The Sun Moved Backwards

Hezekiah, King of Judah, became sick and near death. The prophet Isaiah told him to set his house in order because he was going to die. But Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed, and wept bitterly.

The Lord sent Isaiah back to Hezekiah to say, “I have heard your prayer and seen your tears, and I will heal you. On the third day, you will go up to the Lord’s house, and I will give you fifteen more years.”

Hezekiah asked, “What is the sign that on the third day I will again go up to the Lord’s house?”

Now, for the Hebrew people to go “up to worship,” or for the king to go “up to the Lord’s house,” was an important idea. It referred to the Lord as the “high and lofty One,” and also to the lifting up of a sacrifice.

Solomon, who built the Temple and the king’s house, also built a special walkway or stairway as an entrance from the king’s house to the Temple. This stairway was one of the things that greatly impressed the Queen of Sheba.

So, what better sign than one associated with the stairway? The Lord gave Hezekiah a choice: whether the sun’s shadow would advance ten steps or go back ten steps. Hezekiah said, “It’s easy for the sun to move forward. Let it go backward ten steps.”

That is what happened, and Hezekiah did live for fifteen more years.


(Sundial in some Bible translations is an interpretation better rendered steps, ascent, or degrees.)

2 Kings 20:5-11; Isaiah 38; 2 Kings 16:18; 1 Chronicles 26:16; 2 Chronicles 9:4