The remaining section of the Book of Daniel forms but one vision, of which this chapter is the Introduction or Prologue.
Daniel is here spoken of in the third person.
It is dated in the third year of Cyrus (B.C. 535).[639] We have already been told that Daniel lived to see the first year of Cyrus (i. 21). This verse, if accepted historically, would show that at any rate Daniel did not return to Palestine with the exiles. Age, high rank, and opportunities of usefulness in the Persian Court may have combined to render his return undesirable for the interests of his people. The date--the last given in the life of the real or ideal Daniel--is perhaps here mentioned to account for the allusions which follow to the kingdom of Persia. But with the great and moving fortunes of the Jews after the accession of Cyrus, and even with the beginning of their new national life in Jerusalem, the author is scarcely at all concerned. He makes no mention of Zerubbabel the prince, nor of Joshua the priest, nor of the decree of Cyrus, nor of the rebuilding of the Temple; his whole concern is with the petty wars and diplomacy of the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes, of which an account is given, so minute as either to furnish us with historical materials unknown to any other historian, or else is difficult to reconcile with the history of that king's reign as it has been hitherto understood.
In this chapter, as in the two preceding, there are great difficulties and uncertainties about the exact significance of some of the verses, and textual emendations have been suggested. The readers of the Expositor's Bible would not, however, be interested in minute and dreary philological disquisitions, which have not the smallest moral significance, and lead to no certain result. The difficulties affect points of no doctrinal importance, and the greatest scholars have been unable to arrive at any agreement respecting them. Such difficulties will, therefore, merely be mentioned, and I shall content myself with furnishing what appears to be the best authenticated opinion.
The first and second verses are rendered partly by Ewald and partly by other scholars, "_Truth is the revelation, and distress is great;_[640] _therefore understand thou the revelation, since there is understanding of it in the vision._" The admonition calls attention to the importance of "the word," and the fact that reality lies beneath its enigmatic and apocalyptic form.
Daniel had been mourning for three full weeks,[641] during which he ate no dainty bread,[642] nor flesh, nor wine, nor did he anoint himself with oil.[643] But in the Passover month of Abib or Nisan, the first month of the year, and on the twenty-fourth day of that month,[644] he was seated on the bank of the great river, Hiddekel or Tigris,[645] when, lifting up his eyes, he saw a certain man clothed in fine linen like a Jewish priest, and his loins girded with gold of Uphaz.[646] His body was like chrysolite,[647] his face flashed like lightning, his eyes were like torches of fire, his arms and feet gleamed like polished brass,[648] and the sound of his words was as the sound of a deep murmur.[649] Daniel had companions with him;[650] they did not see the vision, but some supernatural terror fell upon them, and they fled to hide themselves.[651]
At this great spectacle his strength departed, and his brightness was changed to corruption;[652] and when the vision spoke he fell to the earth face downwards. A hand touched him, and partly raised him to the trembling support of his knees and the palms of his hands,[653] and a voice said to him, "Daniel, thou greatly beloved,[654] stand upright, and attend; for I am sent to thee." The seer was still trembling; but the voice bade him fear not, for his prayer had been heard, and for that reason this message had been sent to him. Gabriel's coming had, however, been delayed for three weeks, by his having to withstand for twenty days the prince of the kingdom of Persia.[655] The necessity of continuing the struggle was only removed by the arrival of Michael, one of the chief princes,[656] to help him, so that Gabriel was no longer needed[657] to resist the kings of Persia.[658] The vision was for many days,[659] and he had come to enable Daniel to understand it.