an aperture in the gnomon suitably arranged, the ray or
image of the Sun, whichever it was, would travel day by day up and down
such steps between solstice and solstice. We may conclude, therefore,
that the instrument which Hezekiah gazed at, and which is called in
Scripture, the "Dial" of Ahaz, was what the Greeks would have termed a
Heliotropion.

The historian's record is to the effect that on the day of Hezekiah's
recovery an extraordinary motion of the shadow was observed on the
"Steps of Ahaz" by the rising of the shadow "ten steps" from the point
to which it had "gone down with the Sun." This effect is spoken of not
as a miracle but as "a sign." It should also be remembered that the cure
of Hezekiah was effected not by a miracle but by a simple application of
a lump of figs. The promise of his recovery was confirmed by the motion
of the shadow as already stated. We are justified, therefore, in looking
for some ordinary natural phenomenon by which to account for this
peculiar motion on the dial, and something miraculous is not essential.
Dean Milman once suggested that the effect might have been produced "by
a cloud refracting the light." No doubt a dark cloud might produce an
apparent interference with the shadow, but it is well pointed out by
Bosanquet that such a cause as a cloud would have been so manifest to
everyone, and the effect so transient, that the phenomenon could hardly
have been referred to afterwards as it was in another place as "a wonder
that was done in the land." (2 Chron. xxxii. 31).

It becomes, therefore, alike an obvious and a simple explanation that a
shadow caused by the Sun might be deflected downwards on such an
instrument with a regular and steady motion by the Moon passing slowly
over the upper part of the Sun's disc, as Sun and Moon both approached
the meridian.

The critical question has now to be raised: "Can astronomers inform us
whether a considerable eclipse of the Sun occurred at the beginning of
the year 689 B.C. anywhere near noon and which was visible at
Jerusalem?" And the answer to this it is interesting to be able to say
is a plain and distinct affirmative. There was a large partial eclipse
of the Sun on January 11, 689 B.C., about 11.30 A.M., and it was the
upper limb which underwent eclipse.

This eclipse fulfils all the requirements of the case, both from the
historian's and the astronomer's point of view. It occurred about the
year fixed by Demetrius as that of He