Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Kings 20:10
And Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees: nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees.
10. It is a light thing for the shadow to go down [R.V. decline ] ten degrees ] R.V. steps. The verb is not the same as that translated ‘to go down’ in verse 11. The king’s meaning is that it appears more natural and therefore easier, for the shadow to make a sudden advance in the direction in which it has been already going, than to turn in the contrary way.
let the shadow return backward ten degrees ] R.V. steps. Thus reversing the order of nature.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
It is a light thing – It seemed to Hezekiah comparatively easy that the shadow, which had already begun to lengthen, should merely make a sudden jump in the same direction; but, wholly contrary to all experience that it should change its direction, advancing up the steps again when it had once begun to descend them.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
To go down ten degrees, to wit, in an instant; for that course or motion of the sun is natural for the kind of it, though miraculous for the swiftness of it; but the other would be both ways miraculous.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And Hezekiah answered, it is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees,…. That is, it was comparatively so, otherwise to go down ten degrees at once would be extraordinary and miraculous; but that was more agreeable to the nature and course of it to go forward, and so the miracle would be less apparent:
nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees; which was directly contrary to its natural order and course, whereby the miracle would appear more clear and manifest: these degrees are by some said x to be half hours, and not full ones, since it is observed the sun shines not twenty full hours on any dial, unless under the pole; the sun is supposed to have been now at the fifth full hour; the sun was brought back five whole hours, then came forward five, then came forward two degrees, or one hour, to the sixth hour; which made sixteen; then it was six hours to sunset; so that day was prolonged twenty two hours: the Chinese y relate, that, in the time of Kingcungus, the planet Mars, for sake of the king, went back three degrees.
x Weemse’s Christ. Synagog. l. 1. c. 6. sect. 6. p. 167. See his Exposition of the Judicial Laws, c. 25. p. 90. &c. y Martin. Sinic. Hist. l. 4. p. 138.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(10) It is a light thing for the shadow to go down.Because that was the ordinary course of things. As a natural phenomenon, of course, the sudden extension of the shadow would have been as wonderful as its retrogression; but what is in any way a familiar occurrence must needs seem easier than what has never fallen under observation.
To go down.Rather, to spread. The LXX. has , another use of the Hebrew verb. The Targum, Syriac, and Arabic render to go forward (march).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2Ki 20:10 And Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees: nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees.
Ver. 10. It is a light thing, ] viz., In comparison of the sun’s retrogradation, wherein both the substance of the thing and the manner were wholly miraculous, whether it were done in an instant, or in the set course of time, or its ordinary continual motion. See on 2Ki 20:9 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
down = forward (2Ki 20:9).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
2Ki 2:10, 2Ki 3:18, Isa 49:6, Mar 9:28, Mar 9:29, Joh 14:12
Reciprocal: Jos 10:14 – there was
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Ki 20:10. It is a light thing for the sun to go down Namely, in an instant: for that motion of the sun is natural as to the kind of it, though miraculous for the swiftness of it; but the motion backward would be both ways miraculous.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
20:10 And Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees: nay, but let the shadow {g} return backward ten degrees.
(g) Let the sun go so many degrees back, that the hours may be fewer in the king’s dial.