2 Kings 20:11
New International Version
Then the prophet Isaiah called on the LORD, and the LORD made the shadow go back the ten steps it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.

New Living Translation
So Isaiah the prophet asked the LORD to do this, and he caused the shadow to move ten steps backward on the sundial of Ahaz!

English Standard Version
And Isaiah the prophet called to the LORD, and he brought the shadow back ten steps, by which it had gone down on the steps of Ahaz.

Berean Standard Bible
So Isaiah the prophet called out to the LORD, and He brought the shadow back the ten steps it had descended on the stairway of Ahaz.

King James Bible
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.

New King James Version
So Isaiah the prophet cried out to the LORD, and He brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down on the sundial of Ahaz.

New American Standard Bible
Then Isaiah the prophet called out to the LORD, and He brought the shadow on the stairway back ten steps by which it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.

NASB 1995
Isaiah the prophet cried to the LORD, and He brought the shadow on the stairway back ten steps by which it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.

NASB 1977
And Isaiah the prophet cried to the LORD, and He brought the shadow on the stairway back ten steps by which it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.

Legacy Standard Bible
Isaiah the prophet cried to Yahweh, and He turned the shadow on the stairway back ten steps by which it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.

Amplified Bible
So Isaiah the prophet called out to the LORD, and He brought the shadow on the steps ten steps backward by which it had gone down on the sundial of Ahaz.

Christian Standard Bible
So the prophet Isaiah called out to the LORD, and he brought the shadow back the ten steps it had descended on the stairway of Ahaz.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
So Isaiah the prophet called out to the LORD, and He brought the shadow back the 10 steps it had descended on Ahaz’s stairway.

American Standard Version
And Isaiah the prophet cried unto Jehovah; and he brought the shadow ten steps backward, by which it had gone down on the dial of Ahaz.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And Isaiah the Prophet called to LORD JEHOVAH, and the shadow returned by the degrees that the sun had gone down in the degrees of Akhaz, ten degrees backward.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And Esaias the prophet cried to the Lord: and the shadow returned back ten degrees on the dial.

Contemporary English Version
Isaiah prayed, and the LORD made the shadow go back ten steps on the stairway built for King Ahaz.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And Isaias the prophet called upon the Lord, and he brought the shadow ten degrees backwards by the lines, by which it had already gone down in the dial of Achaz.

English Revised Version
And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the LORD: and he brought the shadow ten steps backward, by which it had gone down on the dial of Ahaz.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Then the prophet Isaiah called on the LORD, and the LORD made the shadow that had gone down on Ahaz's stairway go back up ten steps.

Good News Translation
Isaiah prayed to the LORD, and the LORD made the shadow go back ten steps on the stairway set up by King Ahaz.

International Standard Version
So Isaiah cried out to the LORD, who brought the shadow back ten steps after it had gone down the stairway of Ahaz.

JPS Tanakh 1917
And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the LORD; and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down on the dial of Ahaz.

Literal Standard Version
And Isaiah the prophet calls to YHWH, and He brings back the shadow by the degrees that it had gone down in the degrees of Ahaz—backward ten degrees.

Majority Standard Bible
So Isaiah the prophet called out to the LORD, and He brought the shadow back the ten steps it had descended on the stairway of Ahaz.

New American Bible
So Isaiah the prophet invoked the LORD. He made the shadow go back the ten steps it had descended on the staircase to the terrace of Ahaz.

NET Bible
Isaiah the prophet called out to the LORD, and the LORD made the shadow go back ten steps on the stairs of Ahaz.

New Revised Standard Version
The prophet Isaiah cried to the LORD; and he brought the shadow back the ten intervals, by which the sun had declined on the dial of Ahaz.

New Heart English Bible
Isaiah the prophet cried to the LORD; and he brought the shadow ten steps backward, by which it had gone down on the dial of Ahaz.

Webster's Bible Translation
And Isaiah the prophet cried to the LORD: and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down on the dial of Ahaz.

World English Bible
Isaiah the prophet cried to Yahweh; and he brought the shadow ten steps backward, by which it had gone down on the sundial of Ahaz.

Young's Literal Translation
And Isaiah the prophet calleth unto Jehovah, and He bringeth back the shadow by the degrees that it had gone down in the degrees of Ahaz -- backward ten degrees.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Hezekiah's Illness and Recovery
10“It is easy for the shadow to lengthen ten steps,” answered Hezekiah, “but not for it to go back ten steps.” 11So Isaiah the prophet called out to the LORD, and He brought the shadow back the ten steps it had descended on the stairway of Ahaz.

Cross References
Joshua 10:12
On the day that the LORD gave the Amorites over to the Israelites, Joshua spoke to the LORD in the presence of Israel: "O sun, stand still over Gibeon, O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon."

2 Kings 20:10
"It is easy for the shadow to lengthen ten steps," answered Hezekiah, "but not for it to go back ten steps."

Isaiah 38:8
I will make the sun's shadow that falls on the stairway of Ahaz go back ten steps.'" So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had descended.


Treasury of Scripture

And Isaiah the prophet cried to the LORD: and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz.

cried unto.

Exodus 14:15
And the LORD said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward:

1 Kings 17:20,21
And he cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son? …

1 Kings 18:36-38
And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word…

he brought.

Joshua 10:12-14
Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon…

2 Chronicles 32:24,31
In those days Hezekiah was sick to the death, and prayed unto the LORD: and he spake unto him, and he gave him a sign…

Isaiah 38:8
Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down.

dial.

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2 Kings 20
1. Hezekiah, having received a message of death, by prayer has his life lengthened.
8. The sun goes ten degrees backward for a sign of that promise.
12. Berodach-baladan sending to visit Hezekiah has notice of his treasures.
14. Isaiah understanding thereof, foretells the Babylonian captivity.
20. Manasseh succeeds Hezekiah.














(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. (Isaiah 38:8 says "the sun returned," by a perfectly natural usus loquendi.) Keil assumes "a wondrous refraction of the sun's 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 2Chronicles 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 "Hezekiah's life-limit was to go back many years;" but the prophet gave the king is choice whether the shadow should go forward or backward.

Verse 11. - And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord. Though the sign had been promised, Isaiah regarded his own intercessional prayer as not out of place, and "cried unto the Lord," i.e. prayed with energy, that the king's wish might be accomplished. So, though we have God's promise to care for us, and keep us from want (Matthew 6:25-30), yet we must daily beseech him to "give us this day our daily bread." And he brought the shadow ten degrees backward. How this was done, we are not told, and can therefore only conjecture. The earlier commentators imagined that the revolution of the earth upon its axis was actually reversed for a time; but this idea is now generally rejected. It is clear from 2 Chronicles 32:31 that the phenomenon, whatever may have been its cause, was local, "done in the land" of Judah, and not visible elsewhere. Some moderns have suggested an earthquake affecting the gnomon; some a trick on the part of Isaiah; ethers, and the generality, a very abnormal refraction of the sun's rays. An observed instance of something similar, which took place at Metz, in Lotheringia, in the year 1703, is on record. Two scientists, Professor Seyffarth and Mr. J. W. Bosanquet, think that the phenomenon was due to an eclipse, in which the upper limb of the sun was obscured temporarily. In such a case a slight recession of the shadow would certainly take place; but it would scarcely be such as to attract attention from any one but a scientific observer (Stanley, 'Lectures on the Jewish Church,' vol. 2. p. 537). On the whole, the most probable cause would seem to be refraction, which is accepted by Keil, Bahr, and Kay. By which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz; literally, on the steps of Ahaz. Sundials were invented by the Babylonians (Herod., 2:109), and were no doubt in use at Babylon long before the time of Hezekiah. They were of various kinds, and in some of them the gnomon was made to cast its shadow upon steps. There are still two dials in India - one at Benares, known as the Manmandir, and the other at Delhi - where this is the case (see Mr. Bosanquet's paper, already quoted, plate opp. p. 35).

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
So Isaiah
יְשַׁעְיָ֥הוּ (yə·ša‘·yā·hū)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3470: Isaiah -- 'salvation of Yah', four Israelites

the prophet
הַנָּבִ֖יא (han·nā·ḇî)
Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 5030: A spokesman, speaker, prophet

called out
וַיִּקְרָ֛א (way·yiq·rā)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 7121: To call, proclaim, read

to
אֶל־ (’el-)
Preposition
Strong's 413: Near, with, among, to

the LORD,
יְהוָ֑ה (Yah·weh)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3068: LORD -- the proper name of the God of Israel

and He brought
וַיָּ֣שֶׁב (way·yā·šeḇ)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hifil - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 7725: To turn back, in, to retreat, again

the shadow
הַצֵּ֗ל (haṣ·ṣêl)
Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 6738: A shadow

back
אֲחֹֽרַנִּ֖ית (’ă·ḥō·ran·nîṯ)
Adverb
Strong's 322: Backwards

the ten
עֶ֥שֶׂר (‘e·śer)
Number - feminine singular construct
Strong's 6235: Ten

steps
בְּמַעֲל֥וֹת (bə·ma·‘ă·lō·wṯ)
Preposition-b | Noun - feminine plural construct
Strong's 4609: Elevation, the act, the condition, a climactic progression

it had descended
יָרְדָ֜ה (yā·rə·ḏāh)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person feminine singular
Strong's 3381: To come or go down, descend

on the stairway
מַעֲלֽוֹת׃ (ma·‘ă·lō·wṯ)
Noun - feminine plural
Strong's 4609: Elevation, the act, the condition, a climactic progression

of Ahaz.
אָחָ֛ז (’ā·ḥāz)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 271: Ahaz -- 'he has grasped', two Israelites


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OT History: 2 Kings 20:11 Isaiah the prophet cried to Yahweh (2Ki iiKi ii ki 2 kg 2kg)
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