in [R.V. on] the dial of Ahaz] As will be seen from the margin of
R.V., the word here rendered 'dial' is the same which in the previous
verses the Revisers have translated 'steps'. Also wherever the word
is used elsewhere, and it is not of rare occurrence, it always refers to
steps or stairs. It seems therefore best to consider that the contrivance
by which the time of day was marked in this case was something which
could be called a 'staircase ' or 'steps '. We must think too of the sign
as given to Hezekiah while he lay upon what had been till a short space
before, the bed of sickness and expected death. We must therefore
conclude that the contrivance, whatever it was, must have been one



v. II.] II. KINGS, XX. 213

which the king could see from his chamber. Probably it would be in
the court of the palace, and there it might take the form of a staircase-
like erection, witn a gnomon or projecting shaft, so contrived that the
shadow thrown by it should fall along the steps and grow shorter or
longer as the sun rose or fell in the heavens. Or it might be a staircase
proper, erected on one side of the court, and a staff or pole might, be
so fixed as to cast a shadow which by the motion of the sun would
descend or rise on the steps. If such a staircase existed on the opposite
side of the court to the king's chamber (and such external staircases
were very common) the means by which the sign should be given were
ready to hand. Several kinds of sundials have been suggested which
would fulfil the conditions, and Ahaz from his connexion with the
Assyrians may have become acquainted with them, for they were first
invented by the Babylonians. But to none of these instruments could
we easily apply the word 'steps' so as to call the contrivance, as the
Hebrew does, * the steps of Ahaz*.
