[639] The LXX. date it in "the _first_ year of Cyrus," perhaps an intentional alteration (i. 21). We see from Ezra, Nehemiah, and the latest of the Minor Prophets that there was scarcely even an attempt to restore the ruined walls of Jerusalem before B.C. 444.
[640] Lit. "great warfare." It will be seen that the A.V. and R.V. and other renderings vary widely from this; but nothing very important depends on the variations. Instead of taking the verbs as imperatives addressed to the reader, Hitzig renders, "He heeded the word, and gave heed to the vision."
[641] Lit. "weeks of days" (Gen. xli. 1; Deut. xxi. 13: "years of days").
[642] "Bread of desires" is the opposite of "bread of affliction" in Deut. xvi. 3. Comp. Gen. xxvii. 25; Isa. xxii. 13, etc.
[643] Comp. Amos vi. 6; Ruth iii. 3; 2 Sam. xii. 20, xiv. 2.
[644] He fasted from Abib 3 to 24. The festival of the New Moon might prevent him from fasting on Abib 1, 2.
[645] Hiddekel ("the rushing") occurs only in Gen. ii. 14. It is the Assyrian _idiglat_.
[646] For the girdle see Ezek. xxiii. 15. Ewald (with the Vulg., Chald., and Syriac) regards Uphaz as a clerical error for Ophir (Psalm xlv. 9). LXX., Μωφάζ (Jer. x. 9, where alone it occurs). The LXX. omit it here. Vulg., _Auro obrizo_.
[647] Heb., _eben tarshish_ (Exod. xxviii. 2); Vulg., _crysolithus_; R.V. and A.V., "beryl" (Ezek. i. 16). Comp. Skr., _tarisha_, "the sea."
[648] Theodot., τὰ σκέλη; LXX., οἱ πόδες (Rev. i. 15)--lit. "foot-hold"; Vulg., _quæ deorsum sunt usque ad pedes_.
[649] This description of the vision follows Ezek. i. 16-24, ix. 2, and is followed in Rev. i. 13-15. The "deep murmur" is referred to the sound of the sea by St. John; A.V., "the voice of a multitude"; LXX., θόρυβος. Comp. Isa. xiii. 4; Ezek. xliii. 2.
[650] Rashi guesses that they were Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.
[651] Comp. Acts ix. 7, xxii. 11.
[652] Comp. Hab. iii. 16; Dan. viii. 18.
[653] Lit. "shook" or "caused me to tremble upon my knees and the palms of my hand."
[654] x. 11. LXX., ἄνθρωπος ἐλεεινὸς εἶ; Tert., _De Jejun._, 7, "homo es miserabilis" (_sc._, "jejunando").
[655] The protecting genius of Persia (Isa. xxiv. 21; Psalm lxxxii.; Ecclus. xvii. 17).
[656] Michael, "who is like God" (Jude 9; Rev. xii. 7).
[657] Heb., _nôthartî_. "I came off victorious," or "obtained the precedence" (Luther, Gesenius, etc.); "I was delayed" (Hitzig); "I was superfluous" (Ewald); "Was left over" (Zöckler); "I remained" (A.V.); "Was not needed" (R.V. marg.). The LXX. and Theodoret seem to follow another text.
[658] LXX., "with the army of the king of the Persians."
[659] Again the text and rendering are uncertain.
[660] So Hitzig and Ewald. The view that they are distinct persons is taken by Zöckler, Von Lengerke, etc. Other guesses are that the "man clothed in linen" is the angel who called Gabriel (viii. 16); or Michael; or "the angel of the Covenant" (Vitringa); or Christ; or "he who letteth" (ὁ κατέχων, 2 Thess. ii. 7), whom Zöckler takes to be "the good principle of the world-power."
[661] Thus in the LXX. (Dent, xxxii. 8) we read of angels of the nations. See too Isa. xlvi. 2; Jer. xlvi. 25. Comp. Baruch iv. 7; Ecclus. xvii. 17; Frankel, _Vorstudien_, p. 66.