The Pulpit Commentary — Daniel — Section 225

opposition of the legn li8ts who hRd deter- this door WRB Daniel cRet, and when he IH\d mined on DRniel'a dPRth; be is obliged, been 80 OR.et in, a stone was rolled up to therefore, t,o gil•e the order tbe.t the scntenoe the aperture 11.nd seRled. There is no neces- be Pxccuted. In doing 80 he commends sity for 11.rguing, IU! Hitzig Rnd von Lengorke his friend to the God. or the gods, if we do, 11.gainAt this incident. The passage the take the K'thib instee.d of the Q'ri. Darius former refers to in Xenophon's •Ans.basis' prob&bJ~- knew nothing of Daniel's religions (v. 5. 25)applies to d wclli ngs of human beings, beliefs, and therefore would be prone to and even if we could trnnsfcr its description lmagine that be worshipped several gods, to the present case, it woul,l not damago onr and to them he commends him. The e.ddi- argument. In these dwellings Xenophon tion of the Septuagint is picturesque, "Be tells us "were goats, sheep, oxen, birds, and of good cheer until the morning." More- their young; all the cattle o.re fed within over, it fits in to wha,t follows, 11,nd at the with green fodder." These critios forget same time it is not of such a nature as that the.t lions' dens were in use not only among It shou Id suggest itself to the ordina.ry in- the Assyrians e.nd Babylonians, but also terpolatnr. among the Greek monarchs, 11nd so, even if Yer. 17.-And a &tone was brought, and the writer was of the late date o.ttributed laid upon the month of the den; and the to him by critics, still he would not spee.k king &ealed it with his own signet, and nonsense about what be could not fail to with the &ignet of bi& lords; that the lmow something. Hitzig sees in Do.niel purpose might not be changed concerning being let down into the den of lious an Daniel. The Septuagint text begins, ac- imitation of what befell Joseph at the cording to Tischendorf, with a pBBSage hands of his brethren. Certainly the same elsewhere considere<l, "And the king was word is used in the To.rgum of Onkelos, grieved, and commo.nded to cast Daniel Gen. xxxvii. 22, but identity of name does into the den of lions, according to the not prove identity of thing. No one could decree which he had made concerning argue that the pit of a theatre was neces- him.'' This is repeated from the four- sarily dark, dirty, e.nd damp, because a teenth verse, where it appears alike in coal-pit is. That Reuben persuaded his the Chisian Manuscript and in the version brethren to put Joseph in the pit in order of Paul of Tella, "Then Daniel was cast to save him alive, and the rulers had int-0 the den of lions, and 11, stone was Daniel put in the lions' den in order to brought and placed at the mouth of the destroy him, is nothing to the purpose, it den, and the king sealed it with his own would seem ; the.t there were lions in the signet o.nd with the signet.s of his lords, in pit or den in which Daniel was placed, order that Da.niel might not be raised by e.nd no venomous beast in that into which them or delivered by the king out of the Joseph we.s let down, is also of no moment. den." The rell,BOll assigned for the don ble The further fa.et that this Jotting down sealing of the stone, while 11, very probable into the pit occurs in the beginning of one, is from its very probability to be sus- Joseph's career, and in Daniel's case it is pected; it is most likely a.n explanatory near the end of a long o.nd prosperous life, marginal remark, that has ·slipped into the is not noticed. The life of Daniel must text. It will be observed that the clanse be proved to be written in imitation of with which the Septuagint Version of this the life of Joseph, so any means are good verse begins is the equivalent of the open- enough to secure this predetermined con- ing clause of the preceding verse. Theo- clusion. While this resemblance is only dotion's rendering does not differ from the superficial, there is another resemblo.nce Ma.ssoretic reading. From the similarity that is, at all events, full of interest. In of the dialects, the resemblance of the Pe- later history there was another sealing of sbitta to the Massoretio is even closer. the stone that was rolled to the i'nouth of a There are few criticisms of D&niel more grave-it may be noted that gob is used for Ullfair tha.n that founded on the a.asumption a "grave" also--and fear here also was lest that the writer he.d a bottle-shaped dungeon the innocently condemned might be taken in his mind, tbe.t might be covered over as a.way. e. well by one large stone. Nothing in the Ver. 18.-Then the king went to his pa- words used implies this. While gob cer- lace, and pa&sed the night fasting: neither tainly meo.ne a "pit" or a "cistern, ' it we.s were instruments of musio brought before by no mea.ns necessarily of small size or him: and his sleep went from him. In the covered over with one stone, so that within Jlfaesoretic text one of the clauses, " Neither it would be darlmees. There were probably were instruments of music brought before walls rising from the sides of the pit which him," has caused gTeat difficulty. The formed the den ; in that wall there would word dahvan translated "instruments of be naturally an aperture through which music " is r~ndered by Fiirst, " dancing- food could be passed to the lions. Through girl ; ,: Geeeniu11, "concubine; "Bosenmiiller oe. vr. 1-28.] THE BOOK OF DANIEL. 191