2 Kings 20:8

8 And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, What shall be the sign, that the Lord shall heal me, and also that in the third day I shall go up into the temple of the Lord?

2 Kings 20:8 Meaning and Commentary

And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah,.... Or "had said," {w} before the plaster of figs was directed to, or, however, laid on, and as soon as he was told he should be healed:

what shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up into the house of the Lord the third day? not that he disbelieved the promise of God, or doubted of a cure, but this he requested for the confirmation of his faith; which good men sometimes asked, when they doubted not, as Gideon; and Ahaz, Hezekiah's father, was bid to ask a sign for the like purpose, and it was resented in him that he did not, see Judges 6:17.

{w} rmayw "dixerat autem," V. L. Vatablus.

2 Kings 20:8 In-Context

6 and I shall add fifteen years to thy days; but also I shall deliver thee and this city from the hand of the king of Assyrians, and I shall defend this city for me, and for David, my servant (and I shall defend this city for my sake, and for the sake of my servant David).

7 And Isaiah said, Bring ye to me a gobbet of figs. And when they had brought it, and had put (it) on his botch/and had put it on the botch of Hezekiah, he was healed.

8 And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, What shall be the sign, that the Lord shall heal me, and also that in the third day I shall go up into the temple of the Lord?

9 To whom Isaiah said, This shall be a sign of the Lord, that the Lord shall do the word which he spake; wilt thou, that the shadow (of the sun) go further by ten lines, either turn again by so many degrees? (To whom Isaiah said, This shall be the sign from the Lord, that the Lord shall do the thing which he spoke; wilt thou, that the sun's shadow go forward by ten degrees, or turn back by as many degrees?)

10 And Hezekiah said, It is light, or easy, that the shadow increase by ten lines, neither I will that this be done, but that it turn again backward by ten degrees. (And Hezekiah said, It is easy for the shadow to increase by ten degrees, so I do not desire that this be done, but rather, that it go backward by ten degrees.)