt thou have of the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that he hath spoken,…. Cure him of his disorder, so that he should be able to go to the temple on the third day:
shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees? that is, the shadow of the sun on a dial plate; it was left to his option to choose which he would, as the confirming sign of his recovery.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(9) Shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees?Rather, the shadow hath marched (or travelled) ten steps; shall it return ten steps? This is what the Hebrew text seems to say at a first glance. But Hezekiahs answer apparently implies an alternative; and we might render: the shadow shall have travelled ten steps; or shall it return ten steps? (Comp. the LXX. .) The Targum has: shall the shadow march ten hours or return ten hours? The Vulgate also makes it a double question. The Syriac is: the shadow shall march ten steps, or return ten steps.
It is very probable that the Hebrew text is corrupt. We might read the first word as an infinitive instead of a perfect, after the analogy of 2Ki. 19:29 (ye shall eat). Or we might read shall it march? as a question (h-ylk); or better still, shall it go up (h-ylk), after the hint afforded by the Vulgate: Vis ut ascendat umbra . . . Et ait Ezeehias, Facile est umbram crescere, &c. It is obvious that a kind of sun-dial is meant, though what kind is not so clear. The word degrees (malth) means steps or stairs wherever it occurs. (See Exo. 20:26; Eze. 40:6; Eze. 40:22; Eze. 40:26; Eze. 40:31, &c; 1Ki. 10:20; Neh. 3:15.) There is probability, therefore, in Knobels conjecture that the dial of Ahaz consisted of a column rising from a circular flight of steps, so as to throw the shadow of its top on the top step at noon, and morning and evening on the bottom step. This, or some similar device, was set up in the palace court, and was probably visible to Hezekiah lying on his sick bed and facing the window. Herodotus (ii. 9) ascribes the invention of the gnomon to the Babylonians. From the inscriptions we know that they divided time into periods of two hours, each called in Sumerian kasbumi, and in Assyrian asli. Each kasbu or aslu was subdivided into sixty equal parts.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
9. Shall the shadow go forward A more accurate rendering of the Hebrew is that of Keil: The shadow has advanced ten degrees; if it should return ten degrees. This concise and idiomatic Hebrew might thus be paraphrased: The shadow has now advanced ten degrees; if it go back ten degrees, would that be a convincing sign to thee? Hezekiah’s answer in the next verse seems, however, to show that Isaiah had put it to him to decide whether the sign should be an advance or return of ten degrees, and so favours the common version.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Ki 20:9 And Isaiah said, This sign shalt thou have of the LORD, that the LORD will do the thing that he hath spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees?
Ver. 9. Shall the shadow go forward ten degrees? ] This was in God Almighty stupenda dignatio, a wonderful condescension, thus to gratify a mortal man – stooping so low to his meanness. If Hezekiah were – as the Rabbis say he was – studious of the mathematics, how suitable was this sign! These degrees were half-hours, or quarters, or haply less. The shadow was that of the style of a sundial. Neither did the shadow only go backward, but the sun itself ran retrograde, Isa 38:8 whereof the Rabbis give this foolish reason, that when wicked Ahaz was buried, the sun hastened faster than ordinary to his setting, that there might be no time for funeral rites, to recompense which loss of time then, the day was thus prolonged now. Those ancients do better, who, allegorising the text, tell us that sick Hezekiah signifieth all mankind as sick of sin; but this is an infallible sign of the saint’s recovery, that the sun hath gone ten degrees back in the dial. The Sun of righteousness Jesus Christ, hath for our sakes made himself lower by many degrees in the earth. “My Father is greater than I”: there he is gone back ten degrees below his Father. “Thou hast made him lower than the angels”: there he is gone back ten degrees below the angels. “I am a worm, and no man”: there he has gone back ten degrees below men. “A live dog is better than a dead lion”: there he has gone back ten degrees below worms: for he was not counted so good as a live worm, but was buried in the earth, as a dead lion, to be meat for the worms, if it had been possible for “his holy One to see corruption.”
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
degrees. It is to these degrees that Hezekiah’s fifteen Songs refer (Psa 120 – 134). The word “degrees” is repeated here six times (in the history), but five times in Isaiah’s gracious words (2Ki 38:8).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
This sign: Isa 38:7, Isa 38:8, Mat 16:1-4, Mar 8:11, Mar 8:12, Luk 11:29, Luk 11:30
Reciprocal: Jdg 6:36 – If thou wilt 2Ki 19:29 – a sign Isa 37:30 – this shall