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Ask a Questionheart was made like...beasts--literally, "he made his heart like the beasts," that is, he desired to dwell with them.
cause thy face to shine--metaphor from the sun, which gladdens all that it beams upon (Nu 6:25; Mal 4:2).
voice of his words--the sound of his words. was I in a deep sleep--"I sank into a deep sleep" [Lengkerke].
Melzar--rather, the steward, or chief butler, entrusted by Ashpenaz with furnishing the daily portion to the youths [Gesenius]. The word is still in use in Persia.
The tree is the king. The branches, the princes. The leaves, the soldiers. The fruits, the revenues. The shadow, the protection afforded to dependent states.
beryl--literally, "Tarshish," in Spain. The beryl, identical with the chrysolite or topaz, was imported into the East from Tarshish, and therefore is called "the Tarshish stone."
It is no new thing for what is done faithfully, in conscience toward God, to be misrepresented as done obstinately, and in contempt of the civil powers. Through want of due thought, we often do...
master of...eunuchs--called in Turkey the kislar aga. of the king's seed--compare the prophecy, 2Ki 20:17, 18.
An illustration of the power of united prayer (Mt 18:19). The same instrumentality rescued Peter from his peril (Ac 12:5-12).
stood before the image--in an attitude of devotion. Whatever the king approved of, they all approve of. There is no stability of principle in the ungodly.
countenance--literally, "brightness," that is, his bright look. joints of his loins--"the vertebrae of his back" [Gesenius].
vision--a higher kind of revelation than a dream. after that...at the first--that in Da 7:1.
standing before the river--Ulai. It was at the "river" Granicus that Alexander fought his first victorious battle against Darius, 334 B.C.
stone...sealed--typical of Christ's entombment under a seal (Mt27:66). Divinely ordered, that the deliverance might be the more striking. his own signet, and...of his lords--The concurrence of the...
children of Judah--the most noble tribe, being that to which the "king's seed" belonged (compare Da 1:3).
Illustrating De 8:3, "Man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord."
God met with a revelation Nebuchadnezzar, who had been meditating on the future destiny of his vast empire.
who is that God--so Sennacherib's taunt (2Ki 18:35), and Pharaoh's (Ex 5:2).
Belteshazzar--called so from the god Bel or Belus (see on Da 1:7).
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."
the first king--Philip was king of Macedon before Alexander, but the latter was the first who, as a generalissimo of Greece, subdued the Persian empire.
present...supplications--literally, "cause to fall," &c. (compare Note, see on Jer 36:7).
face toward the ground--in humble reverence (Ge 19:1). dumb--with overwhelming awe.
God gave them knowledge--(Ex 31:2, 3; 1Ki 3:12; Job 32:8; Jas 1:5,17). Daniel had understanding in...dreams--God thus made one of the despised covenant-people eclipse the Chaldean sages in the very...
spirit of the holy gods--She remembers and repeats Nebuchadnezzar's language (Da 4:8, 9, 18). As Daniel was probably, according to Oriental custom, deprived of the office to which Nebuchadnezzar...
Daniel humbly prayed that God would discover to him the king's dream, and the meaning of it. Praying friends are valuable friends; and it well becomes the greatest and best men to desire the...
True, O king--God extorted this confession from His enemies' own mouths.
This decree promulgated throughout the vast empire of Nebuchadnezzar must have tended much to keep the Jews from idolatry in the captivity and thenceforth (Ps 76:10).
prophets...spake...to our kings...to all the people--They fearlessly warned all without respect of persons.
man...beloved--(See on Da 9:23). understand--"attend to." See Da 8:17, 18.