And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What shall be the sign that the LORD will heal me, and that I shall go up into the house of the LORD the third day?
What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me. His recovery in the course of nature was so unlooked for, that the king asked for some token to justify his reliance on the truth of the prophet's communication; and the sign he specified was granted to him. The shadow of the sun went back upon the dial of Ahaz the ten degrees it had gone down.
Various conjectures have been formed as to this dial The word in the original х ma`ªlowt (H4609)] means Various conjectures have been formed as to this dial. The word in the original х ma`ªlowt (H4609)] means "degrees," or 'steps;' and hence, many commentators have supposed that it was a stair, so artfully contrived that the shadow on the steps indicated the hours and course of the sun. But it is more probable that it was a proper instrument-`a series of steps or terraces like those of the Birs Nimroud, on which an upright pole cast its shadow the hours being marked by the coincidence of the shadow of the gnomon with the edge of the steps (degrees)' (Layard's 'Nineveh and Babylon,' p. 498: also 'Dissertation on the Old Testament' by M. Von Gumpach, p. 181). [The Septuagint evidently views it as consisting of steps; but the same version in Isaiah 38:8 calls the sundial of Ahaz, anabathmous tou oikou tou patros sou; and, from the Hebrews having no term to designate it, there is a strong presumption that it was one of the foreign novelties imported from Babylon by Ahaz, or presented to him by Tiglath-pileser.]
It seems to have been of such magnitude, and so placed in the court, that Isaiah could point to it, and the king see it, from his chamber. Mr. Bosanquet refers this incident to a partial eclipse of the sun which took place at noon-day at Jerusalem in January, B.C. 689. In the discussion produced by his suggestion, Professor Airey, the Astronomer-Royal, demonstrated, by chronological arguments, that such an eclipse did take place at the very time-namely, on the 11th January, 14 days after the winter solstice of 690 BC-and calculates the time of the central eclipse to have been shortly after eleven o'clock a.m.-too early an hour for the phenomenon being produced on the dial. Whereupon a supplemental contribution to this view was made by the eminent mathematician, Adams, to the effect that, as the received secular variation of the moon was a little erroneous, the time of the eclipse referred to might perhaps be advanced half an hour (Athenaeum, June 28, 1856). But admitting, on the testimony of these eminent astronomers, the actual occurrence of this celestial phenomenon at the date mentioned, and still further, that, as Vitringa and Gesenius state, instances of a refraction caused by some vapour or cloud have been known in modern times, these concessions will not bring the remarkable fact recorded in the text within the operation of the established laws of nature For it is distinctly asserted that the sign being left to the absolute choice of Hezekiah, whether the shadow on the dial should go ten degrees forward or backward, he fixed upon the latter. No doubt, the statement made here, that the conditions of the sign were submitted to the free selection of Hezekiah, does not appear in the parallel passage of Isaiah (Isaiah 38:7-8); but that omission cannot affect the truth of the narrative contained in the book of Kings, which is much more circumstantial and full than the succinct account given in that of Isaiah.
The only right conclusion appears to be, that the retrogression of the sun's shadow on the dial was miraculous, accomplished by the omnipotent power of God; but the phenomenon was temporary, local, confined to the notice, and intended for the satisfaction, only of Hezekiah and his court. It has been suggested as a conjectural emendation on this passage that an error may have crept into the text in the recorded number of degrees on the sun-dial of Ahaz. The present text says 10. But why that number rather than 5, 7, or 20? Assuming that it was 15 degrees, the passage will appear exceedingly beautiful-the sign would be perfect, and most apposite. The life of the king was to be prolonged 15 years, and in token of this favour the shadow on file dial recedes a corresponding number of degrees. It is fatal, however, to this critical hypothesis that the word "ten" is repeatedly used in the narrative, and that the proposed alteration is not supported by the authority of any of the ancient versions or manuscripts (see Strachey's 'Hebrew Politics,' pp. 286-290; 'Journal of Sacred Literature,' October, 1854, pp. 217, 218; 1855, pp. 163-178; 1856, p. 163).