--- title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible" author: "Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 488 of 927 url: https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/488/ cite: "Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, section 488. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/488/" --- # Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible *Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown* The Victorian standard commentary, critical and practical, from Genesis to Revelation. ## 488. Daniel · 8 of 17 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/488/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/488/#p-N [¶0] as ... aforetime--not from contempt of the king's command. [¶1] 11. assembled--as in [Da 6:6], "assembled" or "ran hastily," so as to come upon Daniel suddenly and detect him in the act. [¶2] 12. They preface their attack by alleging the king's edict, so as to get him again to confirm it unalterably, before they mention Daniel's name. Not to break a wicked promise, is not firmness, but guilty obstinacy ([Mt 14:9]; [Mr 6:26]). [¶3] 13. That Daniel--contemptuously. [¶4] of ... captivity of Judah--recently a captive among thy servants, the Babylonians--one whom humble obedience most becomes. Thus they aggravate his guilt, omitting mention of his being prime minister, which might only remind Darius of Daniel's state services. [¶5] regardeth not thee--because he regarded God ([Ac 4:19]; ). [¶6] 14. displeased with himself--for having suffered himself to be entrapped into such a hasty decree ([Pr 29:20]). On the one hand he was pressed by the immutability of the law, fear that the princes might conspire against him, and desire to consult for his own reputation, not to seem fickle; on the other, by regard for Daniel, and a desire to save him from the effects of his own rash decree. [¶7] till ... going down of ... sun--The king took this time to deliberate, thinking that after sunset Daniel would be spared till morning, and that meanwhile some way of escape would turn up. But ([Da 6:15]) the conspirators "assembled tumultuously" (literally) to prevent this delay in the execution, lest the king should meantime change his decree. [¶8] 16. Thy God ... will deliver thee--The heathen believed in the interposition of the gods at times in favor of their worshippers. Darius recognized Daniel's God as a god, but not the only true God. He had heard of the deliverance of the three youths in [Da 3:26], and hence augurs Daniel's deliverance. I am not my own master, and cannot deliver thee, however much I wish it. "Thy God will." Kings are the slaves of their flatterers. Men admire piety to God in others, however disregarding Him themselves. [¶9] 17. stone ... sealed--typical of Christ's entombment under a seal ([Mt 27:66]). Divinely ordered, that the deliverance might be the more striking. [¶10] his own signet, and ... of his lords--The concurrence of the lords was required for making laws. In this kingly power had fallen since it was in Nebuchadnezzar's hands. The Median king is a puppet in his lords' hands; they take the security of their own seal as well as his, that he should not release Daniel. The king's seal guaranteed Daniel from being killed by them, should he escape the lions. [¶11] 18. neither were instruments of music, &c.--Gesenius translates, "concubines." Daniel's mentioning to us as an extraordinary thing of Darius, that he neither approached his table nor his harem, agrees with Xenophon's picture of him as devoted to wine and women, vain, and without self-control. He is sorry for the evil which he himself had caused, yet takes no steps to remedy it. There are many such halters between good and bad, who are ill at ease in their sins, yet go forward in them, and are drawn on by others. [¶12] 19. His grief overcame his fear of the nobles. [¶13] 20. living God--having life Himself, and able to preserve thy life; contrasted with the lifeless idols. Darius borrowed the phrase from Daniel; God extorting from an idolater a confession of the truth. [¶14] thou servest continually--in times of persecution, as well as in times of peace. [¶15] is thy God ... able--the language of doubt, yet hope. [¶16] 21. Daniel might have indulged in anger at the king, but does not; his sole thought is, God's glory has been set forth in his deliverance. [¶17] 22. his angel--the instrument, not the author, of his deliverance ([Psa 91:11]; ). [¶18] shut ... lions' mouths--([He 11:33]). So spiritually, God will shut the roaring lion's mouth ([1Pe 5:8]) for His servants. [¶19] forasmuch as before him innocency--not absolutely (in [Da 9:7], he disclaims such a plea), but relatively to this case. God has attested the justice of my cause in standing up for His worship, by delivering me. Therefore, the "forasmuch" does not justify Rome's doctrine of works meriting salvation. [¶20] before thee--Obedience to God is in strictest compatibility with loyalty to the king ([Mt 22:21]; [1Pe 2:17]). Daniel's disobedience to the king was seeming, not real, because it was not from contempt of the king, but from regard to the King of kings (compare [Ac 24:16]). [¶21] 23. because he believed--"Faith" is stated in [He 11:33] to have been his actuating principle: a prelude to the Gospel. His belief was not with a view to a miraculous deliverance. He shut his eyes to the event, committing the keeping of his soul to God, in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator ([1Pe 4:19]), sure of deliverance in a better life, if not in this. [¶22] 24. ([De 19:19]; [Pr 19:5]). [¶23] accused--literally, "devoured the bones and flesh." It was just that they who had torn Daniel's character, and sought the tearing of his person, should be themselves given to be torn in pieces ([Pr 11:8]). [¶24] their children--Among the Persians, all the kindred were involved in the guilt of one culprit. The Mosaic law expressly forbade this ([De 24:16]; [2Ki 14:6]). [¶25] or ever--that is, "before ever." The lions' sparing Daniel could not have been because they were full, as they showed the keenness of their hunger on the accusers. [¶26] 26. Stronger than the decree ([Da 3:29]). That was negative; this, positive; not merely men must say "nothing amiss of," but must "fear before God." [¶27] 28. It was in the third year of Cyrus that Daniel's visions (Da 10:[1-12:13]) were given. Daniel "prospered" because of his prophecies ([Ezr 1:1], ). ### Chapter 7 ### Da 7:1-28. Vision of the Four Beasts [¶30] This chapter treats of the same subject as the second chapter. But there the four kingdoms, and Messiah's final kingdom, were regarded according to their external political aspect, but here according to the mind of God concerning them, and their moral features. The outward political history had been shown in its general features to the world ruler, whose position fitted him for receiving such a revelation. But God's prophet here receives disclosures as to the characters of the powers of the world, in a religious point of view, suited to his position and receptivity. Hence in the second chapter the images are taken from the inanimate sphere; in the seventh chapter they are taken from the animate. Nebuchadnezzar saw superficially the world power as a splendid human figure, and the kingdom of God as a mere stone at the first. Daniel sees the world kingdoms in their inner essence as of an animal nature lower than human, being estranged from God; and that only in the kingdom of God ("the Son of man," the representative man) is the true dignity of man realized. So, as contrasted with Nebuchadnezzar's vision, the kingdom of God appears to Daniel, from the very first, superior to the world kingdom. For though in physical force the beasts excel man, man has essentially spiritual powers. Nebuchadnezzar's colossal image represents mankind in its own strength, but only the outward man. Daniel sees man spiritually degraded to the beast level, led by blind impulses, through his alienation from God. It is only from above that the perfect Son of man comes, and in His kingdom man attains his true destiny. Compare [Psa 8:1-9] with [Ge 1:26-28]. Humanity is impossible without divinity: it sinks to bestiality ([Psa 32:9]; ; ). Obstinate heathen nations are compared to "bulls" ([Psa 68:30]); Egypt to the dragon in the Nile ([Is 27:1]; ; [Eze 29:3]). The animal with all its sagacity looks always to the ground, without consciousness of relation to God. What elevates man is communion with God, in willing subjection to Him. The moment he tries to exalt himself to independence of God, as did Nebuchadnezzar ([Da 4:30]), he sinks to the beast's level. Daniel's acquaintance with the animal colossal figures in Babylon and Nineveh was a psychological preparation for his animal visions. [Ho 13:7], would occur to him while viewing those ensigns of the world power. Compare [Jr 2:15]; ; . [¶31] 1. Belshazzar--Good Hebrew manuscripts have "Belshazzar"; meaning "Bel is to be burnt with hostile fire" ([Jr 50:2]; ). In the history he is called by his ordinary name; in the prophecy, which gives his true destiny, he is called a corresponding name, by the change of a letter. [¶32] visions of his head--not confused "dreams," but distinct images seen while his mind was collected. [¶33] sum--a "summary." In predictions, generally, details are not given so fully as to leave no scope for free agency, faith, and patient waiting for God manifesting His will in the event. He "wrote" it for the Church in all ages; he "told" it for the comfort of his captive fellow countrymen. [¶34] 2. the four winds--answering to the "four beasts"; their several conflicts in the four quarters or directions of the world. [¶35] strove--burst forth (from the abyss) [Maurer]. [¶36] sea--The world powers rise out of the agitations of the political sea ([Jr 46:7], ; [Lu 21:25]; compare [Re 13:1]; ; ); the kingdom of God and the Son of man from the clouds of heaven ([Da 7:13]; compare [Joh 8:23]). Tregelles takes "the great sea" to mean, as always elsewhere in Scripture ([Jos 1:4]; ), the Mediterranean, the center territorially of the four kingdoms of the vision, which all border on it and have Jerusalem subject to them. Babylon did not border on the Mediterranean, nor rule Jerusalem, till Nebuchadnezzar's time, when both things took place simultaneously. Persia encircled more of this sea, namely, from the Hellespont to Cyrene. Greece did not become a monarchy before Alexander's time, but then, succeeding to Persia, it became mistress of Jerusalem. It surrounded still more of the Mediterranean, adding the coasts of Greece to the part held by Persia. Rome, under Augustus, realized three things at once--it became a monarchy; it became mistress of the last of the four parts of Alexander's empire (symbolized by the four heads of the third beast), and of Jerusalem; it surrounded all the Mediterranean. [¶37] 3. beasts--not living animals, as the cherubic four in [Re 4:7] (for the original is a different word from "beasts," and ought to be there translated, living animals). The cherubic living animals represent redeemed man, combining in himself the highest forms of animal life. But the "beasts" here represent the world powers, in their beast-like, grovelling character. It is on the fundamental harmony between nature and spirit, between the three kingdoms of nature, history, and revelation, that Scripture symbolism rests. The selection of symbols is not arbitrary, but based on the essence of things. [¶38] 4. lion--the symbol of strength and courage; chief among the kingdoms, as the lion among the beasts. Nebuchadnezzar is called "the lion" ([Jr 4:7]). [¶39] eagle's wings--denoting a widespread and rapidly acquired ([Is 46:11]; [Jr 4:13]; [La 4:19]; [Ha 1:6]) empire ([Jr 48:40]). [¶40] plucked--Its ability for widespread conquests passed away under Evil-merodach, &c. [Grotius]; rather, during Nebuchadnezzar's privation of his throne, while deranged. [¶41] it was lifted up from the earth--that is, from its grovelling bestiality. [¶42] made stand ... as a man--So long as Nebuchadnezzar, in haughty pride, relied on his own strength, he forfeited the true dignity of man, and was therefore degraded to be with the beasts. [Da 4:16]: "Let his heart be changed from man's, and let a beast's heart be given unto him." But after he learned by this sore discipline that "the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men" ([Da 4:35], ), the change took place in him, "a man's heart is given to him; instead of his former beast's heart, he attains man's true position, namely, to be consciously dependent on God." Compare [Psa 9:20]. [¶43] 5. bear--symbolizing the austere life of the Persians in their mountains, also their cruelty ([Is 13:17], ; Cambyses, Ochus, and other of the Persian princes were notoriously cruel; the Persian laws involved, for one man's offense, the whole kindred and neighborhood in destruction, [Da 6:24]) and rapacity. "A bear is an all-devouring animal" [Aristotle, 8.5], ([Jr 51:48], ). [¶44] raised ... itself on one side--but the Hebrew, "It raised up one dominion." The Medes, an ancient people, and the Persians, a modern tribe, formed one united sovereignty in contrast to the third and fourth kingdoms, each originally one, afterwards divided. English Version is the result of a slight change of a Hebrew letter. The idea then would be, "It lay on one of its fore feet, and stood on the other"; a figure still to be seen on one of the stones of Babylon [Munter, The Religion of Babylonia, 112]; denoting a kingdom that had been at rest, but is now rousing itself for conquest. Media is the lower side, passiveness; Persia, the upper, active element [Auberlen]. The three ribs in its mouth are Media, Lydia, and Babylon, brought under the Persian sway. Rather, Babylon, Lydia, and Egypt, not properly parts of its body, but seized by Medo-Persia [Sir Isaac Newton]. Called "ribs" because they strengthened the Medo-Persian empire. "Between its teeth," as being much grinded by it.