2 Kings 20:10 (DBY)

Passage

And Hezekiah said, It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees: no, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees.

Nearby Context

2 Kings 20:8 And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, What [shall be] the sign that Jehovah will heal me, and that I shall go up into the house of Jehovah the third day?

2 Kings 20:9 And Isaiah said, This [shall be] the sign to thee from Jehovah, that Jehovah will do the thing that he hath spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees?

2 Kings 20:10 And Hezekiah said, It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees: no, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees.

2 Kings 20:11 And Isaiah the prophet cried to Jehovah, and he brought the shadow back on the degrees by which it had gone down on the dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward.

2 Kings 20:12 At that time Berodach-Baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent a letter and a present to Hezekiah, for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "light", "hezekiah", "said", "shadow", "down", "degrees", and "return". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "light" and "hezekiah", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 9's "And Isaiah said This shall be the..." into verse 11's "And Isaiah the prophet cried to Jehovah...", so "light" and "hezekiah" belong inside that flow. In 2 Kings context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "light" and "hezekiah" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.