2 Kings 20:10 (WEB)

Passage

Hezekiah answered, “It is a light thing for the shadow to go forward ten steps. No, but let the shadow return backward ten steps.”

Nearby Context

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

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

2 Kings 20:10 Hezekiah answered, “It is a light thing for the shadow to go forward ten steps. No, but let the shadow return backward ten steps.”

2 Kings 20:11 Isaiah the prophet cried to Yahweh; and he brought the shadow ten steps backward, by which it had gone down on the sundial of Ahaz.

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

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "light", "hezekiah", "answered", "shadow", "forward", "steps", 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 "Isaiah said This will be the sign..." into verse 11's "Isaiah the prophet cried to Yahweh and...", 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.