The Pulpit Commentary — Daniel — Section 97

nothing, but ho reveo.loth hie secret unto his grncious promiso from our Lord (Matt. xvi; i. aorrnnts the prophets;" o.leo Ileut.. xxix. 29, 19), "If two of you shall agr~e on earth ,~ "Secret lhl11gs belong unto the Lord our God." touching anything they shall ask, it shall Who.tever wo.s o.bout to ho.ppen, Daniel and be dona for them of my Father which is in hie friends knew it oould only happen heaven." Wo would not maintain, even in rt0cording to the purpose o.nd plan of Ood, appearance, that mnltituda adds to efficacy lie, o.e he wo.e the renl actor, knew what he with God. But when two or three nro wae about to do, and whatever revefation ge.thered together, there is an infection of of that future ho.d been given to Nebuchad• earnestness, a community of enthusiasm nczzar in hie dream, it must have come from generated, that makes each individual the God of heaven; therefore to him do titter to receive the o.nswer. Yet, again, Doniel o.nd his friends make their entreaty. the more that join in a petition, the more Professor Bevan declares l'J (riiz) to be e. it must be raised out of the grovellin~ Persian word. Neither Winer, Fiirst, nor region of selfishness. A man who has ~ Gceeniue recognizes it to be such. Granted purely selfish desire rising in bis heart that it ie Persian, is it not a possible supposi- cannot ask hie fellows to join him in sup- tion that it is derived from the Aramaic; nnt plicating God to grant hie request. that the Aramaic word ie derived from the Ver. 19.-Then was the secret revealed Persian ? Even on the supposition that this unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel word was derived from the Persian, this is not bleaaed the God of heaven. The Septuagint extraordinary, when we learn the intimate adds that the secret was revealed "that relationship between the Median court and very night (iv airrj -rfi vv1<-ri)." Thie may the Babylonian. That Daniel a;nd his be held to be implied in the Aramaic, but fellows should not perish with the rest of the it ie here explicitly stated. Further, the wise men of Babylon. Does this mean that Septuagint speaks of the secret as "the certain of the wise men had already mystery of the king." At the end of perished? It seems al.moat necessary to the ~lo.use the LXX. adds the word evcr,fµ.,,,,, maintain this from the meaningofi~'t (sli•ar), "evidently." All these alterations imply "remnant." It seems at first scarcely additions to the text made by the translator. natural to take thie word as meaning merely Theodotion, the Peshitta, and Jerome a!!Tee "the other," yet the usage in Ezra ie in with the Massoretic text. There has been accordance with this: Ezra iv, 9, "Rehum considerable discussion as to whether this the chancellor and Shimehai the scribe, and revelation was made to Daniel by a dream. the rest (7~1;11) of their companions." A Hitzig aeeumes that the night-vision t.o further question may be raised-Does this Daniel was a repetition of that which had prayer mean that the desire of Daniel and appeared to Nebuchadnezzar, and then pro- hie friends was that, when the wise men ceeds to brand thie as a psychological of Babylon, under whose superintendence impossibility. Keil, Kliefoth, Kranichfeld, they had been taught, were slain, they and Zockler all declare against the identi- should escape? Or does it mean that they fication of a night-vision with e. dream. prayed that "theywith the wise men of Baby- Keil and Kliefoth say in the same words, lon should not be destroyed" ? This wholly "A vision of the night is simply e. vision depends on the meaning to be attached which any one receives during the night to the word CJ! ('im), "with." As in F.nglish, whilst he is awake." And Kranichfeld says, "Of a dream of Daniel, in our present this word o.dmits of both meanings. As case there is not one word." Zockler says, the word is common to Hebrew o.nd Aramaic, "Not a dream-vision, but an appearance we shall to.ke our examples from Hebrew. ( Gesicht) vision, which appeared dl11'ing the Thus Gen. xviii. 24, " That be far from night." They maintain that, though all thee, Lord, to slay the righteous witll the "drealDl!" may be called "night-visions," wicked." As example of the other use of e.11 "night-visions" are not "dreams." It the word, Gen. xxxii. 6, " Esau o.nd four would be difficult to prove that this is the hundred men with him." Usage thus usage of Scripture. lt is quite true that permits us to regard this prayer as inter• the distinotion between a dream and a cessory, that these Hebrew youths prayed vision is tho.t in the former the subject is not only to be preserved themselves, but e.sleep, while in the latter he is awake. It o.lso that all the otherwise men who shared may, however, be doubted whether this their condemnation should also be pre• distinction is always maintained by the served. Thie is the first record of concerted Hebrew and Aramaic writers, even in regard prayer. Of course, in heathen worship to "visions " and " dreams" generally; and there wo.e the caricature of this concert of it seems to us impossible to prove it in regard prayer in the united shouting of the priests, to "visions of the night" and "dreams." say, of Bo.al. Thie is the earliest instance In ver. 28 of the ohapter before UB, there of tho.t praotioe that he.a reoeived euoh a seems no doubt that Da.niel uses these words  TIIE BOOK OF DANIEL. [cm u.1-40.