Isaiah 38:7-8
make .............. then <07725> [I will bring.]
steps .... stairs ........... steps <04609 08121> [the sun dial. Heb. the degrees by, or, with the sun.]
Or, as the Hebrew might be rendered, "the steps of Ahaz." The researches of curious travellers in Hindostan, observes Bp. Stock, have lately discovered in that country, three observatories of similar form, the most remarkable of which is to be seen within four miles of Delhi, the ancient capital of the Mogul empire. A rectangled triangle, whose hypotenuse is a staircase, (apparently parallel to the axis of the earth,) bisects a zone, or coping of a wall, which wall connects the two terminating towers at right and left. The coping itself is of a circular form, and accurately graduated, to mark, by the gnomon above, the sun's progress before and after noon.