The Pulpit Commentary — Daniel — Section 85

thing like this, "houses redncecl to heapa the interpretation thereof, ye ■hall reoei ve of rubbieh." 'fh11t tho honees tbns made of me gift■ and rewards and great honour : heaps of rubbish shou!,1 therefore be made therefore ahow me the dream, and the in- rlunghills, is in porfect nccorchmce with tho terpretation thereof. The Septuagint Ver• mnnners nt presont holding in the East. sion is" If ye will show me the dream, anrl 'fho rendering of the SeptuA.gint is very tell me its interpretation, ye shllll rrcei vo pccnllnr here, "And yonr goods shall be every sort (1ranoi'a:) of gifts, and be honnure,l oschent to the royal treasury (1tal 011all..,,- by me: show me the dream, and judge." rp6f,O'<Ta1 6µ.ow orca 61rdpxo11ora ,Is orb f3a0'1• 'l'here are indications of di ffcrences in th~ 1'.(1<011)." This cannot be due to any desire text, which are considered below. 'l heodotion to soften the me1ming, for in the first pla.ce, agrees with the Massoretic in its rendering in eh. vii. 2D, where the same pbro.se occnrs of this verse. The Peshitta alao manifests in the Arnmaic, it is po.re.phrased, but not no serious difference. All these older ver- really ohnnged ; it is rendered s.,,µ.,vOf,O'ETar. sions render it doubtful whether n'bizba waa But further, the meaning here is perfectly part of the original text. But if ye •lunn different from that in the Aramaic of the the dream, and the interprewtion thereof, ye Maseoretic recension. Theodotion's render- shall receive of me gifts and. rewards and ing is a softening of the Massoretic, "Your great li,Q11,our. Ewald would conjoin with this houses shall be (61ap1ray{,0'011ora,) torn verse the lo.tter part of the verse preceding, down: " but the Septuagint quite changes with considerable j nstification. Like the the meaning. If the translator had a latter part of the previous verse, it is to be slightly blurred copy before him, he might taken as the summation of a long argument, read 1?1l instead of ,',,i; that is to say, in which threats and promises would bear ins toad of "a dunghill," he read it as the a large part, probably both heightening as they failed to produce the effect required third person plural pael of the verb '1!:! of making the soothsayers reproduce to (azal), "to go." When written in Sama~ Nebuchadnezzar his dream. Now the acme ritan characters, or in old Phamican cha- is reached--on the one hand, a death of racters, the last word would not be unlike torture and infamy is threatened; on the 7',o',, "to the king." Thisistheonlyexpla- other hand, in the verse before us, "gifts, nation of this variation that seems feasible, rewards, and great honour." The king is o.nd it implies that the manuscript before eager to have his dream interpreted, but he the Septuagint translator was written in has taken his stand-before he will listen Eastern, not Western Are.me.lo. The pre- to the interpretation, they must afford him formative J, used as the sign of the third evidence that they can interpret correclly persou, is the peculiarity of Ee.stem .Ara- this dream, by reproducing it to him. One maic. The translator must have had this g~ of the words here has been need by nerally before him in his manuscript, or he Bertholdt as evidence that the Book of never could have made this mistake. This Daniel originated in the days of the is another indication that the .Aramaic of Maccabees, when Greek was largely spoken. Daniel was originally not Cheldee, but The word translated "reward" in our ver- Syriao. We can imagine the striking sion is n•bizba ; this, it was argued by scene : on the one aide the haughty young Bertholdt, is 110µ.,0'µ.a., m becoming b-a not conqueror, blazing in indignation et the infrequent commutation. In support of obstinate refusal, as he counts it, of his this, if we take 110µ.,0'µ.,,. as meaning " coined soothsayers and augurs to tell him his money," this would make a distinction dream and the meaning of it; on the other, between this word and matnan, the more the crouching crowd of magicians, astro- ordinary word fo:r "a gift." Jephet-ibn-.Ali logers, end oneiromantists, dispirited and translates in accordance with this meaning : nonplussed. Drought up in an absolute "I will give you raiment and dino.rs," he faith in astrology and augury, the king makes Nebuchadnezzar say. Yet this view never doubted their ability to tell him his is now abandoned by all critics, and how- dream : it could only be a treasonable desire ever many alleged Greek words are found to hinder him from taking the suitable steps in Daniel, this is never now brought forwurd to avoid whatever danger might be thrent- as one of them. Lexicographers are practi- ened by it, or to go.in whatever advanto.ae cally unanimous in rejecting this derivation. might be promised. They would not t~h There are two other derivations, one making him the dream, because by their rules the it a palpel form of the 1!1 with a l pre- interpretation would be fixed, nnd from formative which was Gesenius's view in tho.t they could not escape. The king will bis 'Thesaurus.' He later abandoned this not and cannot reverse his word, and they view, and maintained that it wus con- cnnnot tell him what ho desires, o.nd so nected with some Persian root. Wiuer they sto.nd facing each other. muiutaius the former of these views, and Ver. 6.-But if ye show the dream, and Furst the latter. As a Per;ian wonl, it 40 THE BOOK OF DANIEL, [en, n. 1-4!J.