We do not know how the staircase of Ahaz faced, but we can form some
rough idea from the known positions of the Temple and of the city of
David, and one or two little hints given us in the narrative itself. It
will be noted that Hezekiah uses the movement of the shadow downward, as
equivalent to its going forward. The going forward of course meant its
ordinary direction of motion at that time of day; so the return of the
shadow backward meant that the shadow went up ten steps, for in the Book
of Isaiah it speaks of the sun returning "ten degrees by which degrees
it was gone down." It was therefore in the afternoon, and the sun was
declining, when the sign took place. It is clear, therefore, that the
staircase was so placed that the shadow went down the stairs as the sun
declined in the sky. The staircase, therefore, probably faced east or
north-east, as it would naturally do if it led from the palace towards
the Temple. No doubt there was a causeway at the foot of this staircase,
and a corresponding ascent up the Temple hill on the opposite side of
the valley.

We can now conjecturally reproduce the circumstances. It was afternoon,
and the palace had already cast the upper steps of the staircase into
shadow. The sick king, looking longingly towards the Temple, could see
the lower steps still gleaming in the bright Judean sunshine. It was
natural therefore for him to say, when the prophet Isaiah offered him
his choice of a sign, "Shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or back
ten steps?" that it was "a light thing for the shadow to go down ten
steps: nay, but let the shadow return backward ten steps." It would be
quite obvious to him that a small cloud, suitably placed, might throw
ten additional steps into shadow.

It will be seen that we are left with several details undetermined. For
the staircase, wherever constructed, was probably not meant to act as a
sundial, and was only so used because it chanced to have some rough
suitability for the purpose. In this case the shadow will probably have
been thrown, not by a properly constructed gnomon, but by some building
in the neighbourhood. And as we have no record of the direction of the
staircase, its angle of inclination, its height, and the position of the
buildings which might have cast a shadow upon it, we are without any
indication to guide us.

When the queen of Sheba came to visit king Solomon, and saw all his
magnificence, one of the things which specially imp