The Story of Hezekiah and the Shadow in the Bible

A prophet arrives with a message that leaves no room for negotiation: set thine house in order, for thou shalt die, and not live.

The king does not argue and does not send for a second opinion. He turns his face to the wall. Before the prophet has crossed the middle court, the answer has already changed.

The Story of Hezekiah and the Shadow

In those days Hezekiah was sick unto death, and Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him and said, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.

Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the LORD. His prayer is short and personal: I beseech thee, O LORD, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.

The reversal is immediate. Before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him: turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people. I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee. On the third day he would go up to the house of the LORD.

With the healing came a number. I will add unto thy days fifteen years, and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria. Then the cure itself, entirely ordinary: Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs. They took it and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.

Hezekiah asked for a sign. Isaiah offered him a choice, which is unusual: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees? Hezekiah picked the harder one. It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees, he said, nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees.

And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the LORD, and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz. The rest of the chapter is less happy. Messengers come from Babylon, Hezekiah shows them everything in his treasury, and Isaiah tells him it will all be carried to Babylon one day.

What the Story of Hezekiah and the Shadow Teaches Us

Hezekiah never asks for more years. He asks God to remember how he has walked, and weeps. The fifteen years are added to the answer without being requested, which is easy to miss when the chapter is remembered as a story about getting what you pray for.

The healing arrives through a lump of figs on a boil. A miracle and an ordinary poultice are in the same sentence and the text sees no tension in it at all.

The sign is the one moment where Hezekiah does choose, and he deliberately picks the option that could not be mistaken for the sun doing what it always does. Given two ways to be reassured, he took the one that left no room for a second explanation.

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