"And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What shall be the sign that the LORD will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the LORD the third day?"

"And Isaiah said, this sign shalt thou have of the LORD, that the LORD will do the thing that he hath spoken; shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees ?"

Ahaz, the father of Hezekiah, had put up a sun-dial, which was no doubt visible from the windows of the royal chamber where Hezekiah lay on his sick bed.

"And Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees; nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees."

"And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the LORD, and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz."*

was not then destroyed. Also, the invasion of the king of Assyria was in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah's reign; he has fifteen years added to his life, making twenty-nine, which was the length of his reign.

*This is the earliest mention of a "dial," and probably was derived by Ahaz from the Babylonians, from whom the Greeks acknowledged they received theirs. Ahaz was evidently fond of curious inventions, and gratified his taste even when in opposition to the precepts of the law, as when he sent from Damascus, a new pattern for an altar, and had it erected in the Temple. There is reason to believe, that the Egyptians understood the art of measuring the day by sun-dials, and used the Obelisks for that purpose, throwing their shadow over a plain, marked by certain divisions, and to this use besides ornament, the Emperor

Hezekiah recovered. Isaiah commanded a poultice of figs to be applied to the abscess which his disease had terminated in, and in three days the king was sufficiently restored to offer his sacrifice of thanksgiving in the Temple.

The fame of the wonderful deliverance of Hezekiah from this pestilential sickness, then regarded as incurable, as well as the awful destruction of his enemy, the hitherto invincible Sennacherib, spread into distant countries, and the king of Babylon, Beradoch Baladin, sent ambassadors to congratulate him on his recovery. Babylon having thrown off the dominion of the kings of Nineveh, the interests of both it and Judah were equally concerned in humbling the power of Sennacherib, which makes it probable that the real design of the embassy was to cement a close alliance with the victorious Augustus applied the two large Obelisks which he removed to Rome. With regard to the retrograde movement of the shadow, it is not necessary to suppose the sun moved, but only that the apparent light was obstructed by clouds, or the rays by some means refracted miraculously out of their true course. Josephus implies that the shadow moved forwards, and then backwards to the place it started from, and this would lessen the astronomical difficulty, while it would be equally a miraculous sign to Hezekiah, which is all that was asked by him. Yet, whatever may have been the exact nature of the phenomenon, its effects were surprizing; as we are told the report of the wonder done in the land, reached Babylon. II. Chron. xxxii. 31.

As there is no Hebrew word to signify a sun dial, and the word translated dial, means steps, or degrees, many commentators consider that the dial here mentioned, was only a pillar of steps, so artfully constructed as to throw the shadow of the steps in such a way as to mark the divisions of the day.

Hezekiah. To make intimate alliances with idolatrous nations was not, however, in strict conformity with the Law. The Israelites were commanded to abstain from wars of aggression and conquest, and to live at peace with every people, except the ancient inhabitants of Canaan; but they were a separate and distinct race, and were not to mingle in the contests of neighbouring nations, nor by forming connexions with them, put themselves in danger of copying their manners, and falling into their idolatrous practices. Yet was Hezekiah so much flattered by the respect shown him by the king of Babylon, that he lent a willing ear to his ambassadors, and to impress them with a high idea of his riches and power, he shewed them all his treasures, his silver and gold, and spices, and the armour he had laid up ready for war; and he took them besides over his kingdom, so that "there was nothing in all his dominion that Hezekiah shewed them not." His vain-glorious boasting was quickly rebuked by the prophet.

"What said these men, and from whence came they," he asked. And Hezekiah said, "They are come from a far country, even from Babylon."

And he said, "What have they seen in thine. house?"

And Hezekiah answered, "All the things that are in mine house they have seen; there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shewn them."

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Then said Isaiah, "Behold the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up to store unto this day, shall be carried into Babylon: nothing shall be left: saith the LORD."

The rest of the reign of Hezekiah was passed in uninterrupted peace, and the land enjoyed unusual prosperity. He was a prince of no remarkable attainments, but amiable and pious, and blessed with the highest wisdom of a prince of Judah, which consisted in a faithful regard to the religion and laws of Moses. Thus he lived happily, and died at the end of a reign of twenty-nine years, more regretted and honoured than any prince since the time of David.

While the kingdom of Judah thus flourished under Hezekiah, the kingdom of Israel suffered the final punishment of its idolatry. In the early part of this reign, the Ten Tribes were carried captive to Nineveh, to the history of which we now return.

This closes the Second Section of the history of Judah.

CHAPTER XVI.

KINGDOM OF JUDAH, SECOND SECTION.

REIGN OF JEHU: HE DESTROYS THE PROPHETS OF BAAL, BUT RETAINS THE GOLDEN CALVES. JEHOAHAZ. JOASH DEFEATS THE SYRIANS THREE TIMES. ELISHA DIES. JEROBOAM THE SECOND. INTERREGNUM. ZACHARIAH. SHALLUM. MENAHEM. PEKAHIAH. PEKAH. HOSHEA CARRIED CAPTIVE TO NINEVEH. ORIGIN OF THE SAMARITANS.

B. C.

II. Kings x.-xvii.

WE left the kingdom of Israel at the 884. close of the reign of Jehoram, who together with Ahaziah king of Judah, was slain by Jehu on the same day.

When Jehu had caused all the sons of the late king to be put to death, and had artfully involved in this act the chief men of the nation who had charge of them, as we related in a former chapter, his next care was to destroy the priests and prophets of Baal, and he devised the following artifice to secure them. He departed from Jezreel, where he had executed such terrible vengeance on the race of Ahab, and mounting his chariot drove towards Samaria. On his way he met forty-two of the kinsmen of the king of Judah, who ignorant of his death, were coming to salute the two kings, and the