ot allow him in all above twenty-nine years and
a few months; whereas the first assault of Sennacherib was on the
fourteenth year of Hezekiah, but the destruction of Sennacherib's army
was not till his eighteenth year.

[5] As to this regress of the shadow, either upon a sun-dial, or the
steps of the royal palace built by Ahaz, whether it were physically done
by the real miraculous revolution of the earth in its diurnal motion
backward from east to west for a while, and its return again to its old
natural revolution from west to east; or whether it were not apparent
only, and performed by an aerial phosphorus, which imitated the
sun's motion backward, while a cloud hid the real sun; cannot now be
determined. Philosophers and astronomers will naturally incline to the
latter hypothesis. However, it must be noted, that Josephus seems to
have understood it otherwise than we generally do, that the shadow
was accelerated as much at first forward as it was made to go backward
afterward, and so the day was neither longer nor shorter than usual;
which, it must be confessed agrees best of all to astronomy, whose
eclipses, older than the time were observed at the same times of the day
as if this miracle had never happened. After all, this wonderful signal
was not, it seems, peculiar to Judea, but either seen, or at least heard
of, at Babylon also, as appears by 2 Chronicles 32:31, where we learn
that the Babylonian ambassadors were sent to Hezekiah, among other
things, to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land.

[6] This expression of Josephus, that the Medes, upon this destruction
of the Assyrian army, "overthrew" the Assyrian empire, seems to be too
strong; for although they immediately cast off the Assrian yoke, and set
up Deioces, a king of their own, yet it was some time before the Medes
and Babylonians overthrew Nineveh, and some generations ere the
Medes and Persians under Cyaxares and Cyrus overthrew the Assyrian or
Babylonian empire, and took Babylon.

[7] It is hard to reconcile the account in the Second Book of Kings
[ch. 23:11] with this account in Josephus, and to translate this passage
truly in Josephus, whose copies are supposed to be here imperfect.
However, the general sense of both seems to be this: That there were
certain chariots, with their horses, dedicated to the idol of the sun,
or to Moloch; which idol might be carried about in procession, and
worshipped by the people; which chariots were now "t