Isaiah … cried to the LORD: The Hebrew verb rendered cried is literally “called,” but the context shows clearly that prayer was involved. So it would be reasonable to translate “prayed” as Good News Translation and certain other versions have done.
He brought the shadow back ten steps: The pronoun he may be understood as referring to either Isaiah or to the LORD. Since the LORD is much more likely in view here, it may be better to substitute “the LORD” in place of this pronoun.
By which the sun had declined on the dial of Ahaz: This part of the verse contains a rather complex textual problem in which there are several different variants. The traditional Hebrew text says literally “on the steps which it had gone down, on the steps of Ahaz.” Most of the different readings, however, do not change the sense. The Syriac and the Targum both add the noun “sun,” as do Revised Standard Version/New Revised Standard Version, Gray and American Bible, but this merely makes explicit what is implicit in the Hebrew text. The addition of the noun “sun,” which is feminine gender in Hebrew, provides a subject for the third person feminine verb “had gone down.” The ancient Greek omits the words “which it had gone down, on the steps of Ahaz.” Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament, however, gives a {B} rating to the Masoretic Text. A Qumran manuscript and the Septuagint text of Isa 38.8 read “on the dial of the Ahaz roof chamber” (see 2 Kgs 23.12), and this is the basis for the translations “on the staircase to the terrace of Ahaz” (New American Bible) and “the steps to Ahaz’s roof-room” (New Jerusalem Bible; similarly Gray) instead of on the dial of Ahaz.
The Hebrew word translated dial is the same word rendered steps in this verse and verses 9-10 (also in 1 Kgs 10.19-20; 2 Kgs 9.13). In this context many languages will do well to translate dial as “steps” (Hobbs), “staircase” (New American Bible), or “stairway” (Good News Translation, New International Version, Revised English Bible) and explain the details in a footnote. Archaeological evidence suggests that the stairway referred to in this passage was one specially constructed to tell the time (see the comments on verse 9).
Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .