DIAL (Heb. מַעֲלָה֮, H5092, a difficult root, one which is cognate to Akkad. mēlû, the maqtal, participial form of the verb elû, to ascend, to go up cognate to Heb. עָלָה, H6590, meaning to go up). The noun thus formed is used for “stairs” and often for a flight of stairs by which the shadow of the pillar or post nearby was measured. The pl., ma’^alōwṯ appears in 2 Kings 20:11 and Isaiah 38:8 in the narrative of a sign given to Hezekiah to prove the authenticity of Isaiah’s prophecy that God would heal him of his disease. In the Isaiah text the stairs are called by the name of their builder, “stairs of Ahaz,” and the term is tr. by the word “degrees” as a gradation. Although “dial” (KJV and RSV), strictly speaking, is not correct, “degrees” (JPS) is even less literal. The meaning is actually that of “marks” or “gradations” and should be understood as such.

Bibliography B. Landsberger, Der kultischer Kalendar der Babylonier und Assyrer, (1915); R. W. Sloley, “Primitive Methods of Measuring Time, with Special Reference to Egypt,” JEA XVII (1931), 166-178; S. Iwry, “The Qumran Isaiah and the End of the Dial of Ahaz,” BASOR, 147, Oct. (1957), 27-33; Y. Yadin, “The Dial of Ahaz,” Eretz-Israel, V sepher Mazar (1958), 83-90 (Heb. with Eng. summary.)