2 Kings 20:10 (LSB)

Passage

So Hezekiah answered, “It is easy for the shadow to stretch forward ten steps; no, but let the shadow turn backward ten steps.”

Nearby Context

2 Kings 20:8 Now Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What will be the sign that Yahweh will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of Yahweh the third day?”

2 Kings 20:9 And Isaiah said, “This shall be the sign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do the thing that He has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten steps or turn back ten steps?”

2 Kings 20:10 So Hezekiah answered, “It is easy for the shadow to stretch forward ten steps; no, but let the shadow turn backward ten steps.”

2 Kings 20:11 Isaiah the prophet cried to Yahweh, and He turned the shadow on the stairway back ten steps by which it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.

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

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "hezekiah", "answered", "easy", "shadow", "stretch", "forward", and "steps". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "hezekiah" and "answered", 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 "Isaiah the prophet cried to Yahweh and...", so "hezekiah" and "answered" 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 "hezekiah" and "answered" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.