The Pulpit Commentary — Daniel — Section 198

I. PnEBJllNT 0IIASTJBEMENTB ARE NOT FINAL. Thie is a gracious alleviation of tho severity. 'fho darkest element in the Divine judgment ie absent. There is scope for nmonclment, repentance, return. A ray of hope lights up the darkness of the scene. Yea, more; the chastisement, however severe, may be transfigured into supremeBt biassing. "It was good for me to be affiicted." "Out of the eater may come forth meat." A rough and prickly shell may enclose the sweetest kernel. The fire which consumes the dross may only beautify the gold. Loss may be only an unrecognized form of gain. Through faith in God's faithful love we can "glory in tribulation also." "' At the end of the days" the king's insanity ceased. II. LOBB OF REASON DESTROYS MAN'S BENSE OF SELF-SUFFICIENCY. God had taken pains, on previous occasions, to convince Nebuchadnezzar that the invisible Jehovah was the true God of the universe, but the king had hardened bis beart against the conviction. His inveterate pride prevented his belief. Fain would he be his own god. "Our wills are our own: who is Lord over us? " Such was his favourite doctrine. It was pleasant to be self-contained. It was a sweet morsel for the carnal appetite, this flattering unction tbat his own skill and strength had gained him this success. And so ingrained into his nature had this habit of self-trust become, that only the severest discipline from God could dislodge it. But when his understanding became dark, and memory failed, and Reason abdicated, and manhood became a wreck, he learnt in the school of personal experience what he refused to learn before, viz. how frail and dependent is man-how absolute a sovereign is God. At last self-sufficiency is rooted out, and a spirit of meek humility takes its place. Be it ours to learn the lesson without so severe a discipline! Ill. RECOVERED REASON TEACHES us Gon's ETERNAL SOVEREIGNTY. The native tendency of man's mind is to circumscribe its thought about itself. It makes self a centre round which all its thoughts and plans revolve. It vaguely imagines that when personal self fails, the world will collapse. It thinks little about the past, and what has led up to our present privileged position; it cares little about the remote future. But when foolish man "comes to himself," after his aberrations aod follies, he learns that for untold ages One has ruled on the throne of the universe, and is making all events to work out his designs. He was King long before we appeared upon the earthly scene; and he will remain Master of the situation long after we have passed away. His authority none can dispute. Yet, for his honour and for our consolation, it shall be said that his will is right and just and good. "His will is our sanctification." "It is the Lord: let him do what eeemeth him good." IV. THE BIGHT USE OF REASON IS TO GLORIFY GoD. It is the primary and pressing duty of every man to learn the proper use of his faculties. When we have reached years of discretion we should often ask ourselves," What is God's intention in giving me this understanding, this conscience, this reason ? " Our plainest duty is to ascertain, if possible, his intention, and to follow that intention closely. To be self- consistent, we must either deny that he is our Master, and repndiate his every claim, or else we must acknowledge his authority over every part of our nature, and over every moment of our Jives. A partial obedience is no obedience at all. This would be a setting up of self to be the judge when obedience should be rendered, and would be a virtual dethronement of God. Here hesitation or debate is excluded. If my reason be an endowment from God, I am bound, by every tie of obligation, to use it for hie honour, and to magnify him therewith. Therefore the first principle of genuine religion is this: "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever."-D. EXPOSITION. three verses which seem to be either variant CHAPTER V. versions of the Septuagint text, or versions Vere. 1-Sl.-BELSHAZZAR'B FEAST. of a text which was different from that from which the Septuagint has been drawn. In regard to this chapter the peculiar Throughout the chapter, further, there a.re sto.te of the Septuagint text has to be noted. traces of doublets. Most of these variations At the beginning of the chapter there are ooour in the Syriac of Paulus Tellensis. DANrnL, Ill 162 THE BOOK OF DANIEL, [err, v. 1-81, -- ----- -------------------------------- Yer. l.-'Bel11b&-.r the king ma4e & gree.t of the story of the feast. The fa.ot tho.t In feast to & thollll&n4 of hi1 lor41, t.n4 clnnk what we regard as the marginal reading wine before the thonst.n4, AB we have the clause appear& quite differently ren- just iudic11,t.ed, there are two ver&ions in dered, confirms us in our suspicion that the ScptuRgint of several verses in this the llfossoretio text pr<'s~nts a. onse of a chapter, and the ver&e before us is one of "doublet." The reading which begins the these. The first of these is "DaltRSar the chapter ill the LXX. mny be due to re- king mM!e a great feast on the day of the garding ,::ip as the verb "to receive." The dedication of his palace, and invited fl'l)m name Bolshazzar has been the occnsion of his lords two thousand men." The other much controversy. It WRS regarded as reading, which appears to hRVe formed the one of the proofs of the non-historicity of text. is, "B11,ltnsar the ldng made a great Daniel that this name occurred at nil ( ns fe&et for bis companions." The fust Bcrtholdt). We were told that the hist vol"llion seems to have ree.d the due.I instead King of Babylon was Na.buno.hid, not Bcl- of the singular-a proof of the state of the shazzar. The name, however, hns turned language, for the d uo.l has practically up in the Mughcir inscription o.s the son disappeared in the Targums. 'l'he second of Nabunahid, and not only so, but in a version has e,idently rea.d J'""l:l;"i instead connection that implies he wa.s associated of j':l"1:li. Theodotion reads, "Baltasar in the government. From the o.nne.ls of the king made a great feast to thousands N abunahid (2 col.; f1ide 'Beitrii.ge ztir As- of hie lords, and drank wine before the syriologie,' Delitzsch o.nd Haupt, 1891-02, thousands." 'l'he Peshitta agrees with the pp. 218-221) we find tha.t from his seventh Massoretic tei:t. The numeral is thas to his eleventh year, if not from an earlier omitted in the tei:tof the Septuagiat, inserted to a later date, Nabnnahid was in retire- in the dual in the margin, aad appears in ment in Terna, and " ea.me not to Babil," and Theodotion in the pl'nre.l. As the shortest the king's son (Mar Sarri) was with the text is also the oldest, and omits the numeral, nobles (rabuti) and the. army. Even when we feel inclined. to do so also, the more so as the king's mother died, the mourning wa.s the numeral ma.y have resulted from 9~~ carried on by the king's son, Belshazzar. (aluph) being put as the interpretation of Dr. Hugo Winckler (' Geschichte Bahy- :::i-ci (ralwab). The clause in the mar- loniens u. Ammriens,' pp. 315, 316) says ginal version, " on the day of the dedica- Nabnnahid remo.ined intentionally far from tion of his palace," or, as it is rendered by the capital, and abede continually in Tema, Paulus Tellensi.s, "in the day of the dedica- a city otherwise unknown. Not once at tion of the house of his kingdom," is worthy the new year's feast, where his personal of notice. From the fact tbai early in presence was indispensable, did be come his reign every Ninevite king seems to to Babylon. What occasioned H, we know have begun a pa.lace, this statement has not; but it appears as if he had devoted a great deal of verisimilitude. The himself to some kind of solitary life, o.nd clause in the Massoretic text, " e.nd drank wonld not disturb himself with the busi- wine before the thousand," is meaning- ness of government. Not once while Cyrus less, unless as a rhetorical amplification. was marching against Babylon did he rouse From the fact that only the first clause himself, but allowed things to take their course. The government appears to have appears i~ the text of the Septuagiat, t~e been carried on by his son, Bel-shar- authenticity of the rest of the verse 1B utznr, for while Nabuna.hid lived in Terna. rendered doubtful; the more so that tt,:::i,p in retirement, it is mentioned tha.t his ( ~ ) means "a feast" in Ea.stern Ara- son, with the dignitaries, managed affairs in Babylon, and commanded the army. maic, thongh not in Western. It is a. possible Also in several inscriptions in the con- 5olution of the presence of the cl.a.use that cluding prayer, he is named along with ':>:ip, excluded from the text and its place his father, while it is nsna.lly the nam& supplied by on,, was pla.ced in the margia. of the king that is there mentioned. Bel- ':>:ip,, however, means "before." If there shazzar is, then, no mere lwmrious despot, was a.lBo in the margin 1-l.i,tt, "thousa,nds," like the Nabeandel of Josephus, no in- in the emphatic state; as the translation capa.ble youth flushed with the unexpected into Hebrew of ::li::ti (Gen. xxxvi. 17, 15 dignity of government in the city of Baby- Onkclos). If, further, f'""l:ln, "companion." lon, while his father was shut up in Borsippa; he is a bold capable wanior. appeared a.B a vo.rions reading for r::i""l:li, Tyrannical and imperious he may be, yet that would easily be read ,on, "wine ; " faithful to his fathcr,as had Nebuchadnezzar the verb " to drink" would be added to been to Nabopolassar his father. We need complete the sense. We have thUB all the not even look at the identifications of Bel- elements to prodnc.e the di1forent versions ahazza.r with Evil-Meroda.oh, with Labaai- CIT. V, 1-31.J TUB nooK 01<' DANIEL. 1r,.3 -------------------------------- mrmluk, or with N11bunn.hirl. Tho nn.mo for tho purposes of a common fe11st was Bel-•lui1·-utiur means " Doi protocts tho dusccrntion. The Rrldition of the" wives" king," n.nd is rendered in tho Greek versions Rnd "concubinP.s" adds at onC'l to th" "Da1to.sn.r," o.nd in the Vulgo.te "Ilaltassn.r," degradation in the eyes of an Easte,rn, nnd o.nd iclcntico.l with the nnmo given to Da.niel, to the stately rhetorical co.deuce of the o.s we have remrukecl clsowhero. In the verse. This renders all the stronger the Peshitte. the name here is rendered "Beli I· suspicion engendered by the omission of shazo.r," while Daniel's Babylonian name these featnres in the Septno.gint. It is to is "Beletshazzo.r." We do not know when be observed that the Septuagint transln.tor this feast took place. If we take the must have had an Ea.stern Aramo.ic mnnn- Septuagint text here o.s our guirle, it did script before him, or he could never have not te.ke place at the capture uf the city by translated ual "heart." At the same time, Oyrus. If for fiv~, six, or seven years he the presence of women at Babylonian feasts was practically king, Delshazzar may have was not so uncommon as it was in the rest built a palllce, and the feast may ho.ve been of the East, RB we learn from the Ninevite held o.t its dedication. We know that the remains. Certo.inly Quintus Cnrtius men- Babylonians were notorious for their banquets tions this in connection with Alexander's -banquets the.t not infrequently ended in visit to Babylon (v. 1). But was an ob- drunkenness. Although the number of scure Jew likely to know this in Palestine? the guests is doubtful from diplomatic It is very difficult for a. person writing in a. reasons, the number itself is not excessive. different ago to keep strictly to verisimili- We read of Alexander the Great having tude in theso ms tters. Even a contempo- ten thouso.nd guests. rary may make o. blunder in writing, not a. Ver. 2.-Belshazzar, whlles he tasted the novel, but a biography, as Froude, in his wine, commanded to bring the golden and 'Life of Carlyle,' declares he was "quietly silver vessels which his father Mebuchad- married in the parish church of Temple." nezzar had to.ken out of the temple which To be quietly married in a. pa.rish church in was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his any part of Scotland, in the early years of princes, his wives, and his ooncubines, this century, would be a contradiction in might drink therein. The Septuagint has terms. Yet Froude ha.d often been in included the last clause of the Massoretic Scotland. and knew Carlyle well. Could recension of the first verse, "A.nd he drank a Jew living in Palestine have all his wits wine, and his heart was lifted up, and he about him so as to note e,ery varying commanded to bring the vessels of gold feature which distinguished the habits of and of silver of the house of God, which Baby Ion from those of the rest of the East ? Nebuehadnezzo.r his father had brought The question may be asked why were the from Jerusalem, and to pour out wine in vessels of the Lord in Jerusalem singled them for those companions of his (Iv a/rroi, out to be desecrated by a common Illle? It 'rois ha/po,.)." The translator seems to might, of course, be that the sacred vessels have regarded the first syllo.ble of the of the temples of the gods of all conquered name Belshazzar as a separate word, and nationalities were brought in, and thus has tralllllated it according to the mooning that the singling out of the Jewish sacred the word has in Eastern Aro.maic, "heart'' vessels was due, not to the preference of (Exod. xii. 23, Peshitta). After this initial the Bo.bylonian monarch, but to the Jew, mistake-if mistake it was-the remo.ining who saw only those. We think thls can change was easy. The syntax here, accord- scarcely be. It was certainly the policy of ing to the Massoretio text, is different from Nabunahid to draw all worship to Dabylon what we should expeot. ,011 ('amar), "to (Annals of Na.bunahid, col. iii line 20, say," is translated "command" in eight cases "The gods of Akkad. which N abunahid had in this book, and in every other case it is brought to Babylon, were ce.rried back to followed immediately by the infinitive of their city"). But this would lead him to the action commanded. Henco we a.re in- avoid anything that would savour of dis- clined, with the LXX., to omit" whiles he respect to these gods whom he had brought to.sted the wine." While the LXX. Ara- to dwell in Bo.bylon. We do not think it maic seems to have )'1'1.J, "in them," it has would ho.ve been merely the bee.uty of those not had" king," "wives," or "concubines." vessels that led to their desecration, for the As the Septuagint is the shorter, on the temple at Jerusalem had suffered severo.l whole, we prefer it, though we maintain plunderings before the capture of the city, the Mnssoretio reading of " in them," re- and the period between the age of Hezekiah ferring to the vessels. Theodotion and the and Zedekio.h was not one in which wealth Peshitta follow the Massoretio reading. and artistic talent were likely to increase. Whother or not the libation offered to the Some suspicion must have reached the gods was in the mind of the writer, the court of Babylon that the Jews were in mere fact tho.t the sacred vessels were used league with Cyrus; perhaps the contents of  lG4 'l'llE BOOK OF DANIEL. [en. v. 1-31.