The Pulpit Commentary — Daniel — Section 96

mPd the old Hebrew names of their child- words, 11.nd omits the oonjunction vav, nnil, in- hood. Now espeoiitlly would the BRorcd serting the relative l, d, as sign of subordi- tongue be pres~nt to their lips and their nation, proceeds, "that they entree.t mm·cies thoughts when the cloud of a greitt ditnger from before God." Here, also, the thin! hung ovPr them. It was as Jews, members person plural imperfect is used. From of the holy people, that they could appeal for the greater freedom that Jerome allowed help and deliverance to Jehovah the God of himself in hie translation, and from tho Israel. wide difference between the grommo.tical Ver. 18.-That they would desire meroiea construction of e. Le.tin and an Ammaio of the God of heaven oonoerning this ■eoret; sentence, no stress ca.n be In.id on the foot that Daniel and hi■ fellows should not that he too translates by the third plural porish with the rest of the wise men of imperfeot - td q....,rerent misericordiam. Babylon. The Septuagint h~ 88 close a The ha.le.nee of probability is that here we connection between the precedmg verse and have to do with one of those indications of that before us &S has the Maseoretio, only it the Ee.stern origin of the A.ro.mo.io of is slightlv different in its rendering, "And Daniel. There is an instnnce of doublet in be told them to fast and pray (urged them the LXX. here in the case of the phrase, to fasting and prayer], and to se~k hel_p .-,µ,.,pla• (77.-ij,ro:1, " to seek succour," Ter- from the Lord the Highest, ooncermng thl8 tullian, in his reference to this passage, to m,sterv. in order that Daniel with his oom- which we have referred above (ver. 16), panions ·might not be given over to destruc- adds to what we quoted above, oum sua tion with the wise men of Babylon." It fraternitate jejunat, and thus shows that, is, certainlv, possible that the Septuagint 0 though differmg somewhat from the Sep- translator had a different reading here. tuagint text as we have it, the African The verb cm "to f&Bt," in the infinitive, La.tin Version agreed with it in insert- might have begun the verse.. Still th~re ing something about "fasting" here. The would be the difficulty of finding anythmg God of heaven. This is rendered by the to correspond to "'"'PID";1.•. It, however, Septuagint here, as generally, 11,/,urros, wo.s probably added t.o bring the sente~oe The probability here is that we have to into Greek regimen. The Septuagmt do with no difference of reading, but rather translator read the words as nouns in the with an objection to applying to God e. title 7 accusative, and of this case wn.s a frequent used for heathen deities. The title has sign. Thus what they had was 1119i:i:7 a· peculiar significance in the lips of those who, as Daniel, were educated as astro- ~p:i."1. The Hebrew word corresponding logers, and taught by those who regarded to'· the Aramaic word here translated the snn, the moon, and the various planets ''mercies," rT;1_rr:i (rapa.,,i,in), "bowels,"" mer• as deities. Daniel end his fellows might cies," is common enough in ~iblical _la1!; thus believe in astrology, but maintain that gun.ge; but the phrase, "to_desue mercies, the God of heaven, their God, need heavenly is not found elsewhere in Seri pture. It occurs bodies as messengers to proclaim to those in the later Targume, as Numb. xii 13, as a who could read the writing, the things that paraphrastic addition to the simple state- were coming on the earth. They might thus ment of Onkelos, that Moses prayed before even give e. certain limited subordinate the Lord; only in the case quoted, as g~ne- power to the deities of Babylon; these rally, the order is not, as here, ~he obJect deities were the servants of the God or before the verb-a. constf1!-ct1on mo_re heaven, who was also the God of Isrn.el. frequent in .ABByri.an the:n ~ ~~1c, There may be e. reference to Jer. x. 11. The eave in poetry. The phrase lB <:lbptical, the god.a that hafle 110t made the heaven& and the ruling verb is omitted. One lB temp~d. to earth, even they 8hall perish from the earth, wonder whether the word had not ongm- and from under the.e heavens. The God of ally been pJ7:i?, ma.king it a ca.~e of ~he Israel is called the God of heaven because he has me.de the heavens. This title ie Babvloni.an or Ee.stem A.ra.me.1c, th_ud used before-in Gen.xxiv. 7, whereAbrahnw person plural imperfect; then the preceding uses it. It is characteristic of Biblicn.l word would be )1!:l1X~, wi!.h the tiav dropped .Axamair., that the covenant title of God, as unnecessary, and the ~ -~serted to "Jehovah," is never used. Before we leave make the word a regular in.fimtive. Con- this, we would observe that the Peshitte. firmatory of our vie!I' is :rheodotion, whose inserts 1, d, the sign of the genitive, before rendering, ,(~-rouv, ~plies that he had e. sh•mayya, whereas the tf-xt before u~ uses third person plurn.l ~p~rfect here. We the older form of construct state m the do not maintain that 1t 1a necessary that word for " God." Concerning this secret. A he should have had such a reading, but parallel paBBage illustrative of this ie there is at least a high probability that he Amoe iii.. 7, " Surely the Lord God will do had. The Peshitta rever11ea the order of the Oil. JI, 1-40.] THE BOOK OF DANIET~. r,7