The Pulpit Commentary — Daniel — Section 83

the king he.d been etrongly e.ff'eoted by the Stuart)" put for the whole." Bo also Klle- <lrcnm, he might not remember distinctly foth (' Korn.,' p. 79), "Because the Ohaldeans "·hat it was. If, however, he had no remem- were the first class, they alone are nnmed." branc.,e of the dre.~m. and only the feeling of The Chalde11ns were not the inhnbitants of J}<.'rturbation, any gn\Ddiose vieion might B11bylonie., but belonged to severnl cantons hn'l'e been brought before him, and he would south and caet of De.bylon. Spake. The not have been nble to check it, or BB.V th11t wae 0 word y'dabb•ru is usually follllwed by the not the dream he he.d he.d. If, aga in, he he.d vm·b amar in the infinitive. In Ezek. xl. 4 some fragmentary remembrance, he nnturally we have the verb dibberused without amar, would have told what he remembered, in to inlrodnco tho thing snid. It is not impro- orcler th11t they might reconstruct his dream bable that in thie instance .A.mmith, "in the for him. Nebuchadnazzar's gree.t purpose is Syria.a tongne," helped to the omission of not merely to see again hie dream, but ren.lly amar. In theSyria.ck(Aramilh). Allscholars to test these soothsayers that promised eo know now that there are two leading dialects much. If they eould with ench certainty of the .Ara.mroan or Arnme.ic-tlle Eastern or ns they professed tell whe.t wae about to Syrie.c, and the Western or Chaldee. The happen, surely it wu.s no great demand terms are vory confusing; ne Syria was that tber should know this dream of his. certainly to the west of Chalden., it seems The ki1;g seems merely to have me.de the strange that the use.go sllould ever have general statement, and Je~ the soothsayers sprung np to call the Western variety to tell at once the dream and interpretation. Chaldee, and the Eastern vnriety Syriao. There sits the king with troubled brow, The usage having been esto.blished, it bas and there stand before him the principal a certain convenience to be able to name all adepts at interpretation of dreams. Some the Western, or, as they may be co.lled, have found it a difficulty that God should Palestinian dialects of Aramaic Chaldee, reveal the future to a heathen monarch. and all the E11stern varieties Byrie.c. Dut in the parallel case of Pho.re.oh this While the English version uses the term occurred; certainly the future revealed to "Syriac," e.e the portion of Daniel which fol- him WnE the immediate future of tho land lows has come down to us, it is not written he ruled, wherell.B the dream of Nebuchad- in Byriac, but in Cbe.ldee. We shall, how- nezzar extended in its revelation to the ever, endeavour to show thnt this is due to verv end of time. Arebdeacon Rose refers changes introduced by transcribers. As to to Pilate's wife and her mysterious dream at the word .A.ramith occurring here, there is the trial of our Lord. The revelation 8.1 great force in the view maintained by given to Nebuchadnezzar served a double Lenormant, that it is to be rege.rcled ns e. purpose-it gave emphasis to it when, not an note to the reader, iadicnting that at this obscure Hebrew scholar got the vision, bnt point the Hebrew ceases and the Aramaic the great conqueror; further, it gave an begins. The reason of the change from occasion for bringing Daniel into prominence, one language to another has been already and gave thus to him nnd to his companions dee.It with in considering the question an opportunity of showing their fidelity to of the structure of Daniel. In the mean God. This ge. ve an oecasion for miracles, time it is sufficient to say that our theory the effect of which was to strengthen the is that the Hebrew in the beginning of Jews in their faith. Daniel is dne to the editor, who collected Ver. 4.-Then spake the Che.ldeam to the the scattered fiy-lea.vee. In the first king in Syria.ck, 0 king, live for ever: tell chapter and in the three opening verses of thy rerve.nts the dream, and we will show that before us, we have the results of trans- the interpretation. The versions do not lation and condensation. As the previous imply any important ilifference Then . .. the sacred books had been written in Hebrew Clwldeam. This does not mean merely that -1.he propllecies of Isaiah and J cremiah, one ela.9.8 of soothsa vere-e. class the existence not to speak of other books-it wne natural of which is doubtful-nor that the whole that the editor, especially if be were under band of soothsayers bore the name" Chal- the influence of Ezra, would desire to see e. dee.ns." The name is simply the name of book tru.t had so much of holy hope and the nation, but is here used of this small aspiration about it, in the sacred language portion of it that were soothsayers, in the of the patriarchs and prophets. 'l'hc1·e ~ame way aa in John ix. 22 "Jews," the would be probably e. considerable mo.ss of Dame of the nation, is used for the rulers: irregular material to be gone over before e. "For the Jews had e.groed already that if connected account could be given of the eo.rly any man did confess that he was Christ, he days of Daniel. These 10urces would be sLon!d be pnt out of the synagogue." necessarily in the ma.in Aramaic, and hence Hellce it is needless to speak of the Chal- the translation and condensation. It was deaw; being the principal clase, and therefore formerly one of the objections urgod oge.iuet "for the sake of breviloquence" (M.oses Daniel that the author regarded Arame.io 011, II, 1--4f"I,] THE IlOOK OF DANIEL. -------------------------------· n.s tho language spoken in Babylon. By shall be made an example or, and yonr this time tho lnngul\ge cngmvod on the goocls shall be escheat to tho roy.,,J treo.sury ." lnblels bed bcon discovered not to be any 'fheodotion renders the last portion or the proviously known tongac. It ls now found verso, " ye shall be destroyed ( ,ls rl.1rwll.etav that, although the inhabitants or Babylon t,,.,,,.e,), and your houses shall be plnn<lered use,l the cuneiform for inscriptions, the (3,ap,ra.-yf,fTov-ra,)." The Peshitta is closer to lnngunge of ordinary business and social the Massoretic, but, like Theodotion, softens intercourse WllS Arnmn.ic, and had been for the Inst clause into "plundered.'' Tho sev .. rn.l centuries. Dr. Hugo Winckler says, Vulgate retains the flercenesa of the Masso- iu bis 'History of BabyluniB and Assyria,' retic, softened merely in phrase, not in p. 179, "Arnmnic soon became the lan- meaning. The kin(} answered and said guage of social intercourse (umgangsprache) to the Chaldeans, The thing is gone from me. in nenrly the wholo of Mesopotamia, and The first thing to be noticed is the dif- expelled the Assyro - Babylonian, which ference of the Q'ri and the K'thib in th~ continued only as n. literary tongue word "Chaldean;" it is written N•,1':i, (schriflsprache)." Bronze weights have according to the Syriac usage, not 'N,~:i been found d11ting back to the Sargo- according to the Chaldee. As the Book of nids, with the weight marked on the one Daniel was copied and recopied many times, side in Arnmaic, while on the other the probably at least scores of times before, on titles of the king are given in Assy1iBn, the latest assignable critical date of Daniel, When Sennacherib sent Rabshakeh to the Massoretic text was fixed, and copied Jerusalem, Eliakim and Shebna wished the mainly by those whose language was West- conversation to be carrie,I on in Aramaic, ern not Eastern Aramaic, the occurrence of implying that by this time Aramaic had Syriac forms is more likely to be survivals become the ordinary language of diplomacy. from a Syriac original than insertions, either The single Aramaic verse in Jeremiah accidental or intentional When the differ- (Jer. x. 11) implies that the Jewish cap- ences are so slight as those between Eastern tives would be dwelling 11mong a people and Westem Aramaic, the tendency is to who ordinarily spoke Aramaic. Some have remove them rather than to accentuate deduced from the phrase, "then spake," them. The older interpretation of miWtha, etc., that Aramaic was not the ordinary "thing" or "word." was to take it as refer- lo.nguage of the speakers-a deduction ring to the dream-that it was the matter that would be plausible if it had not that had gone from him. This, however, been that from this poiut till the end depends to a large degree on the meaning of the seventh chapter the book is in to be attached to azda. Is it to be regarded Aramaic. J ephet-ibn-Ali thinks that N ebu- as eqaivalent to azla, as if it were derived chadnczzar had first addressed t.he wise from Sii,!, " to go ; " or is azda to be regarded men in some other language, and then as Persian azdu, "sure," " diligent"? De- betook him to A.zamaio. 0 king, live for litzsch snggests azanda, "known." The ever: tell thy servants the dream, and toe two Greek versions render, 6 71.&;,os d.,r ,µ.oii will show the inte1·pretation. The sooth- d1rfo'l"I/, a phrase which may either be sayers address the king in terms of Oriental " the word has gone from me," or " the adulation. Similar phrases ore found in matter haa departed from me," the latter despatches to Asshurbanipal. In the Sep- being the more natural, from the meaning tuagiut Version the phrase is accommodated of 6.<plfTT711-''• The Peshitta rendering is, more to the Hellenic usage, and the king is " Sure is the word I hs.ve spoken." Tbe addressed as K6pie 13,.,,.,ll.,ii. Their language older commentators have mainly taken thiB implies that they expected to be told the sentence as asserting that N ehuchadnezzar dream, and then, having been told the had forgotten the dream; Calvin, however, dream, they would apply the rules of their does so only because he feels himseli com- art to it, and declare to the king the in- pelled to take ver. 8 as meaniug this; terpretation. wl ,ile J ephet-ibn-Ali and others assume Ver. 5.-The king answered and snid to this to be the menniug of the phrase, Aben the Chaldeans, The thing is gone from me : Ezra takes azda as meaning " firm" or if ye will not make known unto me the "sure." Berthol<lt, among modcrns, main- dream, with the interpretation theNof, ye tiuns that mill•tha is "the dream." Most shall be cut in pieoes, and your houses shall others assert the sentence to mean, "The be made a dunghill. The version of the word which has gone forth from me is LXX. has slight but important dilferenoes sure; " this is also Professor Bevan's in- from the Mussoretio text. It is ns follows: terpretation. Hitzig's view here is pe- "And the kiug answered and said to the culiar: he would translute, "For the Chalclco.ne, 'l'he thing is gone from me: if matter is important to me." This view therefore ye do not tell me the dream truly, does not suit ver. 8. The lexicons differ iu au<l show me tho intorprctntiou lho1·cof, ye this. Winer first gives elapsus est, abiit « THE BOOK OF DANIEL. [oa. u. 1.-.0.