his gallant three hundred made their
onslaught on the host of the Midianites.

It was in the third, the morning watch, that "the Lord looked unto the
host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and
troubled the host of the Egyptians" as they pursued Israel into the
midst of the Red Sea. In this watch also, Saul surprised the Ammonites
as they besieged Jabesh-Gilead, and scattered them, "so that two of them
were not left together."

In the New Testament, the Roman method of dividing the night is adopted;
viz. into four watches. When the disciples were crossing the Sea of
Galilee in their little boat, and they had toiled all night in rowing
because the wind was contrary, it was in "the fourth watch of the night"
that Jesus came unto them.

There is no mention of any mechanical time-measurer in the Old
Testament, and in only one book is there mention in the English version
of the word "hour." Five times it is mentioned in the Book of Daniel as
the rendering of the Chaldean word _sha`ah_, which literally means "the
instant of time."

No mention either is made of the differing lengths of the days or nights
throughout the year--at midsummer the day is 14-1/4 hours long, and the
night 9-3/4. Job speaks, however, of causing "the day-spring to know its
place," which may well refer to the varying places along the eastern
horizon at which the sun rose during the course of the year. Thus in
mid-winter the sun rose 28 deg. south of the east point, or half a point
south of E.S.E. Similarly in midsummer it rose 28 deg. north of east, or
half a point north of E.N.E.[282:1]

The Babylonians divided the whole day interval into twelve _kasbu_, or
"double hours." Those again were divided into sixty parts, each equal to
two of our minutes; this being about the time that is required for the
disc of the sun to rise or set wholly. The Babylonian _kasbu_ was not
only a division of time, but a division of space, signifying the space
that might be marched in a _kasbu_ of time. Similarly we find, in the
Old Testament, the expression "a day's journey," or "three days'
journey," to express distance, and in the New Testament we find the same
idea applied to a shorter distance in the "sabbath-day's journey," which
was about two miles. But the Jews in New Testament times adopted, not
the Babylonian day of twelve hours, but the Egyptian of twenty-four. So
we find, in the parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard, mention made