2 Kings 20:1-11

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 day. Sundials were used in Babylonia, and Ahaz seems (2 Kings 16:10) to have been interested in what he saw when away from Jerusalem, and anxious to introduce curious and artistic novelties (see also 2 Kings 23:12). [Hezekiah regards the going forward of the shadow as a trifle since it simply accelerated the motion in the direction in which it was already travelling; for it to go backward was hard, because it reversed the natural, inevitable direction. A. S. P.]