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identity of the dial of Ahaz, than to furnish such a brief statement concerning ancient dials in general, as may furnish rather an illustrative than an explanatory view of the subject.

The present mention of a dial is the first on record, and enables us to find a very early point in the history of the invention, without affording any clue to its origin. This dial seems, however, from the manner in which it is mentioned, to have been considered a curious and rare thing, since it was distinguished by the name of the king by whom it had been erected. It would seem, from the fact, that this king Ahaz sent from Damascus the pattern of an altar which he saw there, with directions that one like it should be made at Jerusalem, that he was what is called a man of taste, a collector of curiosities, and so on. Probably the dial was one of his curiosities, and perhaps originated like the altar-being either imported from abroad, or made after the pattern of one that he had seen at Damascus or elsewhere. The Jews were not remarkable for their inventions; and it is by no means necessary to suppose that the use of sun-dials originated among them. Doubtless, however, they had those common and popular methods of measuring time by the length, inclination, and return of the shadows of objects, which in all times and countries have served for that purpose, and which continue in use among the peasantry of the most cultivated nations.

We very much incline to the opinion, which we find advocated by several continental writers, that the first contrivances for a more precise measurement of time were pillars, set up in the midst of an open area, on the pavement of which were marked different lines, which furnished the necessary indications as the shadow of the column fell successively upon them. They were thus artificial gnomons; and there is some tolerable, though not very positive, evidence for the conclusion, that the famous obelisks of the Egyptians were intended for the same purpose. That pillars were used as gnomons in Greece and Italy we know; and nothing seems more likely than that, when Augustus applied to this purpose the two grand obelisks which he caused to be removed from Egypt to Rome, he merely continued the use to which they had previously been devoted. Josephus quotes a curious passage from Apion, which, if we could clearly understand it, might throw some light on the subject. We give the explanation (for such it is, rather than a translation) after Whiston, which we think assigns the only intelligible sense which the passage will bear. Apion charges Moses, that he set up pillars in the room of gnomons (obelisks), under which he made a cavity like that of a boat, and the shadow from the top of the pillar fell into the cavity, and went round therein with the course of the sun. Apion mentions this to shew that Moses imitated (or, as in this instance, improved upon) the custom of the Egyptians; which Josephus strongly denies, as well as his claim to this invention or imitation. What is said about Moses is of course an utter fiction; but the passage is of value, as implying that the Egyptians really did use their obelisks for the purpose indicated. We have the rather dwelt on this, not only on account of the antiquity of the reference, but because it exhibits one of the alternatives which have been used to explain the dial of Ahaz. It is right to add that the Hebrew has no word to express a dial; and the word in the text has not that force, its meaning being steps or degrees' (niy maʼaloth)—' the degrees or steps of Ahaz,' which has led a very large class of commentators, ancient and modern, to conclude that this famous 'dial' was nothing else than a stair framed with so much art and proportion, that the shadow upon the steps expressed the hours and the course of the

sun.

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The application of the principle of the gnomon to an artificial dial would naturally be suggested by many circumstances. One of the explanations which the Rabbins give of the dial of Ahaz is, that it was a concave hemisphere, in the middle of which was a globe, the shadow of

which fell upon diverse lines engraved on the concavity. They add, that these lines were twenty-eight. This will strike the reader as an adaptation of the sort of invention which Apion ascribed to Moses-falsely, indeed, but in such a manner as demonstrated that such a contrivance did actually exist. This will appear the more plainly, and the use of such a dial will be illustrated by the fact, that the pillar or obelisk used as a gnomon was ultimately, as an improvement, surmounted by a ball supported on a very delicate stem, and so elevated that its shadow was thrown upon the neighbouring soil with great precision, and quite disengaged from that of the pillar by which it was supported. The ball, however, was by no means an essential part of the concave hemispherical dials founded on this idea, a simple stylus being more usually employed to cast the required shadow. The first dials, properly so called (which appear to have been of this description), were, by the general confession of antiquity, the invention of the Babylonians, from whom the western nations derived them, as the Greeks allowed that they did. Anaximander, who introduced the first dial into Greece, had travelled in Chaldea in the time of the Captivity. His dial marked the equinoxes, the solstices, and by their means the seasons. It belonged to the class of which we are speaking, called by the Greeks σráon, a boat, and huopaipiov, a hemisphere. The Egyptians also had such dials. Their solar equinoctial dial was of this class, as was also that with which Eratosthenes metred or verified the measure of the earth. Although these dials were obviously, in their origin, equinoctial dials, the application of their principle to horary indications is obvious, and was actually effected. We incline to suspect that the principle of the dial was known previously to the Egyptians, but that its detailed application was invented by the Babylonians.

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The difficulty in the present text really is to understand what is meant by the degrees or steps of Ahaz.' They may mean lines or figures on a dial-plate, or on a pavement, or the steps to the palace of Ahaz, or some steps or staircase he had erected elsewhere. The Septuagint in the parallel place of Isaiah reads the steps or stairs of the house of thy father.' Josephus also says, ' steps or degrees in his house' (Antiq. x. 1, 91). The Chaldee renders the passage here hour stone,' and gives the same meaning to the stairs' in 2 Kings ix. 13, and renders Isaiah xxxviii. 8, by the shadow of the stone of hours.' Symmachus most certainly understood a sun-dial. I will cause to return the shadow of the degrees which (shadow) is gone down on the dial of Ahaz:' and so Jerome renders it, 'horologium.' On the whole, the dial of Ahaz seems to have been a distinct contrivance, rather than any part of a house. It would also seem probable, from the circumstances, that it was of such a size, and so placed, that Hezekiah, now convalescent, Isaiah xxxviii., but not perfectly recovered, could witness the miracle from his chamber or pavilion: Shall, (hatz-tzel) the or this shadow,' etc. May it not have been situated in the middle court,' mentioned 2 Kings xx. 4? The annexed cut presents a sort of dial in Hindostan near Delhi, whose construction would well enough suit the circumstances 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 connects the two terminating towers right and left. The coping itself is of a circular form, and accurately graduated 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 staircase, and the shadow falls beyond the coping. 'A flat surface on the top of the staircase, and a gnomon, fitted the building for the purpose of an observatory. According to the known laws of refraction, a cloud or body of air of different density from the common atmosphere, interposed between the gnomon and the coping of the dial-plate below, would, if the cloud were denser than the atmosphere, cause the

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shadow to recede from 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 Translation of Isaiah, Bath, 1803, p. 109.) Such a building might even be called a house.' It agrees also with Adam Clarke's supposition, that the stairs were really a dial.' Bishop Stock's speculation that the retrogression of the shadow might be effected by refraction, is supported by a natural phenomenon of the kind on record. On the 27th of March, 1703, St. Romuald, 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. 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 supposing any actual interference with the revolution of the earth, or the position of the sun. In the present text, it is simply said that the Lord, at the prayer of Isaiah, brought the shadow ten degrees backward. The words in Isaiah xxxviii. 6, are wanting in three of Dr. Kennicott's MSS., and originally in two of De Rossi's; and the words the shadow of the degrees which is gone down in the sun-dial of Ahaz' are more correctly rendered on the margin degrees by or with the sun,' i. e. by means of the progress of the sun. Even if the mention of the sun be retained, as in Ecclus. xlviii. 23, it is only fair to understand the words in their popular sense, the solar rays, or such a recession of the shadow as

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would have been occasioned by an actual recession of the sun. Adopting the present state of the text, 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 philosophical to speak of the sun returning, as it is of his setting and rising. Thus the miracle, from 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 medium, or, at most, by that of refracting 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 Babylon, for the deputation came to inquire concerning the wonder that was done in the land.' It was temporary, local, and confined to the observation of Hezekiah and his court, being designed chiefly for the satisfaction of that monarch. See on this subject Calmet's Dissertation, in his Commentaire; Goguet's Origine des Lois, ii. 231-234; Beckmann's Inventions; the articles Gnomon' and 'Gnomonique' in Encyclopédie Methodique; and Denham's article Dial' in Kitto's Cyclopædia.

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12. Berodach-baladan....king of Babylon.'-This is the first king of Babylon mentioned in Scripture, his predecessors having been, apparently, præfects or viceroys to the Assyrian kings. This is he who asserted his independence, as mentioned in the last note on the preceding chapter. After his death the affairs of his kingdom would appear to have fallen into much disorder, if we may judge from the recurrence of five reigns, and two interregnums of ten years each, in the twenty-nine years which passed before Esarhaddon succeeded in again bringing it under the Assyrian yoke. Berodach had the same political interest as Hezekiah, in opposition to Assyria; and it is probable that the ostensible embassy of congratulation had the real object of bringing the king of Judah into an alliance against the common enemy. [APPENDIX, No. 54.]

CHAPTER XXI.

1 Manasseh's reign. 3 His great idolatry. 10 His wickedness causeth prophecies against Judah. 17 Amon succeedeth him. 19 Amon's wicked reign. 23 He being slain by his servants, and those murderers slain by the people, Josiah is made king. MANASSEH 'was twelve years old when he began to reign, and reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hephzi-bah.

2 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, after the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.

3 For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove, as did Ahab king of Israel; and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them.

4 And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD said, 'In Jerusalem will I put my name.

5 And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD.

6 And he made his son pass through the fire, and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.

7 And he set a graven image of the grove that he had made in the house, of which the LORD said to David, and to Solomon his son, 'In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever:

8 Neither will I make the feet of Israel move any more out of the land which I gave their fathers; only if they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them.

9 But they hearkened not: and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than did the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the children of Israel.

10 ¶ And the LORD spake by his servants the prophets, saying,

11 Because Manasseh king of Judah hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, which were before him, and hath made Judah also to sin with his idols:

Israel, Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle.

13 And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down.

14 And I will forsake the remnant of mine inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies ;

15 Because they have done that which was evil in my sight, and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt, even unto this day.

16 Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem 'from one end to another; beside his sin wherewith he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in the sight of the LORD.

17 Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and all that he did, and his sin that he sinned, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

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18 And Manasseh slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza: and Amon his son reigned in his stead.

19 Amon was twenty and two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah.

20 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, as his father Manasseh did.

21 And he walked in all the way that his father walked in, and served the idols that his father served, and worshipped them:

22 And he forsook the LORD God of his fathers, and walked not in the way of the LORD.

23 And the servants of Amon conspired against him, and slew the king in his own house.

24 And the people of the land slew all them that had conspired against king Amon; and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his stead.

25 ¶ Now the rest of the acts of Amon which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

26 And he was buried in his sepulchre in the garden of Uzza: and "Josiah his son

12 Therefore thus saith the LORD God of reigned in his stead.

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CHAP. XXI.-The parallel chapter is 2 Chron. xxxiv.; and although there is considerable difference, the resemblance between the two parallel chapters is considerably

greater than in some of those which have preceded. See the notes on the chapter referred to.

Verse 7. He set a graven image of the grove.'-See the second note on Judges vi. 25. [APPENDIX, No. 55.]

CHAPTER XXII.

1 Josiah's good reign. 3 He taketh care for the repair of the temple. 8 Hilkiah having found the book of the law, Josiah sendeth to Huldah to enquire of the Lord. 15 Huldah prophesieth the destruction of Jerusalem, but respite thereof in Josian's time.

JOSIAH 'was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath.

2 And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left.

3 And it came to pass in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of the LORD, saying,

4 Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may sum the silver which is brought into the house of the LORD, which the keepers of the 'door have gathered of the people:

5 And let them deliver it into the hand of the doers of the work, that have the oversight of the house of the LORD: and let them give it to the doers of the work which is in the house of the LORD, to repair the breaches of the house,

6 Unto carpenters, and builders, and masons, and to buy timber and hewn stone to repair the house.

7 Howbeit there was no reckoning made with them of the money that was delivered into their hand, because they dealt faithfully.

8 And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. 9 And Shaphan the scribe came to the king, and brought the king word again, and said, Thy servants have gathered the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of them that do the work, that have the oversight of the house of the LORD.

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10 And Shaphan the scribe shewed the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath delivered me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king. 11 And it came to pass, when the king had

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heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes.

12 And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and scribe, and Asahiah a servant of the king's, Achbor the son of Michaiah, and Shaphan the saying,

13 Go ye, enquire of the LORD for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found for great is the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us.

14 So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asahiah, went unto Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the 'wardrobe; (now she dwelt in Jerusalem 'in the college ;) and they communed with her.

15 And she said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Tell the man that sent you to me,

16 Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah hath read:

17 Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this place, and shall not be quenched.

18 But to the king of Judah which sent you to enquire of the LORD, thus shall ye say to him, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, As touching the words which thou hast heard;

19 Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the LORD, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the LORD.

20 Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place. And they brought the king word again.

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CHAPS. xxii. and xxiii.-These two chapters, embracing the account of Josiah's reign, correspond to 2 Chron. xxxiv. and xxxv. The two narratives are nearly of the same extent, and include generally the same facts related with considerable variation of language, and some of circumstances. The difference is chiefly that the account of the great passover kept by Josiah occupies only three verses in Kings (xxiii. 21-23), whilst in Chronicles

it occupies the first nineteen verses of chap. xxxv.; but, on the other hand, the Chronicles report very summarily in five verses (xxxiv. 3-7) the reformations which are described in much detail in sixteen verses (5-20) of chap. xxiii. of the present book. To this portion we shall therefore confine our present attention, referring to Chronicles for such observations as the other parts of the narrative may require.

CHAPTER XXIII.

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1 Josiah causeth the book to be read in a solemn assembly. 3 He reneweth the covenant of the Lord. 4 He destroyeth idolatry. 15 He burneth dead men's bones upon the altar of Beth-el, as was foreprophesied. 21 He keepeth a most solemn passover. He putteth away witches and all abomination. 26 God's final wrath against Judah. 29 Josiah, provoking Pharaoh-nechoh, is slain at Megiddo. 31 Jehoahaz, succeeding him, is imprisoned by Pharaohnechoh, who made Jehoiakim king. 36 Jehoiakim's wiched reign.

AND 'the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.

2 And the king went up into the house of the LORD, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, 'both small and great: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the LORD.

3 And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people And all the people stood to the covenant.

4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Beth-el.

5 And he put down the 'idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the 'planets, and to all the host of heaven.

6 And he brought out the 'grove from the

12 Chron. 34. 30.

5 Or, twelve signs, or, constellations. 10 Or, ran from thence.

house of the LORD, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people.

7 And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the LORD, where the women wove 'hangings for the grove.

8 And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beer-sheba, and brake down the high places of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man's left hand at the gate of the city.

9 Nevertheless the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren.

10 And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.

11 And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire.

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2 Heb. from small even unto great. Chap. 21. 7. 7 Heb. houses. 11 That is, the mount of Olives.

4 Heb. chemarim. 9 Chap. 21. 5, 12 1 Kings 11. 7.

8 Or, eunuch, or, officer.

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