The Pulpit Commentary — Daniel — Section 351

oxplnna.lion Cavoure,1 by Keil of tble whole esoape. Edom, Moab, llnd Ammon :iro chrtJ)tor, tho.t the Icing of the north is mentioned, but Moab had by this time die- nnt1oluist, ie applied here; but eo much of llppeared e.s e, national name. It may have tho earlier portion of this cbo.pter can be been inserted-as suggested by Professor inlcrprcted o.e history, that we, for our po.rt, ~eva~-in consequence of the freriuent con- 11re loth to ~ivo 11.n eecho.tological interpre- Junction of the three names, "Moab, Am- tation to Una. 'fhe view fe.voured by moat mon, and Mount Beir." It is, however, is tho.t liern tho o.uthor ne.rro.ted hie expec- singular that these nations should be namerl ta.tions, but these expecto.tious were contrary o.s "escaping," since they were the allies of to foots. '!'hie is Professor Beve.n's view. Antiochus, or more properly, as they would If this view ho.d been correct, the expecta- be regarded by him as subjects, his instru- tions of the author would be falsified ments in the oppression of farael. It may almost as soon as they were recorded ; this be tha.t this version of the vision of Daniel would certainly seem to render it impossible has been less modified from the original than for the book to get the voguo it did. We, what has preceded. In the original docu- for our po.rt, favour a modification of the view ment, Edom, Moab, and Ammon might maintained by liitzig, that this section is a. have some symbolic reference. '1.'he glorious repetition of who.t has been previously men- land can scarcely be other than Palestine. tioned. Age.inst this is the chronological It is rendered by Ewa!,!, "the land of the statement at the beginning. Regarding, as ornament." It might be rendered, " the we do, this chapter as an interpolation and land of the gazelle." Out of the thirty pas- the work of o. later band, our idea is that sages in which this word occurs in Scrip- tile section before us is one attempt to ture, fourteen times it must have this interpolate, and the preceding section is meaning, in some of the other cases it another, and tho.t both have been incor- may have it. So fo.r, then, as the name poro.ted in the narrative. goes, it might apply to any country fitted Ver. 41.-He shall enter also into the for the habitation of the gazelle; but the glorious land, and man:, countries shall be mention of "Edom, Moab, and Ammon" overthrown: but these shall escape out of renders it neo.rly a necessity that the his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the reference here be to Palestine. Many chief of the children of Ammon. The Sep- countri~ shall be o-r,erthroum. The verb tuagint rendering is slightly of the no.ture used is kashal, which means, in the niphal, of a paraphrase, "And he shall pass into "to totter," "to fall," "to be weak." It is my lo.nd,1 o.nd mo.ny (feminine) shall be assumed by Hitzig and Fuller, as by the offended, and these shall be saved from his English versions, that "countries" is to be hand, Edom, and Moab, and the head of the understood. Ewald, however, and many sons of Ammon." It is possible that the other commentators, following the older word tz'bee was omitted, and the prenomina.l versions, would refer to men, and translate, suffix attached to 'aretz. 'fheodotion "myriads sho.ll fall." In the version from renders, "And he shall enter into the land which Origen has supplemented the Sep- of the Sabaei>m, and many shall be made tugint it is rendered, "Many women or weak; but these shall be delivered out of countries shall be offended (a-,cav6al\ur6-r/a-ov- his hand, Edom, o.nd Moab, o.nd chief of the -ra,),'' the feminine rendering being due sons of A.m.mon." The transliteration here to the feminine termiuation --0th in rabboth, might suggest c:::11 instead of •~it, and a but the verb is ma.sculine. mistake of the fo~er for c~•p i~ in the Ver. 42.-He shall stretch forth his hand s,1uo.re letters not impossible; but l/ and JI T also upon the countries : and the land of are, in the older scripts, very unlike. 'l'he Eg;ypt shall not escape. The Septuagint Peshitta, while agreeing with the Masso- rendering is, " And he shall send forth his retie generally, renders, " the glorious hand upon the countries, and in the llllld of land," "the land of Israel "-an evident Egypt there shall not be a saviour in it." paraphrase. The V ulgate introduces solai The first part of this verse is marked with before Edom and Moab, otherwise agreeing 8Jl asterisk. Evidently the text before the with the received text. The expedition of translators had ;n~~;l ;,~ (lah p'laylah), "to Autiochus ree.ches Palestine, on which the her deliverance," and "deliverance" in the full foroo of the tempest is represented as abstract became "deliverer" in the con- being directed. The countries adjacent oreto. Tbeodotion renders in a different senso, "And he shall stretch his hand upon 1 After this clause to the end of the the laud, and the land of Egypt sllo.11 not verse, the asterisk is placod in the Syriao be for salvation." The idea here is that Version, indicating an omission from the for the land of Palestine, Egypt shall not Septuagint Version. The lacunre are be a deliverer. Thi,, probably, is the truo usually supplied from TheodotioJl; but here reading. The Peshitta agrees with the this is JlOt SQ, Mnssorctic pretty closely," He shall strdch  321 THE BOOK OF DANIEL, [ou. x1. 1-46,