The Pulpit Commentary — Daniel — Section 349

Ing to tho LXX. re1tlly belongs to this, and he shall oanH them to rnle ov11r man:, "Strong nBtione ehttll bo subject to him," and . shall divide the land for gain. Th~ rending O')f 0•9N7 ineteBd of 0•1~9 r;il,.l\'?· vers10n _of th~ LXX. is eomewhe.t difficult to Thero le n in the Mnesorotio, where• he.s been render mtelhgibly, "By desires of cUiee he in tho rending followed by the Septuagint. shall ac~, and to e. strong fortress shall he After this cl1tuse tho Beptungint proceeds, come with e. str&nge god whom he will "And to his pince he shall move, Bnd a god acknowledge; !ie will increase his glory,a.nd whom hie fothers knew not he ehttll honour shal,l master him much, and shall divide his with gold, 1tncl silver, o.nd precious stones." It temtory freely." The fir.;t words of this is posdiblu thttt ,,i(nadad)," to flee or move," b_elong to the previous verse, and at the ea.me wo.sreo.d instead of iJJ (kabad), "tohonour;" time there he.a been some confusion with th" for though 1e,v,w is usuttlly active and transi- ?pening words of the present verse accord'. tive, tu ere is no object here. Theodotion has, rng to the Massoretic division. Theodotion "And the God of Mo.ozeim he shall honour is not much closer to the received text "And in his pince, and a god whom hie father he shall e.ct in strongholds of refuge with knew not he shall honour with gold, silver, e. strange god, and shall increase glory and 1tnd precious stones, and with offerings." subject many to them, and shall divid~ the The Peshitta rendering is freer, "The l~nd ~ gifts." The sense of this last, e.s mighty god he shall honour in his posses- given m the Greek versions, is illustrated sion, and e. god whom his fathers h ...ve not by Ps. xvi. 4. The Peshitta renders, "He known shall he honour with gold and with shall pass over I to the strong cities, on silver, with precious gems and desirable account of ('al) the strange gods which he things." The Vulgate adopts the translitera- shall see, and he shall rule over many, and tion Maozim. In hie eatate ,hall he honour the land he shall divide for gain." The the god of force,. There are a number of Vulgate renders more in accordance with questions here. To whom does the prenomine.l Theodotion than with the Massoretic yet suffix refer ? The English translators have independently, "And he shall do (faciet) arranged the words so that we cannot that he may fortify Maozim with a foreign escape the view that "the estate" is the god, whom he knew not, and shall multiply king's, but the natural meaning of the glory, and shall give to them power in Hebrew order is that it is "on the place" many (things), and shall divide the land or " pedestal " of the god. The word trans- gratuitous Iy." This verse e.s it stands lated "estate " is used in Gen. :z.l. 13 for is nearly unintelligible. The suaaestion of "office.'' It ie used of the "base" of the Hitzig and von Lengerke, followed by Bevan "!aver." It may mean" place." The next that we should read □!' ('am), "people," in~ point-What Deity is meant by "the god of stead of 017 ('eem), "with," is very plausible. strong holds " ? There is absolutely nothing The only objection is the.t none of the versions to guide ns in the matter. Some have he.ve it, As, however, it seems to us the supposed that the reference is to Jupiter only way out of the difficulty, we shall take Olympiue, whose statue Antiochus is re- this reading, and render, with Professor ported to have set up in the temple. Others, Bevan, " He shall procure for the strong thBt the reference ie to Jupiter Ce.pitolinns. fortresses the people of e. strange god." For Were there any evidences the.t Antiochns this use of l'lil'J1 Professor Beva,n refers to worshipped the genius of Rome, something 2 Sam. xv. I, "Absalom procured for him- might be urged for this; but we have no self chariot e.nd horses;" I Kin!!"!! i. 5 so evidence of this. In the absence of any- of Adonije.h. Whom he ,hall aokno,oledge thing to fix e. definite meaning on this and. increase with glory. This we should word, we feel inclined to suggest that rend~r, "who he.ve acknowledged him," Jehovah is meant by the eloah mauzzeem. makmg the antecedent to the relative Repeatedly in the Psalms is God declared not the king, but "the people of the strana~ tobe the Strength of theeaint; e.g. Pas. xxvii. god ; " the reference being to the merc':i- I; xliii. 2. Of Jehovah it might be said nttries of the Syrian e.rmy, who were the that the ancestors of Antiochus-Greek and people of a god strange to the Israelites, Syrian-knew him not. Honour with gold, e.nd not impossH1ly made less difficulty in etc. The repeated defee.te of the armies of giving up their national go<ls, and recoo-- Antiochus cmd the spoiling of their camps by nizing the gods of Greece as their god~. the followers of Jehovah, was giving honour The K'thib here is the preterite instead of to Jehovah, however unwittingly and un- the imperfect, which occurs in the followinQ willingly it was done. God" gat him honour clause, the reading which we accept her;;' upon Phttraoh," and so now he was honoured He •hall increase with glory; or rather, h, upon Epiphanes. Ver. 89.-Thns shall he do in the most 1 Is this duo to error in transori ption iJ strong holds with e. strange god, whom he the manuscripts of the PeshittB, 'aber bein, ehall aoknowledge and inoreaae with glot7; written instead o[ '"bad ? ' DANIEL, y  322 THE BOOK OF DANIEL, (011, XI, 1-4.5