Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 38:7
And this [shall be] a sign unto thee from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he hath spoken;
7, 8. After Isa 38:6, 2 Kings describes the prophet’s prescription for the malady (see on Isa 38:21). The account of the sign also is given in a much fuller form there. It was granted at the express request of the king (see Isa 38:22), who had not his father’s fear of “tempting the Lord” (ch. Isa 7:12). Allowed to choose between a “going forward” and a “going backward” of the shadow, he decided for the latter as not so “light” a thing (i.e. less conceivable); when, at Isaiah’s intercession, the desired thing happened.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And this shall be a sign unto thee – That is, a sign, or proof that God would do what he had promised, and that Hezekiah would recover and be permitted to go again to the temple of the Lord Isa 38:22; 2Ki 20:8. On the meaning of the word sign, see Isa 7:11, note; Isa 7:14, note; compare the note at Isa 37:30. The promise was, that he should be permitted to go to the temple in three days 2Ki 20:5.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 38:7-8
And this shall be a sign unto thee from the Lord
The shadow on the sun-dial of Ahaz
We are not to imagine that in this miracle any effect was wrought upon the motion of the earth round its axis.
A miraculous refraction of the suns rays was effected by God on a particular sun-dial, at the prayer of King Hezekiah. It was a miracle, wrought on a particular dial, in a particular place, showing that it concerned a particular person; and it was not wrought on the solar orb, but on the solar light. (Bp. Wordsworth.)
The shadow reversed on the sun-dial of Ahaz
This astounding miracle could only have been affected by a light. brighter than the sun, rising on the other side of the sun-dial. We all know how electric light reverses the shadow of gas light. At St. Pauls conversion, the light from heaven, the Shechinah brightness of Immanuel, outshone the splendour of the noonday sun. In the heavenly city there is no need of the sun to shine on it, nor of the moon to lighten it, for the glory of God and the Lamb is the light thereof. Unfortunately, we cannot tell on which side of the temple at Jerusalem the sun-dial of Ahaz was situated. It was probably a monolith or obelisk, resembling that on the Thames embankment, elevated on steps–translated degrees–and intended to regulate the hours of public worship. The setting sun had thrown the shadow across the steps; it had gone down ten degrees, when suddenly from the gate or window from the mercy-seat behind the veil of the naos, or temple proper, there flashed forth the majestic light of Divine glory that dwelt between the cherubim, reversing the shadow of the natural sun, and converting for Hezekiah the shadow of death into morning. (R. Balgarnie, D. D.)
The Light of the Mosaic past
To the ardent eyes of the old prophet the light that had reversed the shadow on the sundial was the old Light of the Mosaic past. It had illumined the land of Goshen in the days of supernatural darkness that overspread the rest of Egypt. It had flashed out with more than electric brightness upon the hosts of Israel as they struggled on through the night and the sea to escape the pursuing army of the Pharaoh. It had glided as a fiery pillar before the tribes through the rocky desert, warning off their enemies, and guiding the pilgrim army homeward to the fatherland. It had synchronised their movements with those convulsions of nature that arrested the Jordan at harvest flood, and shook down the walls of Jericho at the moment when they were prepared to cross and capture the devoted city. And it had stood over Gibeon as a sun that would not go down, and as a moon that would not withdraw, while Jehovah fought for Israel, and gave them their crowning victory over the idolatrous Canaanites. Isaiah knew the Light. (R. Balgarnie, D. D.)
Christ the glory of His people Israel
Was it this, I wonder, that evoked from Isaiah that unwonted outburst of enthusiasm in the chapter beginning, Arise, shine, for thy Light is come, and the glory of Jehovah is risen upon thee? Thy sun shall no more go down . . . for Jehovah shall be unto thee an everlasting Light, and thy God thy glory? If so, how appropriate the words to the occasion. It is easy to identify the Light of Israel with Christ, the Light of the world. (R. Balgarnie, D. D.)
Christ dispels and reverses lifes shadows
I do not consider that I am putting any undue strain upon the text in applying it to Christ. The Shechinah was the recognised token to Israel of the presence of her covenant God. It led the Magi to Bethlehem. It shone around the shepherds on the night of the nativity. It overwhelmed Saul of Tarsus on the way to Damascus. Christ is the Light that dispels and reverses our shadows. Christ has dispelled and reversed–
I. THE SHADOW OF, SIN.
II. THE SHADOW OF GRIEF.
III. THE SHADOW OF DEATH. If He be in thee, wrote John Pulsford, who is the Light of Life, very Light and very Life, then, when the candlelight of ,thy bodys life goes out, the sunlight of thy souls life shall be bright about thee. (R. Balgarnie, D. D.)
The great miracle
The miracle is how God Himself began. Why will men always attack the wrong point, as if it were a wonderful thing that a man should have fifteen years added to his life; and yet we omit the stupendous miracle that man ever began to live. Thus attack what mystery we may we only go backward and upward until we come to Deity Himself. That is the great mystery, and there is none other. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
7. signa token that God wouldfulfil His promise that Hezekiah should “go up into the house ofthe Lord the third day” (2Ki 20:5;2Ki 20:8); the words in italicsare not in Isaiah.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And this shall be a sign unto thee from the Lord,…. And which it seems Hezekiah asked, and it was put to him which he would choose, whether the shadow on the sundial should go forward or backward ten degrees, and he chose the latter, 2Ki 20:8, which was a token confirming and assuring
that the Lord will do this thing that he hath spoken; recover Hezekiah from his sickness, so that on the third day he should go up to the temple; have fifteen years added to his days; and the city of Jerusalem protected from the attempts of the Assyrian monarch.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The pledge desired. “ (K. Then Isaiah said) and (K. om.) let this be the sign to thee on the part of Jehovah, that ( , K. ) Jehovah will perform this (K. the) word which He has spoken; Behold, I make the shadow retrace the steps, which it has gone down upon the sun-dial of Ahaz through the sun, ten steps backward. And the sun went back ten steps upon the dial, which it had gone down” (K. “Shall the shadow go forward [ , read according to Job 40:2, or ] ten steps, or shall it go back ten steps? Then Yechizkiyahu said, It is easy for the shadow to go down ten steps; no, but the shadow shall go back ten steps. Then Isaiah the prophet cried to Jehovah, and turned back the shadow by the steps that it had gone down upon the sun-dial of Ahaz, ten steps backward”) . “Steps of Ahaz” was the name given to a sun-dial erected by him. As m aalah may signify either one of a flight of steps or a degree (syn. m adrigah ), we might suppose the reference to be to a dial-plate with a gnomon; but, in the first place, the expression points to an actual succession of steps, that is to say, to an obelisk upon a square or circular elevation ascended by steps, which threw the shadow of its highest point at noon upon the highest steps, and in the morning and evening upon the lowest either on the one side or the other, so that the obelisk itself served as a gnomon. It is in this sense that the Targum on 2Ki 9:13 renders gerem hammaaloth by d e rag shaayya’ , step (flight of steps) of the sun-dial; and the obelisk of Augustus, on the Field of Mars at Rome, was one of this kind, which served as a sun-dial. The going forward, going down, or declining of the shadow, and its going back, were regulated by the meridian line, and under certain circumstances the same might be said of a vertical dial, i.e., of a sun-dial with a vertical dial-plate; but it applies more strictly to a step-dial, i.e., to a sun-dial in which the degrees that measure definite periods of time are really gradus . The step-dial of Ahaz may have consisted of twenty steps or more, which measured the time of day by half-hours, or even quarters. If the sign was given an hour before sunset, the shadow, by going back ten steps of half-an-hour each, would return to the point at which it stood at twelve o’clock. But how was this effected? Certainly not by giving an opposite direction to the revolution of the earth upon its axis, which would have been followed by the most terrible convulsions over the entire globe; and in all probability not even by an apparently retrograde motion of the sun (in which case the miracle would be optical rather than cosmical); but as the intention was to give a sign that should serve as a pledge, and therefore had not need whatever to be supernatural, it may have been simply through a phenomenon of refraction, since all that was required was that the shadow which was down at the bottom in the afternoon should be carried upwards by a sudden and unexpected refraction. Hammaaloth (the steps) in Isa 38:8 does not stand in a genitive relation to tsel (the shadow), as the accents would make it appear, but is an accusative of measure, equivalent to in the sum of the steps (2Ki 20:11). To this accusative of measure there is appended the relative clause: quos ( gradus ) descendit ( ; being used as a feminine) in scala Ahasi per solem , i.e., through the onward motion of the sun. When it is stated that “the sun returned,” this does not mean the sun in the heaven, but the sun upon the sun-dial, upon which the illuminated surface moved upwards as the shadow retreated; for when the shadow moved back, the sun moved back as well. The event is intended to be represented as a miracle; and a miracle it really was. The force of will proved itself to be a power superior to all natural law; the phenomenon followed upon the prophet’s prayer as an extraordinary result of divine power, not effected through his astronomical learning, but simply through that faith which can move mountains, because it can set in motion the omnipotence of God.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
7. And this shall be a sign to thee. The sacred history relates in the proper order that Hezekiah asked a sign from the Lord, (2Kg 20:8,) and that it was granted to him; which the Prophet will likewise mention at the end of this chapter. But it is no new thing for Hebrew writers to reverse the order of the narrative. God gives some signs of his own accord, without being asked; and he grants other signs to his people who ask them. Signs being generally intended to aid our weakness, God does not for the most part wait till we have prayed for them; but at first he appointed those which he knew to be profitable to his Church. If at any time, therefore, believers wished to have their faith confirmed by a sign, this circumstance, being rare, ought not to be produced as an example. Thus, to Gideon, whom he called from the sheepfold to govern Israel, he gave one sign and then another, when he asked them, (Jud 6:17,) that he might be more fully convinced of his calling. He commonly gave, as we have said, other signs, in accommodation to the weakness of men; as to Adam the tree of life, (Gen 2:9,) to Noah the bow in heaven, (Gen 9:12,) and next the cloud and pillar of fire, (Exo 13:21,) and the serpent of brass in the wilderness. (Num 21:8.) The same remarks apply to the passover, (Exo 12:8,) and to all the sacraments, both those which were formerly observed, and those which have now been appointed by Christ, (77) and which no one asked from God.
But it may be thought that Hezekiah insults God, by refusing credit to his word, when he asks a sign. I reply, we must not accuse him of unbelief, because his faith was weak; for we shall not find. any person who ever had faith which was perfect and complete in every respect. In seeking some assistance to support his weakness, he cannot, be blamed on that account; for, having embraced the promise made to him by the Prophet, he shews his confidence in God by seeking a remedy for distrust. And if there had been no weakness in man, he would not have needed any signs; and consequently we need not wonder that he asks a sign, since on other occasions the Lord freely offers them.
Yet it is proper also to observe, that believers never rushed forward at random to ask signs, but were guided by a secret and peculiar influence of the Spirit. The same thing might be said about miracles. If Elijah prayed to God for rain and for drought, (Jas 5:17,) it does not follow that others are at liberty to do the same. We must, therefore, see what God permits to us, lest, by disregarding his word, we bargain with him according to the foolish desires of our flesh.
(77) “ Tant sous le vieil que sous le nouveau testament.” “Both under the Old and under the New Testament.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(7) This shall be a sign unto thee . . .The offer reminds us of that made to Ahaz; but it was received in a far different spirit. In 2Ki. 20:8-11 the story is more fully told. Hezekiah asks for a sign, and is offered his choice. Shall the shadow go forward or backward? With something of a child-like simplicity he chooses the latter, as the more difficult of the two. The sun-dial of Ahaz, probably, like his altar (2Ki. 16:10), copied from Syrian or Assyrian art [the mention of a sun-clock is ascribed by Herodotus (ii. 109) to the Chaldans], would seem to have been of the form of an obelisk standing on steps (the literal meaning of the Hebrew word for dial), and casting its shadow so as to indicate the time, each step representing an hour or half-hour. The nature of the phenomenon seems as curiously limited as that of the darkness of the crucifixion. There was no prolongation of the day in the rest of Palestine or Jerusalem, for the backward movement was limited to the step-dial. At Babylon no such phenomenon had been observed, and one ostensible purpose of Merdach-baladans embassy was to investigate its nature (2Ch. 32:31). An inquiry into the causation of a miracle is almost a contradiction in terms, but the most probable explanation of the fact recorded is that it was the effect of a supernatural, but exceedingly circumscribed, refraction. A prolonged after glow following on the sunset; and reviving for a time the brightness of the day, might produce an effect such as is described to one who gazed upon the step-dial.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
7, 8. The corresponding narrative in 2 Kings xx, is more full and circumstantial, for comments on which, see Terry, WHEDON’S Commentary, 2Ki 20:1, etc.
A sign A token of the truth of Isaiah’s prediction of lengthened life. This “sign” was the backward movement of the shadow on the dial, or degrees, or steps of Ahaz. Ahaz borrowed as much as he could from other nations note his Damascus altar. It is known that astronomy was early cultivated beyond the Euphrates, and that Ahaz, being an idolatrous vassal to Tiglath-pileser, adopted at Jerusalem the eastern altars on the roof of his house for the adoration of the sun and the stars. A blameless result of all this was the measuring of time by the degrees, or advancing steps, of the sun on the dial, which may have consisted of a column or obelisk placed on the top of a terrace, so casting a shadow upon steps or stairs ( ma’aloth) ascending on either side, as to mark spaces of time. Several devices are given by Terry (WHEDON’S Commentary on 2Ki 20:11,) to whose excellent comments the reader is referred.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 38:7 And this [shall be] a sign unto thee from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he hath spoken;
Ver. 7. See 2Ki 20:8 See Trapp on “ 2Ki 20:8 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Isa 38:7-8
7This shall be the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that He has spoken: 8Behold, I will cause the shadow on the stairway, which has gone down with the sun on the stairway of Ahaz, to go back ten steps. So the sun’s shadow went back ten steps on the stairway on which it had gone down.
Isa 38:7-8 be the sign to you from the LORD Here again, this was a physical sign to encourage Hezekiah that God was going to spare his life (2Ki 20:8-11 is a fuller account). It seems to be related to
1. a sun dial designed to use the steps leading to the king’s private chamber
2. the term steps means degrees of a sun dial (cf. 2Ki 20:9-11, JPSOA translation, see James Freeman, Manners and Customs of the Bible, p. 183)
3. some type of astronomical phenomenon
We must be very careful in being dogmatic about exactly how God accomplished this. A supernatural God can do anything He desires within the laws of nature. However, this could equally be done by some natural phenomenon such as high humidity in a cloud layer. It is obvious that the other solar miracle in Jos 10:12-13 is primarily more poetic than physical. We who believe in the miraculous must be careful that we do not attribute everything that we do not understand to the miraculous. Many times God used natural means to accomplish supernatural things (i.e., the plagues of Egypt). In the ancient world there was no distinction between the natural and supernatural (see John L. Walton, The Lost World of Genesis 1).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
a sign = the sign. Hezekiah had asked for this sign (see Isa 38:22). This shows that Isa 38:22 is not “displaced” as alleged. compare note on Isa 7:11.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Isa 38:22, Isa 7:11-14, Isa 37:30, Gen 9:13, Jdg 6:17-22, Jdg 6:37-39, 2Ki 20:8-21
Reciprocal: 1Sa 10:9 – and all those signs 2Ki 20:9 – This sign
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
38:7 And {d} this [shall be] a sign to thee from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he hath spoken;
(d) For Hezekiah had asked for a sign for the confirmation of his faith, as in Isa 38:22, 2Ki 20:8 , to which he was moved by the singular motion of God’s spirit.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The Lord also graciously gave Hezekiah a sign that He would indeed do what He had promised, in response to Hezekiah’s request for a sign (Isa 38:22; 2Ki 20:8).
The stairway of Ahaz was evidently an exterior stairway that led to his upper room on the roof of the palace, where Ahaz had erected altars (2Ki 23:12). This stairway was probably not built as a sundial, but it served that purpose as the sun cast its shadow on more or fewer steps depending on the time of day. That stairway may have been constructed as a sundial, or a different stairway constructed for that purpose could be in view. One writer believed it was an obelisk that rested on a stepped base and served as a sundial. [Note: Delitzsch, 2:114-15.] Evidently Hezekiah could see it from his sickbed. The passing away of daylight on the stairway symbolized the passing away of Hezekiah’s life, and the return of sunlight represented the restoration of life.
Was this miracle a local or a global phenomenon? What the Lord promised was the movement of the shadow, not the sun that cast the shadow. This opens the possibility for a local miracle in which the shadow moved backward while the earth continued to rotate as usual (cf. 2Ch 32:31).
The reference to King Ahaz recalls the earlier incident involving the sign that God gave that king. God had told him to request a sign as high as heaven (Isa 7:11). Now God gave Ahaz’s son, Hezekiah, a sign from heaven. Ahaz had refused to ask for a sign because he did not want assurance that God would destroy his allies. Hezekiah requested a sign because he wanted assurance that God would spare his life. Ahaz did not want to trust God, but Hezekiah did.