[518] The LXX. calls "the stairs" ἀναβαθμοὺς τοῦ οἴκου τοῦ πατρός σου, and so, too, Josephus (Antt., X. ii. 1). The Targum calls them "an hour-stone." Symmachus has, στρέψω τὴν σκίαν τῶν γραμμῶν ἥ κατέβη ἐν ὡρολογίῳ Ἀχάζ.
[519] It should, however, be observed that on the question of priority critics are divided. Grotius, Vitringa, Paulus, Drechsler, etc., thought that the account in the Book of Isaiah is the original; De Wette, Maurer, Koster, Winer, Driver, etc., regard that account as a later abbreviation, perhaps from a common source.
[520] See Professor Lumby, ad loc.
[521] There is an exactly similar sun-dial not far from Delhi.
[522] Journ. of Asiatic Soc., xv. 286-293.
[523] Figs have a recognised use for imposthumes. See Dioscorides and Pliny quoted in Celsius, Hierobot., ii. 373. In the passage of Berachoth quoted above, Hezekiah in his sickness asks Isaiah to give him his daughter in marriage, that he may have an heir. Isaiah replies that the decree of his death is irrevocable. The king bids Isaiah depart, and says (quoting Job xiii. 15) that a man must not despair, even if a sword is laid on his neck.
[524] Comp. Psalm xlii. 4.
[525] Isa. xxxviii. 10-20.
[526] The Babylonian form of his name is Marduk-habal-iddi-na—i.e., "Merodach gave a son." He is the Mardokempados of the Ptolemaic Canon, and the second fragment of his reign (six months) is mentioned by Polyhistor (ap. Euseb.). Josephus calls him Baladan (Antt., X. ii. 2). He was originally the prince of the Chaldæan Bit Yakîm. Sargon calls him "Merodach-Baladan, the foe, the perverse, who, contrary to the will of the great gods, ruled as king at Babylon." He displaced him for a time by "Belibus, the son of a wise man, whom one had reared like a little dog" (as we might say "like a tame cat") "in my palace" (Schrader, ii. 32). In the Assyrian records he is often called (by mistake?) "the son of Yakim." For the adventures of the Babylonian hero, see Schrader, K. A. T., 213 ff., 224 ff., 227, and in Riehm, Handwörterbuch, ii. 982.
[527] Isa. xiv. 4, xiii. 19.