The Pulpit Commentary — Daniel — Section 154

lo-nasi' tl'lo-nal>i', "neither prineo nor pro- D9:niel, Daniel. speaks or tho srmd •rnry phet." As a. mattor of fa.et, in the period berng a desolo.t1on, and by connection it is of Dnniol, propheoy hnd not eco.sed, an•l implied Jerusalem was a. desolation also· 1111 through tho times of Jewish history it but in the song before us there ii, no pi,,,;, wo.s known tho.t there ho.d been prophets for sa.orilico or offering. The Jews aro during the time of tho Exilo. There was, excluded from the temple, there is no p!ace nt nil events, Ezekiol by the river Chcb11r, allowed them there, but the place itaelf is nnd ovon if we to.ke tho d11te of the Sep- not a. desolation. tuagint for the inauguration of this golden If, again, we turn to the eighth verge of image, and say thnt it WIIB tho eighteenth the Song of Azario.h, we find still further year of Nebuchadnezzar, Jeremiah was still evidences of the ~xternal circumstances in living and prophesying. As for "princes," which it WIIB composed. "And thou diilllt they were still in J eruscilem, if we reckon deliver us into the hands of lawless enemies, the eighteenth year strictly, but if we most hateful forsakers of God, and to an un- regard it as counted according to the just king, and the most wicked in all the Babylonion reckoning, and therefore that world." The two Greek versions are here Jerusalem had nlready fallen, there were ill absolute agreement; the Syriac here, still" princes," although captives. Moreover, as elsewhere, presents signs of its illde- Coniah WIIB still living, the former king, e.s pendent origin, "And thou ha.at delivered also was Zedekiah. If we turn to Daniel, ua illto the hands of lords of enmity, evil ho declares the reason of the fall of men who are far from thee, and the habi- Jerusalem and of the captivity of the people tation of a wicked kingdom, the most -because kings and princes and people he.d miserable in all the earth." The struc- refused to hearken to the word of the Lord ture of the latter he.If of this illdicatea, as spoken by the prophets. Daniel implies as it seems t.o us, that somethillg has the existence of prophets, princes, and kings, been misunderstood in the original docu- if not absolutely necessarily in the actual ment. Some word meaning "unto the present, yet in the immediate past, which, power of " has been interpreted as beillg historically genuine or not, fits the setting. " d wellillg-place," that necessitated the In the Song of Azariah there is no reference change of "king" to "kingdom." If we to a king; there is reference to "a prince " then assume the Greek versions to be correct, (nasi', not aar, which is usually "one of we find a state of things exactly fitting the many"). In confirmation of this, there is period we he.ve suggested a.hove. The not only the play on the words, if it is nan~, mode of speaking of their oppressor-" an but also the fact tha.t the word used in both unjuat king, the most wicked in all the Greek versions is liPX"'"• which is the most earth "-is qnite unlike anything in the Old common representation of nan~ in the Sep- Testament. When Hezekiah prays to God tua.gint. 1 This wa.s the title of the head of to be delivered from the powe? of Senno.- the Sanhedrin, a.nd home usually by the cherib,a.lthough hehe.dreproe.ohed the living high priest. It may a.lso be noted tha.t, while God, he does not declare that he is wicked. " sacrifices " and " offerings " a.re mentioned Sennacherib is denounced as proud and es having oea.sed, there is no mention of cruel, but not as wicked. That would im- "priests." If this song WIIB written at a ply a certain amount of godlessness, of time when the " prince " was the head of which none of the Assyrian monarchs could the priests, this omission would be ex- be accused, a.ndlee.st of all could Nebuchad- plicable. Taking this as our guide, we nezzar. Suoh a statement is ill complete should fix the date of the composition of antagonism to the character given to Nebu- the Song of Azaria.h at a time when the chadnezzar in Daniel. It was by no means high priesthood was in abeyance, that is, an unnatural description of Ephiphanes. during the Maccabean struggle, from the He seems to have had no belief in deities·or time when Epiphanes definitely desecrated any kind. His persecution of the Jews had the temple till its reconsecration by Judas in all likelihood a motive either of policy or Ma.cca.breus. When we look at the state of vengeance. Nebuchadnezzar had never of the temple a.a implied in this Song of attempted to perseoute religion in the ordi- Azariah as compared with the prayer of tiary sense of the word. The officials of his court he might a.nd did expect to follow him 1 In the Peshitta. the word is more in worship. general, rosh, " head," and there is no Another thing to be observed is those reference to prophet in the balancillg olause ; that have turned nway from God~rocr'T..-rw., but ahaleet, "ruler," ocours, and nabf, -T'lieeqeen in the Peshitta.. There were cer- " prophet," follows, balanced by m•dabor110, tainly many" apostates" at the time of the "leader "-an additional evidenoe of the conquest of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, independence of the Syria.o versiou of this but they were not apostates to the deities of song, Babylon. The "other gods" the ldraelites 116 THE BOOK OF DANIEL. [oR, III, 1-80.