“409. THE DIAL OF AHAZ—2 KINGS 20 ISAIAH 38”
The Dial of Ahaz—2 Kings 20 Isaiah 38
It must have been very soon after the ruin of Sennacherib’s host, if not just before that event, and while the Assyrians were absent in Egypt, that Hezekiah fell sick of a disease which he knew to be mortal. The prospect of death at such a time was very grievous to this good king. The personal grounds are obvious; but there were also public grounds which might render the prospect of dissolution distressing even to one to whom death itself had no terrors. He had no son: for it is certain that Manasseh, who succeeded him, was not then born; and the land had not yet begun to recover the late ravages—so that his death would have left the nation in a distracted condition, and would probably have exposed it to many new calamities.
He prayed, therefore, to be spared; and his prayer was granted, the prophet Isaiah being sent to tell him that fifteen years should be added to his life. To assure him that this recovery was indeed miraculous—not a chance, but a token of the Lord’s special favor to him—and to give him due confidence in the promise, a token was given in the going backward of the sun’s shadow, “ten degrees upon the dial of Ahaz.”
This is the first time that we read in Scripture of any instrument for measuring time; and its connection with the name of Ahaz, is another instance of the ingenious tastes of that unhappy king. It is also the first mention of a dial in history. This may, however, like the tasteful altar which he saw and fancied at Damascus, have been a foreign curiosity, which, or the idea of which, he introduced, rather than an invention of his own, or made under his auspices.
Indeed, it is a somewhat remarkable corroboration of the usual ascription of the art of dialling to the Chaldeans, that this first scriptural mention of the subject connects it with the name of a king whose personal intercourse with the Assyrian neighbors of the Chaldeans at Damascus, as well as his fondness for foreign novelties, are equally notorious. In connection with this point of the case, it is worthy of further note, that the princes of Babylon sent to inquire of Hezekiah respecting the wonder that had been done in the land.
Strictly, however, we know not that this was a dial. The Hebrew language has no word for such an instrument. The word so translated means “steps,” or “degrees”—so that it reads “the steps” or “degrees of Ahaz.” This has led many to suppose that this famous “dial” was no other than a kind of stair, framed and proportioned with such art, that the shadow upon the steps, or cast by the steps, expressed the time of the day and the course of the sun.
Among the opinions of the Jewish Rabbis on this subject, is that of Rabbi Elias Chomer, quoted with approbation by Grotius, that the dial of Ahaz was a concave hemisphere, in the midst of which was a globe, the shadow of which fell upon several lines engraved upon the concavity of the hemisphere, and which lines are said to have been twenty-eight in number.
This description corresponds nearly with that which the Greeks knew by the name of scapha, or boat, and hemisphairion, or hemisphere, and the invention of which they ascribe to the Chaldeans, having been introduced to their knowledge by Anaximander, who travelled in Chaldea at the time of the captivity.
The difficulty in the present case is to understand what is meant by the steps or degrees of Ahaz. They may mean lines or figures on a dial-plate of any kind, or on a pavement; or they may signify a set of steps to the palace of Ahaz, or to a staircase which stood apart elsewhere. On the whole, however, the “steps of Ahaz” seem to have been some distinct contrivance constructed to mark the divisions of time, rather than any part of the house, accidentally found to be serviceable for that purpose. It stood probably in one of the courts of the palace—for it must have been so placed, and was of such dimensions, that the king, now convalescent but not perfectly recovered, could view the phenomenon from his chamber or pavilion. May it not have been situated in the “middle court” mentioned in 2Ki_20:4?
Great Wall Dial near Delhi
Although we do not conceive that we are bound to the literal signification of “steps,” yet if it can be shown that a kind of stair, scientifically constructed, may be or has been used for the purpose indicated, we should be inclined to give it the preference. Now, this is actually the case, as a single glance at the annexed engraving will show. It represents a sort of dial in Hindustan, near Delhi, the construction of which would exceedingly well suit all the circumstances recorded respecting the dial of Ahaz. It seems framed to answer the double purpose of an observatory and a dial. It is a rectangled hexangle, whose hypotenuse 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 upon the coping. A flat surface on the top of the staircase of the gnomon fitted the building for the purposes of an observatory.
As respects the miracle itself, the fact is clear that the shadow was made to recede ten degrees upon the dial. Of the way in which this was accomplished nothing is said—nothing offered to our belief. We can see that there are several modes, all miraculous, in which it might be done. Various agencies pray be suggested; and it may be that there was no agency at all, but that it was brought to pass directly by the simple operation of the Divine will.
Some have supposed that, to produce this effect, the earth was made to retrograde upon its axis for a space corresponding to that marked by ten degrees upon the dial. This would certainly have produced the effect intended; but it would doubtless have produced something more. Such a reversal of the order of nature, and disturbance of the solar system, could hardly have happened without such results as would be remembered through the world to the end of time. Yet history records no such event; and its local character is indirectly recognized in the fact that the prince of Babylon sent to inquire respecting the wonder that had been done in the land. Besides, in the course of human conduct it is not deemed wise “to leap over the house to unbar the little gate;” neither do we find that the Almighty is ever redundant in manifestations of power, but rather sparing—employing just so much power, and no more, as may be needful to produce the intended result. It is therefore not likely, judging from the analogy of the Divine operations, that the earth would be sent backward in its course to produce an effect which might be accomplished by means as sufficient, and as truly miraculous, though with less derangement to those laws on which God has established the universe, and which he does not himself disturb without a most adequate cause. Note: See also Twenty-First Week, Saturday.
In the case before us, the effect upon the shadow might have been produced by a miraculous deflection of the rays which fell upon the dial, so as to throw back the shadow to the extent required. This also best agrees with the statement of the sacred writer, who speaks only of the retrogression of the shadow.
There are some who suppose that the phenomenon might have been produced by the simple refraction of the rays, through the sudden interposition of a different medium. That such refraction takes place when rays of light pass through a denser medium, is a well-known physical fact. The most striking illustration is perhaps found in the observation made, on the 27th of March, 1703, by P. Romauld, prior of the cloister of Metz, that, owing to such refraction in the higher regions of the atmosphere, in connection with the appearance of a cloud, the shadow of his dial deviated an hour and a half.
However produced, the retrogression of the shadow upon the dial of Ahaz was certainly of a miraculous nature. Nothing less than this could have been satisfactory to Hezekiah as a sign; and nothing but a divine communication could have enabled the prophet to predict its occurrence at that time and place. Besides, the king was allowed to make his choice, whether the shadow should go backward or forward; and he avowedly chose what appeared to him the most impossible to any power less than God’s.
Autor: JOHN KITTO