Discovery Box2 Kings 20:4-11 
Context20:4 Isaiah was still in the middle courtyard when the Lord told him, 1 20:5 “Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people: ‘This is what the Lord God of your ancestor David says: “I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I will heal you. The day after tomorrow 2 you will go up to the Lord’s temple. 20:6 I will add fifteen years to your life and rescue you and this city from the king of Assyria. I will shield this city for the sake of my reputation and because of my promise to David my servant.”’” 3 20:7 Isaiah ordered, “Get a fig cake.” So they did as he ordered 4 and placed it on the ulcerated sore, and he recovered. 5
20:8 Hezekiah had said to Isaiah, “What is the confirming sign that the Lord will heal me and that I will go up to the Lord’s temple the day after tomorrow?” 20:9 Isaiah replied, “This is your sign from the Lord confirming that the Lord will do what he has said. Do you want the shadow to move ahead ten steps or to go back ten steps?” 6 20:10 Hezekiah answered, “It is easy for the shadow to lengthen ten steps, but not for it 7 to go back ten steps.” 20:11 Isaiah the prophet called out to the Lord, and the Lord 8 made the shadow go back ten steps on the stairs of Ahaz. 9
1 tc Heb “and Isaiah had not gone out of the middle courtyard, and the word of the
2 tn Heb “on the third day.”
3 tn Heb “for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.”
4 tn Heb “and they got [a fig cake].”
5 tn Heb “and he lived.”
6 tn The Hebrew הָלַךְ (halakh, a perfect), “it has moved ahead,” should be emended to הֲיֵלֵךְ (hayelekh, an imperfect with interrogative he [ה] prefixed), “shall it move ahead.”
7 tn Heb “the shadow.” The noun has been replaced by the pronoun (“it”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
8 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the
9 tn Heb “on the steps which [the sun] had gone down, on the steps of Ahaz, back ten steps.”
sn These steps probably functioned as a type of sundial. See HALOT 614 s.v. מַעֲלָה and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 256.
