Hezekiah's Sickness and Recovery (20:1-11)
20:1 In those days was Chizkiyahu sick to death. And ha Navi Yeshayah Ben Amotz came to him, and said to him,
Thus said YHWH (יהוה):
'Set your house in order, for you shall die, and not live.' "
20:2 Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed to YHWH (יהוה), saying,
20:3"Remember now, YHWH (יהוה), I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what was good in Your sight." And Chizkiyahu wept bitterly.
20:4 And it came to pass, afore Yeshayah was gone out into the middle court, that the Dvar YHWH (יהוה) came to him, saying,
20:5 "Return and tell Chizkiyahu the leader of My people,
'Thus says YHWH (יהוה), Elohei David Avicha:
"I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to Beit YHWH (יהוה).
20:6 And I will add to your days fifteen years. I will deliver you and this city from the hand of melekh Asshur; and I will defend this city for My own sake, and for the sake of My servant David." ' "
20:7 And Yeshayah said, Take a lump of figs. And they took and laid [it] on the boil, and he recovered.
20:8 And Chizkiyahu said to Yeshayah, What [shall be] the sign that YHWH (יהוה) will heal me, and that I shall go up into the Beit YHWH (יהוה) the third day?
Casting shadow from the sun tells time
20:9Then Yeshayah said, "This is the sign to you from YHWH (יהוה), that YHWH (יהוה) will do the thing which He has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten steps or go backward ten steps?"
20:10 And Chizkiyahu answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten steps: nay, but let the shadow return backward ten steps.
20:11 So Yeshayah haNavi cried out to YHWH (יהוה), and He brought the shadow ten steps backward, by which it had gone down on the sundial of Ahaz.
20:12 At that time Berodakh-Bal'adon, Ben Baladan, melekh Bavel, sent letters and a present to Chizkiyahu: for he had heard that Chizkiyahu had been sick.
20:13 And Chizkiyahu listened to them, and shewed them all the Beit his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and [all] the Beit his armour, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Chizkiyahu shewed them not.
20:14 Then Yeshayah haNavi went to Melekh Chizkiyahu, and said to him, "What did these men say, and from where did they come to you?" So Chizkiyahu said, "They came from a far country, from Bavel."
20:15 And he said, "What have they seen in your house?" So Chizkiyahu answered, "They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them."
20:16 And Yeshayah said to Chizkiyahu,
Hear the Dvar YHWH (יהוה).
20:17 'Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have accumulated until this day, shall be carried to Bavel; nothing shall be left,' says YHWH (יהוה).
20:18 'And they shall take away some of your Banim who will descend from you, whom you will beget; and they shall be sarisim (eunuchs) in the palace of the melekh Bavel.' "
20:19 So Chizkiyahu said to Yeshayah, "Devar YHWH (יהוה) which you have spoken is good!" For he said, "Will there not be peace and truth at least in my days?"
20:20 And the rest of the acts of Chizkiyahu, and all his might, and how he made a pool, and a conduit, and brought water into the city, [are] they not written in the sefer Divrei ha Yamin (chronicles) of the Melkhei Yehudah?
20:21 And Chizkiyahu slept with his avot: and Menasheh his son reigned in his stead.
20:8-11 As a sign that ChizkiYahu would be healed and would return to the temple to worship, Elohim caused the shadow . . . on the sundial (or steps) of Ahaz to go back ten degrees. (Chronologically, verse 7 follows verses 8-11.)
2Ch 32:31 However, regarding the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, whom they sent to him to inquire about the wonder that was done in the land, Elohim withdrew from him, in order to test him, that He might know all that was in his heart.
2nd Chron 32:24-26 ChizkiYahu's illness and recovery probably took place before the siege of Sennacherib. In his sickness he called on Adonai and was promised an extension of life, confirmed by a sign in which the sun seemed to go backward. When he failed to respond properly to this mercy, Adonai was angry with him, but because he humbled himself the punishment did not come upon Yehudah until after his death
Behold, I will bring the shadow on the hama'alot (the steps sundial), which has gone down with the sun on the sundial of Ahaz, ten steps backward." So the sun returned eser maalot (ten steps; ten steps) on the dial by which it had gone down. YeshaYahu 38:8
The Ancient Babylonian Sundial
15 cultures that were living at that time they witnessed and recorded it!