2 Kings 20:10

_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?_ NO JFB COMMENTARY ON THESE VERSES....

1-11 Hezekiah was sick unto death, in the same year in which the king of Assyria besieged Jerusalem. A warning to prepare for death was brought to Hezekiah by Isaiah. Prayer is one of the best preparations for death, because by it we fetch in strength and grace from God, to enable us to finish well. He wept sorely: some gather from hence that he was unwilling to die; it is in the nature of man to dread the separation of soul and body. There was also something peculiar in Hezekiah's case; he was now in the midst of his usefulness. Let Hezekiah's prayer, see 2 Kings 20:38. interpret his tears; in that is nothing which is like his having been under that fear of death, which has bondage or torment. Hezekiah's piety made his sick-bed easy. "O Lord, remember now;" he does not speak as if God needed to be put in mind of any thing by us; nor, as if the reward might be demanded as due; it is Chr...

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....

EXPOSITION 2 KINGS 20:1 ILLNESS OF HEZEKIAH AND EMBASSY OF MERODACH-BALADAN. HEZEKIAH'S DEATH. The writer proceeds to relate an illness and a recovery of Hezekiah, which happened about the middle of his reign, probably in B.C. 713, and which was accompanied by strange, if not miraculous, circumstances (2 Kings 20:1). Hezekiah's recovery was followed by an embassy of congratulation from Merodach-Baladan, King of Babylon, which led Hezekiah into an act of folly, and brought upon him the rebuke of Isaiah (verses 12-19). The narrative terminates with a notice of some of Hezekiah's great works, and of h

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...

3. HEZEKIAH'S ILLNESS, RECOVERY, FAILURE, AND DEATH CHAPTER 20 _ 1. Hezekiah's illness and recovery (2 Kings 20:1; 2 Chronicles 32:24)_ 2. Hezekiah's failure (2 Kings 20:12; 2 Chronicles 32:25) 3. The death of Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:20; 2 Chronicles 32:32) Hezekiah's sickness must have occurred about the second invasion of the Assyrian. Then the prophet Isaiah delivered to him the m

SICKNESS OF HEZEKIAH. This is related in the parallel passage, Isaiah 38, in a much abbreviated form, save that it adds the prayer of Hezekiah after his recovery. Isaiah 38 omits 2 Kings 20:4 (Isaiah being recalled afore he was gone out of the middle court (_mg._) of the palace, 2 Kings 20:5_ b_ (promising that Hezekiah shall go up to the Temple on the third day), 2 Kings 20:8 (Hezekiah's request for a sign), 2 Kings 20:9_ a_ (the alternative sign, Hezekiah's choice, and Isaiah's crying to Yahweh). 11. THE DIAL OF AHAZ: Heb. the steps (_mg.)._ Probably the shadow on certain steps indicated the hours of the

DOWN. forward (2 Kings 20:9)....

_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....

III. HEZEKIAH'S PERSONAL CRISIS 20:1-19 The chronological placement of the episode related in chapter 20 is problematic. That the events of this chapter are earlier than the crushing defeat of Sennacherib's army is suggested by 2 Kings 20:6. Since fifteen years were added to the life of Hezekiah and since that king died in 686 B.C., his miraculous healing must have taken place in 701 B.C. the very year of the Assyrian invasion. Another chronological clue is found in the fact that in this chapter Hezekiah still is in possession of his treasure (2 Kings 20:13-17), i.e., these treasures had not yet been carried off to Nineveh. The chapter relates (1) Hezekiah's serious illness and miraculous recovery (2 Kings 20: