The Pulpit Commentary — Daniel — Section 95

Interval tho petition fur time was bciog Psycbicos,' 7) says, "Daniel Deo folen• prcecntod, but still not clecirled on. This spatium tridui postulal." 1 We learn rr~u; seems not unlikely. Of course, it is al ways what follows that Daniel RCted merely from open to us to dcclnro tho verses from this to his general faith in God, am! wae confident the twouty-fourth inclusive an intorpola- that God would not suffer his enints t,, Le tlou; Duniol hos sulrorcd so much from this, destroyed canselcs.Jy. It is n0tcd by tlmt on etdditionul ouse hns no primd facie Cnlvin that Daniel docs not tell the kin" probability ngainst it. Moreover, the the reasons of his confidence. A falsariu; prnyer or hymn has strong resemblance to wou~cl ha.vo lnken _the opportunity of makicg the prnyer of Aznrine, which is aclrnowledged Daniel clcclare h,e confidence in the God to be nn intorpolnlion. Still, one ought to of heaven from the very firat. 'fbe re") be slow to cut n knot in this way, unless Daniel acts ne any wise saint would do, there is some clear ground of suspicion. confident tho.t God would do justly, hopeful It ma.y be observed also that the Maesoretic that he wr,uld reveal to him the secret, yet text docs not necessarily assert entrance too careful of the honour of Jehovah to put into tho palace or ioto the king's presence. it in pleclge; he know God could and Certainly ',7p, ('alal) meons " entered," and would defend hie own honour but his in the conne'ction this would suggest the plan might not involve the savi~g of thdr palace as tho pince entered, but it may have lives. been the house of Axioch, thongh this ii not Ver. 17.-Then Da.niel went to his ho11Be, likely. We have no means of knowing and made the thing known to Rananiah, whether any others of those implicated in Mishael, a.nd Azs.riah, his companions. the sentence of the king petitioned also for There is nothing in the versions that calls time. Not impossibly they did. The king, for remark here, eave that the Septuagint who wns so suspicious that the wise men seems to have had ',:,, "all," or some such wished to delny till the auspicious time WGl! W?rd, i~~tead of mill'tha. After having got passed, is willing to grant time when it is his petition granted, to all appearance easily asked. This is explicable on the idea that Daniel now proceeds to his own house. A; Nebuchadnezzar was anxious to be delivered during the period of their education the from the ho1Tible slaughter which his decree four friends had formed one " mess " in the involved. Another thing to be observed is hall of Nebuchadnezzar, and it is probable tho.t in the Massoretic text, Thcodotion, had one table set apart to them, so when iu and the Peshitta, there is no word of the college-if we may use the phrase-they dream being told. Of course, this inter- occupied one apartment or set of apartments. pretation implied a knowledge of the dream Their life in the matter of food was simplu also, but it would appear to be another a.nd abstemious, and it is little likely that evideuce that tho Icing was relenting, when they wonld require extensive accommodation. o. petition that omitted the crucial point of Having got the reprieve he bad petitioned tho question between him and the wise for, Daniel now informs his friends of it. men should be granted without difficulty. We have assumed that the news of the We are not told the amount of time re- royal decree had reached the college where, quested, the word used, Jr;i.1 (z•man), is, "a among other stnd,ints and soothsayers of as yet lesser grade, Daniel nnd his friends fixed time," from JI?), "to ·determine." It abode; iu that case, he woulcl merely have occurs o.gain frequently in Daniel, as in to inform them how he had sped with vcr. 21. It is genernlly of o. fixed point of Arioch, and how he had further presented time, but sometimes, as eh. vii. 12, their a petition to the king for a tirr:e to be set lives were prolonged for a season (J91)- when he should answer tb€ king's request, Thcro being only one instance among the and how he got what ho desired. It may other passages where this word occurs, in however, hnve been th..t D.miel had alon~ which il means o. space of time, we are heard tbo dreadful news, and thEn aete<l inclined to think that here Daniel petitioned so that his companions henrd only of the that a time be appointed him when he too threatened disaster when they heard of tlio should have an nud.ience of the 1,...-ing in mode of escape. It is lo be observed in regard to the matter of tilO dream, as the pas-,ing, that the.names of the friends a.re gi ~en other wise men hnd. 'l'here certainly is in the Hebrew, not in the Babylonian form. implied a. space of time in t.hia request. Alone wit.h each other, we may imagine they Tho epnce must have involvo,l at least twenty-four hours, as the matter is revealed ~ W_e cannot say w_here T_ertullian got to Daniel iu " a night vision." It is unlikely this; if from the Lahn Version of Doniel it would be much longer, for fear the plane- c~ment in Africa in his days, it must have tary colloontion would chnngo-certainly duforeu somewhat from the Septuao-int not more than a week, Tertullian (' Adv. with which it aeelllB genera.Uy to b.avi: agreed, 5G T11E BOOK OF DANIEL. [en. 11. 1-4!:l.