The Pulpit Commentary — Daniel — Section 65

!Mvo tho mntlor thus r<e.lly in the he.ncls fnces ancl the donhlo chins or lhr,, 13 in of Proviclence. immediate o.ttendrmco on the king. Amr,n,, Ver. 14.-So he oonaented to them in this savRga nations ond semi-ci vihY~rl <"ine;, matter, and proved them ten daya. The corpulence is regarderl RB a aign of n•,bility. llleral rendering is, And he hearleened oot<, Tho freq nen t long fasts, cl 110 to foil nm of them as to this matter, pro11ed them ten their scnnty crops or tho difficnlty of days. The Septuagint roacling is again catching game, would keep the ordinary peonliar, "Auel ho dee.It with them after savage spare; only one who c ,nld employ this manner, and provecl thom ten days." the sinews and posses~ions of others wo•1ld Jlt:>111• is not very unlike n11111•, nor ,::i,~ very be sure of being alwRys well fed, conse- unlike ,::i,:i, and this is all the change quently the corpulent man 1vas incontestRbly implied. The Massoretio reading seems the the wealthy nobleman. In semi-civilized more natural, but it might be argued that countries, e.s Babylon, this waa probnbly a this very naturalness is the result of an survival. On the sculptures the kings are effort to make the Hebrew more flowing. not unwieldy with corpulence, but tho But further, from the foot that n:o/P. ('a,ayh), eunuchs have an evident tendency to this. imperalive of the so.me verb, precedes almost A king, abstemious himself, might feel his immediately, the word might come in by consequence increased by having as his accident, or another word somewhat like it attendants those who bore about in their might be misread into it. The consent of persons the evidence of how well those the subordinate official implies, if not the were nourished who fen Rt hie table. There consent, e.t least the connivance, of the is no reason to imagine that Nebuchad- superior. As we have already explained nezzar we.a superior to his contemporaries from the arrangements of a Babylonian in regard to this. The melzar, having thus fee.et, the plan of the Hebrew youths could seen the result of the experiment, must see the more easily be carried out. that, so far as externe.Li were concerned, the Ver. 15.-At the end of ten days their Hebrews who fed on pulse were better than oountenances appeared fairer and fatter in their companions. The period of ten days 11.esh than all the children which did eat was a short one, but not too short for effects the portion of the king's meat. 'rhe Sep- such as those mentioned to be manifested. tuagint is a little pe.raphrastio, and renders, Jephet-ibn-Ali thinks that special leanness "After ten de.ye their countenance appeared was inflicted on those who were unfaitbful beautiful and their he.bit of body better than or had failed in courage. That, however, is that of the other young men• who ate of e.n unnecessary supposition. the king's meat." Theodotion is painfully Ver. 16.-Thus Melzar took away the faithful to the Massoretio text. The Peshitta portion of their meat, and the wille that translates ::m:i (/ob ), " good," "fair," by sha- they should drink; and gave the!D pulse. peera, "beautiful." We have here the result The Me.ssoretic has the article here before of the experiment. At the end of the ten "Melzar "-a fact that the Authorized does days these youths who had lived plainly not indicate ; the Revised render3 more are fairer and fatter than those who partook oorreotly, "the steward." The version of of the royal dainties-a result that implies the Septuagint does not differ much from nothing miraculous; it was simply the the Massoretic, only the word tre.nsla.ted nature.I result of living on food suited to "that they should drink" is omitted ; on the climate. The grammar of the passage the other hand, we have the verb lilliwµ., is peculiar; mareehem, which so far as form (ilitliov) put in composition with uv-rl (a.v-re• goes might be plural, is construed with a lilliov), "gave them instead," e.s if, in the singular verb and adjective, but b'Te'eem, text before the translator, the mem, which "fatter," is plural. The exple.no.tion is that begins mishtayhem, had been put to the while "countenance," the substantive, is in end of yayin, "wine," making it "their the eingulo.r, it is not the eubetanti ve to the wine "-a construction which would be adjective " fat," but "they" understood. more symmetrical than the present. Only The sentence is not intended to e.eeert thnt it is difficult to see how either tahath asher their faces merely were fatter than those of could be changed into shtayhem, or trice the other youths of their rank and circum- 11ersa. The Septuagint translation suggests eto.noee, but tho.t their whole body was so. a simpler and more natural te:xt---not a This contrast of reference is brought out simplified one-therefore it is, on the whole, in the Septuagint paraphrase. ,Any one to be preferred. The careful word-for-worJ looking on the Assyrio.n and I'.e.bylonillu translation of the beginning of the Yerse sculpturns, and comparing them with the renders it little likely that the translator sculptures and paintings of Egypt, will would pe.raphrnse e.t the end; e g. the obse1·ve the relatively greo.ter stoutness of word translated in our version "thus" is the Assyrie.ns. In the eunuchs espeoially, really veeay'he, "it was," o.ncl in the LXX. one cannot foil to notice the full round this is rendered ~"• "it was." Tbeodotiou  THE BOOK OF DANIEL. [OH, I, l-21,