Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Kings 20:11
And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the LORD: and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz.
11. And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord ] This verse and the two preceding are much compressed in the narrative of Isaiah, and nothing is said of Isaiah’s supplication, nor of the alternatives offered to the king. The whole is put into the form of a direct message from God, ‘Behold I will bring again’ &c.
he brought the shadow ten degrees [R.V. steps ] backward ] The statement in Isaiah is not made concerning the shadow, but the sun. ‘So the sun returned ten degrees’ (R.V. steps).
in [R.V. on ] the dial of Ahaz ] As will be seen from the margin of R.V., the word here rendered ‘dial’ is the same which in the previous verses the Revisers have translated ‘steps’. Also wherever the word is used elsewhere, and it is not of rare occurrence, it always refers to steps or stairs. It seems therefore best to consider that the contrivance by which the time of day was marked in this case was something which could be called a ‘staircase’ or ‘steps’. We must think too of the sign as given to Hezekiah while he lay upon what had been till a short space before, the bed of sickness and expected death. We must therefore conclude that the contrivance, whatever it was, must have been one which the king could see from his chamber. Probably it would be in the court of the palace, and there it might take the form of a staircase-like erection, with a gnomon or projecting shaft, so contrived that the shadow thrown by it should fall along the steps and grow shorter or longer as the sun rose or fell in the heavens. Or it might be a staircase proper, erected on one side of the court, and a staff or pole might be so fixed as to cast a shadow which by the motion of the sun would descend or rise on the steps. If such a staircase existed on the opposite side of the court to the king’s chamber (and such external staircases were very common) the means by which the sign should be given were ready to hand. Several kinds of sundials have been suggested which would fulfil the conditions, and Ahaz from his connexion with the Assyrians may have become acquainted with them, for they were first invented by the Babylonians. But to none of these instruments could we easily apply the word ‘steps’ so as to call the contrivance, as the Hebrew does, ‘the steps of Ahaz’.
With regard to the length of time which is indicated by the word ‘step’ we have nothing to guide us. There is no necessity therefore to understand an alteration in the shadow equivalent to ten hours of our day. If it were half or a quarter of that time, it would be a very appreciable change on the dial.
Of the speculations how the miracle was brought to pass none can be expected to be satisfactory. And we should bear with us, on such matters, Job’s question (2Ki 11:7) ‘Canst thou by searching find out God?’ There have been some who thought that the earth’s motion was really reversed, but modern science has shown that by refraction, (of course in this case, taking place out of the ordinary course of nature,) such an alteration in the position of the shadow might be effected. Another opinion put forward is that the sun was eclipsed, in such wise that the upper limb was obscured, which would have the effect of lengthening all shadows, and thus causing the appearance of going backward on the dial of the stairs.
Bishop Hall’s remarks are ‘whether shall we more wonder at the measure of the love of God to Hezekiah, or at the power of Isaiah’s faith in God? Out of both, either the sun goes back in heaven that his shadow may go back on earth; or the shadow no less miraculously goes back on earth, while the sun goes forward in heaven. It is true that the prophet speaks of the shadow, not of the sun; except perhaps because the motion of the sun is best discerned by the shadow, and the motion of the shadow is led by the course of the sun. Besides that, the demonstration of this miracle is reported to be local, in the dial of Ahaz, not universal in the sensible length of the day: withal the retreat of the sun had made a public and noted change in the frame of nature; this particular alteration of the shadow, in places limited, might satisfy no less without a confusive mutation in the face of the world. Whethersoever, to draw the sun back together with the shadow, or to draw the shadow back without the sun, was the proof of the Divine omnipotence, able therefore to draw back the life of Hezekiah fifteen degrees from the night of death to which it was hastening’.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
2Ki 20:11
He brought the shadow ten degrees backward.
The sundial of Ahaz
Here is the first timepiece of which the world has any knowledge. But it was a watch that did not tick and a clock that did not strike. It was a sundial. Ahaz the king invented it. Between the hours given to statecraft and the cares of office he invented something by which he could tell the time of day. This sundial may have been a great column, and when the shadow of that column reached one point it was nine oclock a.m., and when it reached another point it was three oclock p.m., and all the hours and half-hours were so measured. Or it may have been a flight of stairs such as may now be found in Hindustan and other old countries, and when the shadow reached one step it was ten oclock a.m., or another step it was four oclock p.m., and likewise other hours may have been indicated. We are told that Hezekiah the king was dying of a boil. It must have been one of the worst kind of carbuncles, a boil without any central core and sometimes deathful. A fig was put upon it as a poultice. Hezekiah did not want to die then. His son, who was to take the kingdom, had not yet been born, and Hezekiahs death would have been the death of the nation. So he prays for recovery, and is told he will get well. But he wants some miraculous sign to make him sure of it. He has the choice of having the shadow on the sundial of Ahaz advance or retreat. He replied it would not be so wonderful to have the sun go down, for it always does go down sooner or later. He asks that it go backward. In other words, let the day, instead of going on toward sundown, turn and go toward sunrise. While looking at the sundial of Hezekiah, and we find the shadow retreating, we ought to learn that God controls the shadows. We are all ready to acknowledge His management of the sunshine. We stand in the glow of a bright morning and we say in our feelings, if not with so many words, This life is from God, this warmth is from God. But suppose the day is dark? You have to light the gas at noon. The sun does not show himself all day long. There is nothing but shadow. How slow we are to realise that the storm is from God and the darkness from God and the chill from God. I cannot look for one moment on that retrograde shadow on Ahazs dial without learning that God controls the shadows, and that lesson we need all to learn. But I want to show you how the shadows might be turned back.
1. First, by going much among the young people. Remain young. Better than arnica for your stiff joints and catnip tea for your sleepless nights will be a large dose of youthful companionship. Set back the clock of human life. Make the shadow of the sundial of Ahaz retreat ten degrees. People make themselves old by always talking about being old and wishing for the good old days, which were never as good as these days.
2. Set back your clocks also by entering on new and absorbing Christian work. In our desire to inspire the young we have in our essays had much to say about what has been accomplished by the young: of Romulus, who founded Rome when he was twenty years of age; of Cortes, who had conquered Mexico at thirty years; of Pitt, who was Prime Minister of England at twenty-four years; of Raphael, who died at thirty-seven years; of Calvin, who wrote his Institutes at twenty-six; of Melancthon, who took a learned professors chair at twenty-one years; of Luther, who had conquered Germany for the Reformation by the time he was thirty-five years. And it is all very well for us to show how early in life one can do very great things for God and the welfare of the world, but some of the mightiest work for God has been done by septuagenarians and octogenarians and nonagenarians Indeed, there is work which none but such can do. They preserve the equipoise of Senates, of religious denominations, of reformatory movements. Young men for action, old men for counsel. Instead of any of you beginning to fold up your energies, arouse anew your energies.
3. But while looking at this sundial of Ahaz, and I see the shadow of it move, I notice that it went back toward the sunrise instead of forward toward the sunset–toward the morning instead of toward the night. I have seen day break over Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn, over the heights of Lebanon, over Mount Washington, over the Sierra Nevadas, and mid-Atlantic, the morning after a departed storm when the billows were liquid Alps and liquid Sierra Nevadas, but the sunrise of the soul is more effulgent and more transporting. It bathes all the heights of the soul and illumines all the depths of the soul and whelms all the faculties, all the aspirations, all the ambitions, all the hopes with a light that sickness cannot eclipse or death extinguish or eternity do anything but augment and magnify. I preach the sunrise. As I look at that retrograde movement of the shadow on Ahazs dial, I remember that it was a sign that Hezekiah was going to get well, and he got well. So I have to tell all you who are, by the grace of God, having your day turned from decline toward night to ascend toward morning, that you are going to get well, well of all your sins, well of all your sorrows, well of all your earthly distresses. Sunrise! Sunrise! But not like one of those mornings after you have gone to bed late, or did not sleep well, and you get up chilled and yawning, and the morning bath is a repulsion, and you feel like saying to the morning sun shining into your window: I do not see what you find to smile about; your brightness is to me a mockery. But the inrush of the next world will be a morning after a sound sleep, a sleep that nothing can disturb, and you will rise, the sunshine in your faces, and in your first morning in heaven you will wade down into the sea of glass mingled with fire, the foam on fire with a splendour you never saw on earth, and the rolling waves are doxologies, and the rocks of that shore are golden and the pebbles of that beach are pearl, and the skies that arch the scene are a commingling of all the colours that St. John saw on the wall of heaven, the crimson and the blue and the saffron and the orange and the purple and the gold and the green wrought on those skies in shape of garlands, of banners, of ladders, of chariots, of crowns, of thrones. What a sunrise! Do you not feel its warmth on your faces? Scoville MCollum, the dying boy of our Sunday school, uttered what shall be the peroration of this sermon, Throw back the shutters and let the sun in! And so the shadow of Ahazs sundial turns from sunset to sunrise. (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)
Fifteen years extension of life
In the autumn of 1799, when the well-known Rev. T. Charles, of Bala, was dangerously ill, and his life was despaired of, very earnest prayers for his recovery were offered up in his chapel. Several members prayed on the occasion; and one member was much noticed at the time for the very urgent and importunate manner with which he prayed. Alluding to the fifteen years added to Hezekiahs life, he, with unusual fervency, entreated the Almighty to spare his pastors life for at least fifteen years. He several times repeated the following words, with such melting importunity that all present were greatly affected:–Fifteen years more, O Lord; we beseech Thee to add fifteen years more to the life of Thy servant. And wilt Thou not, O our God, give fifteen years more for the sake of Thy Church and Thy cause? Mr. Charles was restored to health. He heard of this prayer, and it made a deep impression on his mind. He was more than ever industrious in every good work, establishing Sabbath schools, originating the Bible Society, and doing great good, not only in Wales, but in Scotland and Ireland as well. The last time he was in South Wales he was asked when he would be back again. His answer was, Probably never. My fifteen years are nearly up. And it is remarkable that his death occurred just at the termination of the fifteen years.
Making more of life
If you have a bar of gold and want to double its value, you may do so, no doubt, by doubling its length, but you may also do so by doubling its thickness, and in certain circumstances this may be more serviceable. Now life, in the same way, may be increased in value, not by being prolonged, but by being deepened. If two men live a year, but one of them puts into every day twice as much work and enjoyment and usefulness as the other, his life is of course far more valuable than the other. This is what Christ does. He deepens our lives. I well remember a friend of my own who had gone a great length, living what is called a fast life, and exploring, as he thought at the time, all the heights and depths of existence, but on whom God had mercy. I remember him saying to me with great earnestness, on one occasion, that he would not give one day of his changed life for all the years of pleasure that he had previously enjoyed. And that is the tone in which all true Christians are disposed to talk when they are contrasting their old lives with the new. Among men of the world it is a common enough question whether life is worth living, but among true and hearty Christians there is no such question possible. God makes their life golden, He deepens it, and that is what He means when in our text He says, I am come to give life, and to give more abundantly. (Stalker.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 11. He brought the shadow ten degrees backward] We cannot suppose that these ten degrees meant ten hours; there were ten divisions of time on this dial: and perhaps it would not be right to suppose that the sun went ten degrees back in the heavens, or that the earth turned back upon its axis from east to west, in a contrary direction to its natural course. But the miracle might be effected by means of refraction, for a ray of light we know can be varied or refracted from a right line by passing through a dense medium; and we know also, by means of the refracting power of the atmosphere, the sun, when near rising and setting, seems to be higher above the horizon than he really is, and, by horizontal refraction, we find that the sun appears above the horizon when he is actually below it, and literally out of sight: therefore, by using dense clouds or vapours, the rays of light in that place might be refracted from their direct course ten, or any other number of degrees; so that the miracle might have been wrought by occasioning this extraordinary refraction, rather than by disturbing the course of the earth, or any other of the celestial bodies.
The dial of Ahaz.] 2Kg 9:13, and the observations and diagram at the end of this chapter. 2Kg 20:20.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Isaiah cried unto the Lord; being moved by Gods Spirit first to offer him this sign, and then to pray for it.
Ten degrees backward.
Quest. 1. What were these degrees?
Answ. Lines in the dial; but whether each of these lines or degrees noted an hour, or half an hour, or a quarter of an hour, is uncertain, and not very considerable in this case.
Quest. 2. What was it that went down? Answ. Either, first, The shadow alone went back without the sun; for God could so dispose of the light of the sun, by interposing clouds, or other things, so that the shadow should fall only upon those lines, and in that manner as God directed it. And whereas the sun is said to have gone down, that may be spoken according to appearance, as other passages of Scripture are understood; as when the moon is called one of the great lights, Ge 1, though it be less than some of the stars; and when the sun is said to go down, Jer 15:9, and to be turned into darkness, Joe 2:31. Or, secondly, The sun itself went back, and the shadow with it. This may seem most probable, first, By comparing this with Jos 10:13, where the sun itself stood still. Secondly, Because it is said the sun itself returned, Isa 38:8; for which he here mentions
the shadow only, because the miracle was not so easily discovered in the sun as in the shadow of a dial. And though the sun may be elsewhere taken improperly, yet where the improper signification is unnecessary, the proper is and ought to be preferred before it. Thirdly, Because this miracle was noted by the Babylonians, who, having understood that it was done for Hezekiahs sake, sent to inquire into the truth and manner of it, 2Ch 32:31.
Object. If this had been done, the heathen historians and astronomers would have taken notice of it, which we do not find that they did.
Answ. So it is most probable they did, although those books be not now extant; which is not strange; this being confessed and bewailed, that so very few of the first and ancient writers are now left; Herodotus himself, the first, and father of the ancient historians, being long after this time. And yet it is observed, that there are some intimations of these things left, though mixed with fables, as many true histories were; as what the poets fabled of Jupiters making the night twice as long as it should have been, that he might enjoy Alcmena longer. Whether the sun or shadow went backward suddenly, or leisurely, and in the same time in which it had gone down, is a question of no great moment, the miracle being evident either way.
In the dial of Ahaz; which Ahaz had made in the kings palace. This dial he mentions, because the truth of the miracle might be best and soonest discovered there; this dial possibly being visible out of the kings chamber, or at least being near do it, and the degrees being most distinct and conspicuous in this dial; but the same thing was discerned by all other dials.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord,…. Or prayed, as the Targum; and was very earnest in prayer, that what Hezekiah had desired might be granted:
and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz; Ben Gersom understands it not of the sun itself, but of the shadow of it only; [See comments on Isa 38:8].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(11) And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord.Thus the sign is evidently regarded by the historian as something directly involving the Divine agency, i.e., as a miracle.
He brought . . . Ahaz.Literally, and he (i.e., Jehovah) made the shadow return on the steps, which it had descended in the steps of Ahaz, backward ten steps. On the question of how it was done, a good many opinions have been expressed, e.g., by means of a mock sun, a cloud of vapour, an earthquake, a contrivance applied by Isaiah (!) to the sun-dial, &c.
Ephrem Syrus, and other church fathers, believed that the sun receded in his celestial path; but it is not said that the sun went back, but the shadow. (Isa. 38:8 says the sun returned, by a perfectly natural usus loquendi.) Keil assumes a wondrous refraction of the suns rays effected by God at the prayer of Isaiah. Professor Birks and Mr. Cheyne agree with this, assuming, further, that the refraction was local only. (See 2Ch. 32:31.) Thenius, after arguing at length in favour of an eclipse (that of September 26th. 713 B.C. , which, however, will not harmonise with the Assyrian chronology), says: Notwithstanding all this, I do not insist upon the suggested explanation, but I attach myself, with Knobel and Hitzig, to the mythical conception of the narrative. That the sign was granted, and that it was due to the direct agency of Him who ordereth all things according to His Divine will, is certain. How it was effected the narrative does not in any way disclose (the Editor). Ewald and others wish to see in the retrogression of the shadow a token that Hezekiahs life-limit was to go back many years; but the prophet gave the king is choice whether the shadow should go forward or backward.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
11. The prophet cried Lord So this sign was granted in answer to a prophet’s prayer.
He brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz The Hebrew word for dial is the same as that rendered degrees, ( ,) and means properly steps, or ascents; but is here evidently used of something that marked the course of the sun, (compare parallel passage, Isa 38:8😉 it is, perhaps, best rendered degrees, and the passage may be literally translated thus: He turned the shadow in the degrees which it went down, in Ahaz’s degrees, backward ten degrees.
Various have been the attempts to explain this dial of Ahaz, but from our lack of any certain knowledge of its size and form, all the explanations that have been offered are at best only so many more or less plausible hypotheses. 1.) Some think that the degrees were literally the ascents or steps of some stairway connected with the royal palace, and the shadow was that of some pillar, or obelisk, which fell on a greater or less number of steps, according to the advance of the sun in the heavens. 2.) The rabbies say, that the dial was a concave hemisphere, in which twenty-eight lines were marked, and that the shadow which fell on these lines or degrees was caused by a little globe set in the midst of the concave surface. 3.) Dr. A. Clarke supposed that this dial consisted of eleven steps placed parallel to the horizon, with a perpendicular gnomon fixed in the upper step, which step was placed exactly north and south, and formed the meridian line. 4.) A dial has been discovered near Delhi, in India, which seems to have been designed for an observatory as well as a dial. It is thus described by Kitto: It is a rectangled hexangle, whose hypotenuse is a staircase, apparently parallel to the axis of the earth, and bisects a zone or coping of a wall, which wall connects the two terminating towers right and left. The coping itself is circular, and accurately graduated to mark, by the shadow of the gnomon above, the sun’s progress before and after noon; for when the sun is in the zenith he shines directly on the staircase, and the shadow falls beyond the coping. A flat surface on the top of the staircase, and a gnomon, fitted the building for the purposes of an observatory. 5.) Layard supposes that the dial of Ahaz was a present to that king from Tiglath-pileser, and that in form it resembled the ancient tower of Belus, which was, perhaps, erected partly for astronomical purposes. Whatever its form, this account of its origin is probably correct. Herodotus (ii, 109) informs us that the sun-dial ( ) and the gnomon were inventions of the Babylonians, and Ahaz probably introduced it into Jerusalem at the same time he did the Assyrian altar. 2Ki 16:10, note. Hence it would very naturally be called the dial of Ahaz.
The theories put forth to explain the manner in which he brought the shadow ten degrees backwards have also been various. Some have affirmed that the miracle was wrought by turning the earth backward in its axial revolution. So stupendous a miracle, however, would in this case have seemed too much like “leaping over the house to unbar the little gate.” Others exclude any real miracle by explaining it as a case of refraction of the solar light. Romauld, prior of the cloister of Metz, observed on March 27, 1703, that a cloud in the higher regions of the atmosphere caused such refraction as to make his dial deviate an hour and a half. A writer in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, (vol. xv, p. 286,) explains the turning back of the shadow as caused by an eclipse of the sun, which occurred Jan. 11, 689 B.C., and which time he accordingly assigns as the date of this event. He supposes that the dial of Ahaz was a flight of steps mounting from north to south at an angle of 34 , which is the angle of the sun’s elevation at Jerusalem at noon during the winter solstice. Thus the sun at noon would throw a shadow which would just tip the top step, and if at this moment the moon passed over the upper limb of the sun, it would have caused the shadow to go backwards on the steps. But whatever the precise nature of the phenomenon, it is clear from the Scripture that it was given as a miraculous sign. Divine power and wisdom may have used some natural media in its production, but it is by no means necessary to seek or to assume such media. Hezekiah was allowed to choose whether the shadow should go down, or return ten degrees, and surely God might have brought the shadow ten degrees backwards by a purely miraculous refraction of those rays only which fell upon the dial. It seems, perhaps, the most simple way to suppose that Divine power either threw a back shade on the dial, visible to the eye, or wrought subjectively upon the optic sense, so as to make it conceive a back shade, substituting conception for perception.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Ki 20:11 And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the LORD: and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz.
Ver. 11. And he brought the shadow. ] Together with the body of the sun. This was the prodigy that the Babylonish ambassadors had observed and came to inquire of. 2Ch 32:31 The sun – which was their god – had honoured Hezekiah; therefore they were sent to honour him too with a visit and a present. And should not we therefore honour the saints whom Christ hath so honoured? a See on 2Ki 20:9 .
Ten degrees backward.
In the dial of Ahaz.
a Abulens.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
dial = degrees.
Ahaz. See note on 2Ki 20:8.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
cried unto: Exo 14:15, 1Ki 17:20, 1Ki 17:21, 1Ki 18:36-38, Act 9:40
he brought: Jos 10:12-14, 2Ch 32:24, 2Ch 32:31, Isa 38:8
dial: Heb. degrees
Reciprocal: Jos 10:14 – there was
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Ki 20:11. Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord Being moved by Gods Spirit, first to offer him this sign, and then to pray for it. And he brought the shadow ten degrees backward The dial in use among the Jews, says Dr. Dodd, was a kind of stairs; the time of the day was distinguished, not by lines, but by steps, here called degrees; and the shade of the sun moved forward a new degree every half hour. The Jewish doctors and the ancient Christian fathers were of opinion, that the sun actually went backward. They endeavour to support this opinion by showing that Merodach-baladan was incited, by the view of this miracle, to send his messengers to Hezekiah, see 2Ch 32:31; and, as a further confirmation, they add, that it is really taken notice of by Herodotus, in his Euterpe, chap. 142, where he expressly asserts, that the Egyptians had observed strange alterations in the motions of the sun, it having arisen four times out of its usual course. Though this observation should be allowed to be true, yet from hence we are under no necessity to admit that the sun itself, or the earth, was retrograde, that is to say, that either of them went backward; all that the Scriptures require of us is, to admit the fact of the shadows going backward; and this may be accounted for without supposing any uncommon motion, either in the sun or in the earth. Nothing more was required to effect this phenomenon, than a reflection of the suns rays, and this might have been caused by an alteration in the density of the atmosphere. To this it may be added, that the original mentions nothing of the sun, but only of its beams or shadow; and how its beams might be inflected by a change made in the atmosphere, may easily be conceived by any person conversant in natural philosophy. This endeavour to account for the phenomenon, by no means lessens the miracle; for we assign the alteration of the atmosphere to the immediate and extraordinary operation of Providence, and every extraordinary interposition of Providence is essentially and properly a miracle. Let it further be observed, we by no means offer this solution in exclusion of others; and if any one thinks that the miracle can be better accounted for in any other way, we shall very readily subscribe to that opinion. Liberum de eo judicium lectori committo, says Vitringa. See note on Jos 10:12-13.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
20:11 And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the LORD: and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the {h} dial of Ahaz.
(h) Which was set at the top of the stairs that Ahaz had made.