Isaiah 38:8

The R.V. has (after Ahaz) the phrase "with the sun," which is wrongly taken by the A.V. as an adjunct of the word "dial" (the sun dial). It is necessary, however, to strike out the preposition "with" (as in the LXX.). The whole verse then reads literally: Behold I will turn the shadow of the steps which the sun has gone down on the steps of Ahaz backward ten steps; and the sun turned back ten steps on the steps which it had gone down. We must suppose that the "steps," whatever they were, could be seen from the sick-chamber of Hezekiah, to whose mind the sign had an obvious symbolical significance. The retreating shadow, miraculously lengthening the day, was a pledge of the postponement of that "night in which no man can work" which had almost overtaken him. What kind of apparatus is denoted by the "steps of Ahaz" we have no means of determining. It is not clear, indeed, that a regularly constructed sun-dial of any kind is meant: a shadow falling on some fight of steps in the palace-court, and affording a rough and ready measure of time, would sufficiently explain the terms used.