The Pulpit Commentary — Daniel — Section 105

the interpretntion." Tho reo.son why the by Behrmann, but there is some mist1tk<l intorpreto.tion wo.e shown to N obuchadnezzar in his reference). Thie tendency to derive might be reo.lly to humble him, to show him everything from the Persian is to be sns- tho.t hie empire, splendid a.a it wae, wo.e only pectcrl. The long political connection bn- one in B eucceeemn, o.nd tho.t tho whole tween Babylon a.nd the Aryan nations north aystom of world-empires would ho over- and east of it might easily introrluce words thrown before o. kingdom ect up by tho of such nn origin into the writings of a. God of the Jews. Ilabylonian diplomat. Another derivation Vor. 31.-Thou, 0 king, se.west, and be- is from ;i;:11 (zahah), but seems donbtful, as, hold e. great image. This great image, although in Hebrew, there is no trace of whose brightneBB wo.e excellent, stood before such a verb in Aramaic. The only other thee ; and the form thereof wae terrible. word that merits note is ;J)J ( revii), " a.p- The Greek versions do not require notice, as pearance." Professor Bevan says it is the they do not imply any difference in reading only appearance in Aramaic of a corre- from the Mo.eeoretio text. The Pcehitta ia sponding root to the Hebrew i7~J (ra'iih), shorter," Thou, 0 king, wert seeing, and, lo I " to see." Daniel, it will be seen, lays a. great imo.ge of beauty exceeding excel- stress on the emotions which each feature lent, o.nd it stood before thee." The opening excited, in order to recall, not only the cli.use of the next verse may be regarded dream, but something of the feelings with as ta.king up the lo.at clause of the verse which Nebuchadnezzar. had beheld it. before ue. As to the Axamaic of the pas- With this dream of Nebuchadnezza.r we sage, it is to be observed that the same might compare the dream of the seer of long form of the second person is used in Asshurbe.nipal, given by Lenormant (' La ver. 29. The numeral ,~ (!i,ad) is used in Divination,' p. 137), "The seer (1Joyant) this verse very much in the sense of the narrated to Asshurbanipal how the god- English indefinite article which is used to dess Ietar had stood before him seated translate it in the English versions. It ie re- in her chariot, surrounded by flame, with presented in the Greek Version by ,.._ta. The e. bow in her hand" (see also Smith'11 particle 1~1-l ('"lu), "behold,"does not occur in 'Assurbanipe.l,' pp. 123, 124). It is un- the Ta.rgume: a. cogna.te form occurs in Sama- likely that the colossal image we.a identified ritan, hula. In Talmudic it occurs in a by Nebuchadnezzar with any one of the form like the Samaritan. This word occurs Babylonian gods: perhaps this was one or in eh. vii., varied Ly 111! ('aru), which is re- the elements of the terror excited by the garded as a phonetio-·variation. It may, vision, that he could not identify him. H however, be due to defective penmanship, he did make any identification, Daniel does having the top of the ~ too faintly written. not do anything to jnstify him in any snoh Ite etymology is doubtful. No Assyrian root identification. has been found from which it may be derived. Vera. 32, 33.-This image's head we.a of The word for" image," 07.~ (tzelem), occurs in :fine gold, his breasts and his arms or silver, the Palmyrene inscriptions, as the regular his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs term for a memorial statue. Hence, unless of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. reason can be shown to the contrary, we The versions present no occe.sion of remark, could assume, even though there had been save that Theodotion he.a a doublet, a1 no more, that the figure was like a statue of x•ipu, translating, "the hands, the breast, a man. The word for this, Ji/1 ( diccen ), ocours and the arms." The word rendered "fine" is really" good" (~!,I, tab)- Ne.ture.lly, there only in Daniel ; the corresponding word in have not been preserved to ns any composi~ Ezra. is lJ (dee). The 11 sound ie one that eo images of this kind: gold and silver would readily slips away, that its presence as a certainly soon have found their way to the final lettor ie a sign that the form of a word melting-pot after the fall of the Babylonian possessing it is in an older stage than that empire, had such a statue been erected in without it; hence we would o.rgue that e.e Babylon. Braes and iron were too precious "qJ (dee) is older than tq (da) of the Te.r- not to follow in the same road. Among the gume, so Jil1 (diccen) of Daniel is older Greeks, as we know, there were what were oe.lled "chryselephe.ntine" statnes, partly than "qJ (diio). The word that is most in- gold and partly ivory. In the deecription teresting is r:Jl'! (ziveh): it is rendered given of the Temple of Belue, we see a "brightness" in our version. It is recog- succession something akin to that in the nized by Professor Bevan, on the authority statue, but _it may be doubted whether we of Delitzech, 11e an Aseyrio-Be.bylonie.n word, me.y deduce any connection between the therefore o.ffording an o.dditional evidence two on that account. In the Book of Enoch of the Eastern origin of Daniel. Noldeke _the e.pocalyptist sees mountains of dift'eren t would derive it from the Persia.n zeb (quoted kinds of met(l,1-of gold, silver, brass, iron. DANIEL. 1f (16 TIIE DOOK OF DANIEL. (cu. n, 1-40,