The Pulpit Commentary — Daniel — Section 90

Rs to whRt he had drenmed 11, guBTl\nteo inecriptione. The sense ie rather that of ,,f the correcfoeee of tho intcrprctl\tion of the me.rginnl rendering, "There is no king the dream whioh 1he poothsayere might be he never 80 grant e.n<l powerful," Theo- 11fterw11rde give him. Hie attitude v.-11B dotion has this reading. The Sept111\gint p11rely and truly eci<'ntifio, 118 it is stnted. renders, "no king and no ruler(1riis 13 ..,,.,:>..,b, In his QWn mind he ""1\8 warped 11,nd oon• ,,..; 1rii, bvvan,is ... obrc)," rending ',,::, (col) fnscd by his overmasl!'ring belief in omens for ::,i (rab). The Pcshittr,. follows tho l\foe- nnd auguries, in gods and demons, in sorctic cloeoly hero. In this conneolion, it magioians and astrologers. With thiB faith in his hen.rt, his only explanation of the mny be observed, o,',i, (shaleet) is not fre- silenoe of these eootherwere w11.s treason. quent in the Tnrgume, bnt it occurs in the Vn. 10.-The Cha.lde&ne &n&wered bef~re Peshitb. Thnt ashed such things. Kiclnah, the king, and said, There is not a m&n upon "like this." This form of the demonstra- the earih that oan show the king's m&tter: tive, ending with n (h), instead of N, is therefore there is no king, lord, nor ruler, regarded e.s older than the Targumio form. that aaked suoh things &t a.ny m&gici&n, Theodotion inserts ~fiµa here. .dt any utrologer, or Ch&lde&n. It iB to be noted, magician, or astrologer, or Cl1aldea11. The in the first place, the.t we he. ve the so.me first thing that strikes the render of the Syrie.c form of ~'.?~~- This seems to us Aramaic, and for th&t matter the other versions, is the omission of one of the clo.sses e. eurviv&l from an earlier condition of the of soothsayers-that called " soroerere " in text, when the SyriR.c forms were predomi- our Authorized Version. We s&w tho.t ac- nant, if not universal, in it. Scribes accus- cording to the Septuagint, the" Chalde~ns" tomed to spea.k and write in Cha.ldee would were not a separate college of augurs or naturally harmonize the text to the lan- sooths&yers. When we look attentively at guage they were 11,ooustomed to use. The the Aramo.ic, the ree.son of the presence of ,vord "saying" (" and so.id," Authorized "Chaldeans" here, and the absence of "sor- Version) is omitted from the Septuagint, cerers" becomes probe.ble. In the first place, but it is found in all other versions ; its t,.""1111::i is written without the N, e.s singular, omie.e.ion in the Septuagint mo.y have been When so written, its resemble.nee to 9\\'~'? due to error-the Are.mo.ic is not complete without it. •i:i~-N~ (la-'uha)," there is not." ( m•kailuiliiipli) suggests the question whether there might not be, occupying this place, an The ordina.ry To.rgnmio and Te.lmudio Aro.m&io noun equivalent to ashshaph, which usage is r::~ (layitTt ), " is not," one word. we see is really Assyrian, and, interpreting Thie full way of writin~ this negative form it we find m•kashshiiph put thus after is an un<lenio.ble proofof nntiqnity. Neither ashshaph elsewhere, but omitted here. The Levy nor Castell gives any example of the solution of the omission of m•kashshiiph is full writing which is the regular practice the likeness the latter part of the word in Bililical Aramaic. Mer:r., ' Chrestomo.th. bears to Kasdi, especially in the script of Targ.,' 168, 225, also gives only n',. As a Egypt, in which :i and N were very liko rnle, the fuller n form is, the older it is. each other. These 11,ssembled wise men Earth; literully, dry ground - the same protest aga.inst the test to which tbe king word as is used in the Targnm of Genesis, would put them o.s essenti&lly unfa.ir. They "Let the dry land appear," bnt not the had been trained to divine the future from usual word for "the world." Theodotion, dreams, but never to find out dreams by in o.ccordance, translates {71piis; the LXX. what they had lee.med from their e.rts the renders mtrely, irl rii• ,,;is. The Peshitta fnture would he; and in proof of this they urge that no king, however great, had mo.tle ho.s 1~J (ar'a). TM king', ma.tter (mil- such a demand of any astrologer or sooth- lath malcii); literally, the king', 1DOf"d, sayer. Nay, they go further, and eo.y that no which, consequently, Theodotion translates ma.n upon the earth is able to tell lho king pijµa.. The LXX. renders, " to tell the what he wishes. They endeavour to make king that which he has &een." It is evi- the king see that what he asks is an im- dent tho.t Le rend miUath, as if derived from possibility. m•l,al "to speak," as l<mallala. The render- Ver. 11.-An.d it is a re.re thing that the ing, :.that which he has seen," is due to kingrequireth. The Septuagint Version of reading', (l) into , (d); the verb Q"tla was this passage is, "The thing which thou re- read heza, and then the change in mee.niug be- quirest, 0 king, is hard and strange." The comes intelligible. Therefore there is no king, last two words are most likely o. case of lord, nor ruler. The more natural interpre- doublet- two different renderings of the tation of the Aramaic is, "There is no king same Aramaic word, yakldrah. The primary gr~at and powerful." Some have regarded meo.ning of this word is "heavy," and by ral, ,ul,1Ji1 ae a title of the King of Babylon, trausferenre it becomes "difficult," nnd but this dues not B{,8m tu Le borne out by then, ''strange" or "rare." There may (JI!, II. 1-10,) THE J300K OD' DANIEL. 6L