The Pulpit Commentary — Daniel — Section 141

If this is oorreot, it gi'l"es II point to "·bat speeches Rre reported In the oratio recta, the youths begin tb<"ir answer with in they Rny more record or olalm to record the ver. 16. If we tako the more common tpsiBBima "erba tlmn if the speeches hnd rendering, wo see the generosity of the been recorded in the oratio obliqua of more king. Full of rage and fnry aB he is, he Western tongues. The presumption is thnt will gh-e them an opening to say that it Wal! merely the main heads of the converso.tion of inadvertence that they failed to obey his aro recordrd. 'l'hesc very jolts and lenps nre doorec. 'l'his is fully borne out by the next in themselves indirect evidences of the verse. If Nebuchadnezzar Wal! full of fury truth of the document with which we have at the crime against the fods, he yet was to do. It would have been easy to insert carefnl that the en\'j o the Chaldoans e. question and answer to bridge over the ehould not hinder him from giving the hiatus. Onlf one recording facts would bo J ewe who hRd been 1tOOul!Od to him a chanoe regardless o this. The attitude of mind to defend thC'msclves. This mental fair- expressed by these last wordll of Nebuchad- ness it was which, despite his ontbursts of nezzar a.re natural to a heathen, and capricious rage, drew the affection of those especially to mone.rchs of the Assyrian about him to Nebuchadnezzar. type. Sennacherib's words of defiance (2 Ver. 15.-Nowifye be readythat a.twhat Kinga xviii. 33) a.re quite in the same line, time ye hea.r the sound of the cornet, :flute, "Rath any of the gods of the nations ha.rp, ea.okbut, psa.ltery, and dulcimer, and delivered his land out of the hand of the all kinds of musie, ye :fa.11 down a.nd worship King of Assyria.?" The capture of Jerusalem theimagewhiohlha.vema.de; well: butifye by his arms we.a regarded by Nebuchad- worahip not, ye shall be out the ea.me hour nezzar a.s a. demonstration that the God of into the midst of a. burning :fiery furnace ; Israel was inferior to the gode of Babylonia.. and who is tha.t God tha.t ahall deliver you To Nebuchadnezzar this belief would not out of my ha.nds t The di:ft'erences between in the slightest degree contradict his pre- the Septuagint nnd the MaBeoretic text are vious declaration ( eh. ii. 47), that this same not grea.t. The last clause is rendered, "but God was " a God of gods, and e. Lord of if not, know." It inserts the epithet kings." He might be great as a. Revealer .. golden " after " image." The insertion of of secrets, but not in might to deliver-in .. know ye" makes the sentenoe run more that he was clearly inferior to the gode of easily, but it is not to be e.coepted. Here, Babylon, e.s the events of recent campaigns as before, "midst" is omitted. Theodotion had abundantly proved. It is this declara- is very close to the MILBBOretic, but agrees tion, with the idea behind it of the limitation with the Septuagint in its omission of of.Jehovah, that gives the event narrated "midst" and its insertion of "golden.." in this chapter its importa.nce, The Peshitta is in yet closer agreement with the Massoretic text, save in regard to Ez;cur,U,B on the Musical Instrument, in thi, the mUBical instrument&-p'samerin, e.s in Chapter. the other cases, being omitted. It seems clear from this that the festival of the The names of the m11Sice.l instruments dedication of this new idol of the BabyIonian which occur in the fifth, seventh, tenth, and king occupied aeveral days. Nebuchad- .fifteenth verses of this chapter are supposed nezzar, willing to sa'l"e those Jews, is ready to to afford e. demonstrative proof of the late condoue their first failure to obey his com- date of Daniel. Thus Canon Driver, by no ma.nd if, probably at the sunrise of the means an extreme critic, declares that, following day, they were willing when they while "the Hebrew and Arame.io permit" beard the sound of the mUBice.l instruments a late date, these Greek words " demand" to fall down and worship this golden image that the date of Daniel be placed as late as which he had set up to the honour of his the period of the Syrian power. The words god. The le.tter claUBC does not seem in in question are--q_athro,, p•santerin, swm- perfect harmony with the tone of the earlier plwnya. The first of these, ciir;,8 (qath'ros), part of the verse. There has been no re- appears to be transferred from the Greek ference in the conversation e.s reported to ,deapu ( ,c,6apa), from its resemblance to the any other god to explain Nebuchadnezzar's older form, ,cl8ap1r, which occurs in Homer; demand, " Who is the.t God that shall de- we may deduce that the word, if borrowed liver you ont of my hands?" Moreover, from the Greek, was borrowed at an early thc,rc, is in tile beginning a desire appareut period. Canon Driver would not, in view of to give, these Jewish officlllls a way of the intercourse between Greece and Babylon, escapi:, but in the last claUBe there is con- press this word as proof of the recent date tewpt as wi:11 11.11 anger expressed. The of Daniel. The intercourse, between Daby- fact is that while the simple structure of lon and Greece was sufficiently great to Sl,cmitic lc:nds itself to direct narration, have rendered the conveyance of this nBme the M,d,ar is not to Btlppose that, though at least not impossible. It has been shown, CII, III. 1-30.] THE BOOK OF DANIEL. 103