Isaiah 38:8 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Behold, I will bring again, &c.— The dial in use among the Jews was a kind of stairs; the time of the day was distinguished not by lines, but by steps, here called degrees; and the shade of the sun moved forward a new degree every half hour. The Jewish doctors and the ancient Christian fathers were of opinion, that the sun itself actually went backward. They endeavour to support this opinion by shewing that Merodach-baladan was incited by the view of this miracle to send his messengers to Hezekiah; see 2 Chronicles 32:31 and as a further confirmation they add, that it is really taken notice of by Herodotus in his Euterpe, chap. 142 where he expressly asserts, that the Egyptians had observed strange alterations in the motion of the sun, it having arisen four times out of its usual course. Though this observation should be allowed to be true, yet we are under no necessity hence to admit that the sun itself or the earth was retrograde, that is to say, that either of them went backwards; all that the Scripture requires of us is, to admit the fact of the shadow's going backward, and this may be accounted for without supposing any uncommon motion either in the sun or in the earth. Nothing more is required to effect this phoenomenon than a reflection of the sun's rays, and this might have been caused by an alteration in the density of the atmosphere. To this it may be added, that the original mentions nothing of the sun, but only of its beams or shadow; and how its beams might be inflected by a change made in the atmosphere, may easily be conceived by any person conversant in natural philosophy. This endeavour to account for the phoenomenon by no means lessens the miracle; for we assign the alteration of the atmosphere to the immediate and extraordinary operation of God; and every extraordinary interposition of Providence is essentially and properly a miracle. Let it further be observed, we by no means offer this solution in exclusion of others; and if any one thinks that the miracle can be better accounted for in any other way, we shall very readily subscribe to that opinion. Liberum de eo judicium lectori committo, says Vitringa. See Scheuchzer's Dissertation on the subject in his Physique Sacree, upon 2 Kings 20.