The Pulpit Commentary — Daniel — Section 103

the sorcerers, the mftgicicins." There seems ?mitted by _the Septuagint, we may conlli,kr to ho.vo been II confusion between 1'1))1, it not gennme, but due to a caso ,,r <l.ouhlr:t ('anah), "to answer," and 11/¥ (fz•noh), "to m the Aram11io copies. Romo eopics hn.yo cry out; " the latter word is unsuitable in ~ho present clause here, witho11t the open- U10 present connection. Tho cho.nge from m~ cla.use o~ the next, and others withont ~N::I to nm is unlikely to hnvo been the this, bnt havmg the opening clrtusc or Yer. result of o.ny miBto.ke in tho writing of the 2(). Then crtme a copyist, wh(), unn.blo t,J origino.1. H mny have been the Greek settle which wae the better renrling, inseru:rl scribe who misread ~pw-r71a-ev into ,JpaKev. ~th. .There_ i8 a Go,! in heaven. -No nation ID ancrnnt tID1es wae so a.rldictcd to tbe Theodolion and the Peshitto. present no peculio.rities worthy of notice. Jerome study of the stare of heaven and to the translo.tee ashshaphim by magi, ae usual future a.a were the Chaldcnns. Here Daniel following the Peshitta. It ie to be observed announces that the God of heaven, ,JehoYah, tho.t here ngo.in we hove a liet of the dif- the God of oppressed Judah and eonquer~d ferent cluseee of soothsayers, and the cla.se Jernsalem, wae the God who mled all the of Chaldeane is omitted, o.e o.leo those stars from which the Chaldeans derived marked ae m'cashphim in ver. 2; instead, the knowledge of the future they thought occupying the same pin.co in the catalogue, they had, ~nd arranged for his own pur- is gazrin. This may have been the original poses all things that were coming upon the word, as evidently the real meaning wo.s earth, and he could tell what no one on not known eitl1er in Egypt or Asia Minor, earth could do. And the reason of this he as both the LXX. and Theodotion transfer also makes plain-God had expressly sent the word. The Peshitta translates this the.dream to Nebncha.dnezza.r in order that word by asuphe, in reality the correspond- he might know what was to "be in the ing one to the second word in the Chaldee. latter days." Ho, Nebuchadnezzar was This would seem to show that the word had the first of the great imperial powe~ who disappeared from Eastern o.s well as Western rnled after Israel ceo.sed to be so much a. Aramaic. It is derived from g•zar, " to nation ae a. faith. After the Babylonian cut." Behrmann (' Das Buch Daniel') Captivity Judaism became a. ChUl'ch over derives it thus, and says that it refers to the against a heathen state. Hence to him fa.et that those who studied nativities with whom this new state of thin~ be"'an divided the heavens into sectiones or seg- was this message given. It has ;xerc~ed menta. Thie was precisely what the many why this revelation of the future "Chaldea.ne '' of classic times did ; hence was made to this heathen monarch. Yet it is quite a possible thing that Ohaldeans w_e must re':llember that, though made was inserted in some Greek translations, dir~ctly to him, through hie obstinacy, it and got into the Aramaic from the Greek. amved at the Prophet Daniel, for whom it The word does not seem to be used for was meant. Yet again, no one can read " astrologers" in the Talmud. The occasion the inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzar and fail of Da.niel'e narrating the impotence of the to observe how deep and unfei~ed 0 was his other wise men in presence of the task set piety according to his light. He worship- t~em by the 1.-ing is the.t probably he recog- ped_ Merodach, and if, in his ascriptions of nized the e.ccent of surprise in the king's pra1Se, we were to plo.ce "Jehova.h" instead tone. As if he ea.id, " Yee, it is perfectly o~ '.' Merodach," these prayers and thanks- trne, what none of these wise men could do, givmge would appear almost a.a if borrowed I, a mere youth, undertake to do." There from the Hebrew Psalter. God, who is nothing of contempt for them in this a.e rcadeth the hearts of men, might well have is seen in the following verse. There ~y ee~n such a heart in this com1neror that he be a shade of rebuke implied to the king, might be honoured v.ith o. revelation. The who had demanded from men what they phrase, "latter days," had a special refer- ~ould not do. They had declared tho.t only ence in Jewish prophetic lan,,.ua"'e to the the gods could reveal this to the king. times of the l\lessiah (Isa. ii. \l); hence we And what Daniel ea.ye ie not in opposition may assume the.t this vision would stretch to this, but confirmatory of it. in ite revelations on to the times of tho Ver. 28.-But there is a God in heaven kin~dom ~hi~h the Lord would set up. the.t revealetli. seorets, e.nd maketh known It lS unscient1fio to press this as meaniD"' to the King Nebuoha.dnezzo.r what shall be ~he absolute last time, as docs Hitzig. It in the latter days. Thy dream, and the 1e not the future generally, as Hii.\·erniek. visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these. ':Ve must be led by the usag-e of prophetic All the versions a.re o.t one with the Masso- literature. Thy dream, ancl the ~-isions oj th:., retio text to the beginning of the lo.et clause, head upon thy berl, are these. 'fhls clause which begins a new sentence. Thie last o.s wo have indie~ted, is probably one of clo.uso is omitted in the Septungint. The two parallel readings. There is probably clo.uee is pleonastio; the!'efore, seeing it is no distinction intended between "dream"  64 THE BOOK OF DANIEL. [en, u, 1-49,