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cold as the day is the reverse, a peculiarity of climate from which poor Jacob suffered thousands of years ago (Genesis 31:40). To this coldness of the night air the indispensable watering of all plant-life is due. The winds, loaded with moisture, are robbed of it as they pass over the land, the cold air condensing it into drops of water, which fall in a gracious rain of mist on every thirsty blade. In the morning the fog thus created rests like a sea over the plains, and far up the sides of the hills, which raise their heads above it like so many islands. At sunrise, however, the scene speedily changes. By the kindling light the mist is transformed into vast snow-white clouds, which presently break into separate masses and rise up the mountain-sides, to disappear in the blue above, dissipated by the increasing heat. These are ‘the morning clouds and the early dew that go away’ of which Hosea (6:4; 13:3) speaks so touchingly” (Geikie’s The Holy Land, etc., i., p. 72). Dew is a source of great fertility (Genesis 27:28; Deuteronomy 33:13; Zechariah 8:12), and its withdrawal is regarded as a curse from God (2 Samuel 1:21; 1 Kings 17:1). It is the symbol of a multitude (2 Samuel 17:12; Psalm 110:3); and from its refreshing influence it is an emblem of brotherly love and harmony (Psalm 133:3), and of rich spiritual blessings (Hos. 14:5).
•DIADEM the tiara of a king (Ezekiel 21:26; Isaiah 28:5; 62:3); the turban (Job 29:14). In the New Testament a careful distinction is drawn between the diadem as a badge of royalty (Revelation 12:3; 13:1; 19:12) and the crown as a mark of distinction in private life. It is not known what the ancient Jewish “diadem” was. It was the mark of Oriental sovereigns. (See CROWN.)
•DIAL for the measurement of time, only once mentioned in the Bible, erected by Ahaz (2 Kings 20:11; Isaiah 38:8). The Hebrew word (ma’aloth) is rendered “steps” in Exodus 20:26, 1 Kings 10:19, and “degrees” in 2 Kings 20:9, 10, 11. The ma’aloth was probably stairs on which the shadow of a column or obelisk placed on the top fell. The shadow would cover a greater or smaller number of steps, according as the sun was low or high.
Probably the sun-dial was a Babylonian invention. Daniel at Babylon (Daniel 3:6) is the first to make mention of the “hour.”
•DIAMOND (1.) A precious gem (Hebrews yahalom’, in allusion to its hardness), otherwise unknown, the sixth, i.e., the third in the second row,