The Pulpit Commentary — Daniel — Section 151

11ig h11.e euggeeted the.t the K'thib here is to nothing of this sort; hie decree is simply be preferred to the Q'ri, me.inte.ining thR.t negative. :-,':,~ means "word," while 1':>tt! ree.lly me11.ns Ver. 30.-Then the king promoted Sha- '' ine.dvertenoe." Cert11.inly, if we were enre drac~, Meshe.ch, e.nd A.bed-nego, in the the.t tbe mee.ning he gives to 1"1',i, is correct proVInoe of Babylon. The Septu11.gint and the versions e.ll support it, we would renders here, "Thus, then, the king ge.ve ~ve the preference to it. It h&e however authority to Shadrach, Mesho.ch, and Abed- to be borne in mind the.t, in the ~otions of nego, 1md appointed them to be rulers over heathenism, intentional disrespect wo,s not the whole province."- '!'here seems to ho.ve taken into consideration in regard to the been e. slight difference of re11.ding, probably gods. 'l'he intention of the worshipper hashlayt instee.d of halzln h and le' /wl m•dee- WR.S of very little moment in Bllch e. •~h instead of la'mdeennti; Babel. It sceme matter; he might even desire to be speci- ~i.ffic~t to decide which of these two reo.d- ally respectful to the deity he worshipped ; mgs 1s the prefem~l~; perhe.ps, on the but if, by inadvertence, he omitted some- who!e, the Me.seoret10 1s the simpler. The thing. or did eomething which was not version of Theodotion is considero.hly inter- according t.o rule, all the good will and polated, " Then the king promoted Sha- respect in his mind w&e nothing-the wrath drach, Meshach, e.nil Abednego in the of the insulted deity WR.S poured out in full province of Babylon, e.nd me.do them gree.t measure, unless some other deity regarded e.~d reckoned them worthy to have autho= the action in question as specially honouring rity over all the Jews in his kingdom." to him. It was the external action-the Th~ first portion e.grees with the Me.BBO- mere form of words-the.t was the impor- retic text and with the LXX. in sense ; but tant matter with the polytheist. Idolatry the lBBt o~ause is a muoh le.tar addition. is by its very nature a mental a.nd moral The Peshitte. agrees with the Me.ssoretic. disease ; it is as absurd to expect logically The exact meaning of hatzlah is " to make concatenated actions from a.n idol-worshipper glad," "to give rewards to,"· e.nd therefore in regard t.o his deities, as to expect the is in no conflict with the Massoretio re- same from e. madman in regard to his craze. cen~ion of the concluding verse of the pre- W' e must guard against imagining that the ceding chapter, "A.nd Daniel requested of decree was e.gainst blasphemy as e. crime the king, and he set Shadraeh, Meshach, ag-..inst Jehovah. Primarily it was age.inst and Abednego, over the affairs of the words that, by exciting the wre.th of Jehove.h, province of Babylon." It is to be observed might bring down damage on the empire. tho.t in the deutero-Isaiah (xliii. 2) there Nebuchadnezzar we.a not jealous for the seems to be a reference to this event, " When honour of Jehovah, hut for the safety of the thon wal.kest through the fire, thou. shalt Babylonian supremacy. The punishment not be burned, neither shall the flame threatened, it may be observed, is the same kindle upon thee." The deliverance from u that decreed against the wise men Egypt, and the paBBage of the Red Sea. beco.use of their failure t.o tell the dream and the entrance into Canaan, and the e.nd its interpretation. In regard to this, in po.ssage of the Jordan, are referred to in eh. ii. 5 the 8eptnagint renders the phrase, tile fuot part of this verse, " When thou .. Ye shall be made an example of,and your passest through the waters, I will be with goods shall be eschee.t to the king's treasury." thee, and through the rivers, they shall not This change, e.s we maintained, was due overflow thee." It certainly is but natural t.o a difference of ree.ding, not t.o any objec- to suppose that the deliverance of the three tion t.o the harshness of the phrase. The Hebrews from the furnace of Nebuchad- object of the punishment here was to re- nezzar is the historice.l reference of the move utterly from the earth the wrong-doer latter. e.nd every remembrance of him, so the.t the offended deity might have no excuse for EuurslU on the Song of the Three Holy visiting the kingdom of Babylon with judg- Children. ments. The reason. •• because there is no other god that can deliver after this sort," ~en the student of the apocryphal is not t.o be stretched too far. .All that is e.ddit10n to the Book of Daniel passes from e.eserted is that no other god has been able the consideration of Susanna and the to deliver hiB worshippers out of the very Elders, and Bel and the Dragon, with realm of the god of fire, and therefore it is their manifold absurdities and manifest to be argued that his power of offence is as tokens of a Greek origin, to that of the peat; hence aU are to avoid enraging him; Song of the Three Holy Children, he feels out there is no worship enjoined. The he has come into e. different atmosphere. Lagid princes, when Jerusalem was in He has not done more than caHuo.lly pe- their Lande, ordered sacrifices to be offered rused the whole of the composition called on tLc,ir Lelw.lf daily. N ebucLadnezzar does "The Song of the Three Holy Children,"  au.m.1~0.] THE BOOK OF DANIEL. 113