Dial

The "dial" of older translations appears in UPDV as a stairway — the steps of Ahaz — on which the sun's shadow tracked the hours. The device features in a single sign given to Hezekiah: the shadow's reversal as a confirmation of his recovery from illness.

The Steps of Ahaz

The Kings narrative gives the prophetic act in compact form: "And Isaiah the prophet cried to Yahweh; and he brought back the shadow on the steps it had gone down, on the steps of Ahaz, backward ten steps" (2 Kgs 20:11). The shadow that had been falling forward across the steps reverses by ten increments at the prophet's prayer.

The Sign in Isaiah

Isaiah's parallel account names the upper-house location of the steps and frames the reversal as a divine first-person promise: "Look, I will move back the shadow of the steps, which has gone down on the steps from the Upper House of Ahaz - [I will move back] the sun backward ten steps. So the sun returned ten steps on the steps on which it had gone down" (Isa 38:8). The device is the same — Ahaz's steps used to mark the day — and the sign is the same: ten steps backward, in confirmation of the added years given to Hezekiah.

The Memory in Sirach

Sirach picks up the same sign in compressed form within its praise of Hezekiah and Isaiah: "In his days the sun went backward, And he added life to the king" (Sir 48:23). The two halves of the line collapse the Kings/Isaiah account to its essential pair — the sun's reversal joined directly to the lengthening of the king's life.