While eclipses may not be mentioned explicitly in the Hebrew Bible, Frederick Baltz suggests there might be an oblique, and perhaps unwitting, reference to one in the story of King Hezekiah, a heroic figure who saved his people from the Assyrian onslaught and led them away from idolatry. The books of Kings, Isaiah, and Chronicles all tell of Hezekiah’s illness and miraculous recovery:

The biblical account relates that Isaiah the prophet was sent to Hezekiah to inform him that he would die from his illness. Hezekiah prayed for healing, and Isaiah had not yet left the palace when he was sent back to the king with a different message: the Lord would heal him and give him another fifteen years of life. A sign was to confirm the healing. A shadow could move forward or backward on an outdoor stairway. Hezekiah chose for the shadow to move backward, [and so it did]. (2 Kings 20:10).

On March 5, 702 BCE, the sixteenth year before Hezekiah’s death, a prominent solar eclipse appeared over the Middle East. Its path crossed the Arabian Peninsula, and the obscuration of the sun over Israel was more than 60 percent.

If a stairway had been engulfed in darkness and then restored to daylight, the shadow would have appeared to retreat. A shadow wave, produced by an eclipse, may also have given the appearance of a shadow retreating. If you are in the path of the eclipse on August 21, you, too, may be able to see this rare biblical sign.

Yesterday, the Iranian foreign minister flew to Geneva to meet with European diplomats. President Trump, meanwhile, indicated that cease-fire negotiations might soon begin with Iran, which would presumably involve Tehran agreeing to make concessions regarding its nuclear program, while Washington pressures Israel to halt its military activities. According to Israeli media, Iran already began putting out feelers to the U.S. earlier this week. Aviram Bellaishe considers the purpose of these overtures:

The regime’s request to return to negotiations stems from the principle of deception and delay that has guided it for decades. Iran wants to extricate itself from a situation of total destruction of its nuclear facilities. It understands that to save the nuclear program, it must stop at a point that would allow it to return to it in the shortest possible time. So long as the negotiation process leads to halting strikes on its military capabilities and preventing the destruction of the nuclear program, and enables the transfer of enriched uranium to a safe location, it can simultaneously create the two tracks in which it specializes—a false facade of negotiations alongside a hidden nuclear race.