dial

dial

A flat disk with numbers or other symbols around its edge. Though the sundial was known in antiquity, the word in the story of Hezekiah’s healing (2Kgs 20:11; Isa 38:8) probably refers only to a stairway whose steps were gradually shaded by a nearby object as the day progressed.

2Kgs 20:11

11The prophet Isaiah cried to the Lord; and he brought the shadow back the ten intervals, by which the sun had declined on the dial of Ahaz.

Isa 38:8

8See, I will make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the dial of Ahaz turn back ten steps.” So the sun turned back on the dial the ten steps by which it ha ... View more

HarperCollins Dictionary

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