Andent portaUe SandLUs.
lowed into the stone, and the stone cut down to as ib- gle." This kind of sun-dial was portable, and did oit require to be constnicted on or for a particular spct t? which it was subsequently confined, and, tfac^eldre. one ready-made might easily be brought on a esisci from Babylon to Ahaz. If the instrmnent used m t^ instance were brought from Babylon, we see the rei- son why the king of Babylon was so peculiarly voa- estcd in the event (2 ^ings xx, 12). See AhIz.
The chief difficulty in the case of the dial of Aim is to understand what is meant by the peculiar teres in which it is expressed, THK r'!^?^ the d^raar or steps of Ahaz. They may mean lines or figures ob i dial-plate, or on a pavement, or the steps to the pilace of Ahaz, or some steps or staircase he had erected dse>
DIAL
781
DIAL
lere (see Carpzov, Apparat, Hittoric, CrU. Lips. IS, p. 852, etc.). The Sept. in Isaiah reads dva» OfjLoi>^ Tov oIkov tov varpo^ aov, " the steps or stairs
tlie house of thy father." Josepbus also says (tepe or degrees in his house'* {Ant, x, 2, 1). The laldee renders the passage in Kings, K^?^ *|^K, loar-stone," and gives the same meaning to "the pars'* (2 Kings iz, 18), and renders Isa. xxxviii, 8,
K??^ 1?^ I^!>^2Ca, " on the shadow of the stone liours.*' Symmachus most certainly understood a a-dial; aTpkyj/w rijv aKtuv rtav ypaftfitJv ij Kartfirj
topoXoyitft 'Axa^y ^* I will cause to return the shad- r of the degrees which (shadow) is gone down on the U. of Ahaz :" and so Jerome renders it Horoloffium, . von Gumpach's opinion (Zekrechmmg der Babylo- 77*, Heidelb. 1852, p. 25) is that it was an accurate and ientific apparatus, indicating the half hours by the Incidence of the shadow of the upright pole or gno- on with the edge of the several "degrees** or steps, mewhat in the manner of the subjoined figure. Mr.
Supposed Form of the Dial of Ahaz.
ayard is favorable to the conjecture of Von Gumpach lat it was a present to Ahaz from Tiglath-pileser ; and e compares it with the presumed form of the tower of •elus, which may have been constructed in part for as- x>nomical purposes {Nia, and Bab. p. 424 sq.). On the
/
i _
'iastem Face of the Birs Nimroad, with propoeed Restoration.
rhole, however, the dial of Ahaz seems to have been a istinct contrivance rather than any part of a house, t would also seem probable, from the circumstances, hat it was of such a size, and so placed, that Hezeki- h, now convalescent (Isa. xxxviii, 21, 22), but not perfectly recovered, could witness the miracle fhmi lis chamber or pavilion. May it not have been sita- ite ^Mn the middleC court'* mentioned 2 Kings xx, 4? The cut given below presents a dial discovered in Hin-
>^
Indian Son^UaL
dostan, near Delhi, the ancient capital of the Mogul empire, whose construction would well suit the circum- stances recorded of the dial of Ahaz. It seems to have answered the double purpose of an observatory and a
dial — a rectangled hexangle, whose hypothenuse is a staircase, apparently parallel to the axis of the earth, and bisects a zone or coping of a wall, which wall con- nects the two terminating towers right and left. The coping itself is of a circular form, and accurately grad- uated to mark, by the shadow of the gnomon above, the sun's progress before and after noon; for when the sun is in the zenith, he shines directly on the stair- case, and the shadow falls beyond the coping. AJlat surface on the top of the stairccue, and a gnomon, fitted the building for the purpose of an observatory. Ac- cording to the known laws ofr^ctction^ a cloud or body of air of different density from the common atmos- phere, interposed between the gnomon and the coping of the dial-plate below, would, if the cloud were denser than the atmosphere, cause the shadow to recede Arom the perpendicular height of the staircase, and, of course, to reascend the steps on the coping, by which it had before noon gone down ; and if the cloud were rarer, a contrary effect would take place (see bishop Stock's Transl, of Isaiahy Bath, 1808,*p. 109). Such a building might also be called " a house.** It agrees also with Adam Clarke's supposition that "the <to»r«'* were really **a dial," and probably this very dial, on which, as being in the most public place, or rather on the platform on the top of which they set Jehu, while they proclaimed him king by sound of trumpet" (Com- mentary at 2 Kings ix, 18). Bishop Stock's specula- tion that the retrogression of the shadow might be ef- fected by refiraction is supported by a natural phenom- enon of the kind on record. On the 27th of March, 1703, P. Romauld, prior of the cloister of Metz, made the observation that, owing to such a refraction of the solar rays in the higher regions of the atmosphere, in connection with the appearance of a cloud, the shadow on his dial deviated an hour and a half (Bosenmfiller). The phenomenon on the dial of Ahaz, however, was doubtless of a miraculous nature, even should such a medium of the miracle be admitted : nothing less than a divine communication could have enabled Isaiah to predict its occurrence at that time and place ; besides, he gave the king his own choice whether the shadow should advance or retire ten degrees. There seems, however, to be no necessity for seeking any medium for this miracle, and certainly no necessity for suppos- ing any actual interference with the revolution of the earth, or the position of the sun. In the more dis- tinct and ample account of it in 2 Kings, it is simply said that the Lord, at the prayer of Isaiah, brought the ^adow ten degrees backward. Adopting the pres- ent state of the text in the parallel passage, Isa. xxxviii, 8, it is observable that what is called the sun in one part of the verse is called the shadow in the other. It is certainly as phQosophical to speak of the sun returning, as it is of his setting and rising. Thus the miracle, firom all the accounts of it, might consist only of the retrogression of the shadow ten degrees, by a simple act of Almighty power, without any me- dium, or, at most, by that of refhicting those rays only which fell upon the dial. It is not said that any time was lost to the inhabitants of the world at large ; it was not even observed by the astronomers of Baby- lon, for the deputation came to inquire concerning the wonder that was done in the Icmd, It was temporary, local, and confined to the observation of Hezekiah and his court, being designed chiefly for the satisfaction of that monarch. It is remarkable that no instrument for keeping time is mentioned in the Scripture before the dial of Ahaz (about B.C. 700); nor does it appear that the Jews generally, even after this period, divided their day into hours. The dial of Ahaz was probably an object only of curious recreation, or served at most to regulate the occupations of the palace. Mr. Bosan- quet, in a curious paper read before the Asiatic Soci- ety, endeavors to make out a synchronism between the reigns of Hezekiah and the Assyrian kings by means of the astronomical event in question. He