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Ask a QuestionThe 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."
Revelation--an apocalypse or unveiling of those things which had been veiled. A manifesto of the kingdom of Christ. The travelling manual of the Church for the Gentile Christian times. Not a...
God--singular in the Hebrew, "Eloah," instead of "Elohim," plural, usually employed. The singular is not found in any other of the minor prophets, or Jeremiah, or Ezekiel; but it is in Isaiah,...
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...
Why is the decree so hasty--Why were not all of us consulted before the decree for the execution of all was issued? the thing--the agitation of the king as to his dream, and his abortive...
understood by books--rather, "letters," that is, Jeremiah's letter (Jer 29:10) to the captives in Babylon; also Jer 25:11, 12; compare 2Ch36:21; Jer 30:18; 31:38. God's promises are the ground on...
this...this my lord--to avoid the tautology in English Version, join rather "this," with "servant," "How can this servant of my lord (that is, how can I who am so feeble) talk with this my lord...
I have found a man--Like all courtiers, in announcing agreeable tidings, he ascribes the merit of the discovery to himself [Jerome]. So far from it being a discrepancy, that he says nothing of the...
God met with a revelation Nebuchadnezzar, who had been meditating on the future destiny of his vast empire.
Belteshazzar--called so from the god Bel or Belus (see on Da 1:7).
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.
arms--namely, of the human body; not weapons; human forces. they--Antiochus' hosts confederate with the apostate Israelites; these latter attain the climax of guilt, when they not only, as before,...
Daniel was forgotten at court; he lived privately, and was then ninety years of age. Many consult servants of God on curious questions, or to explain difficult subjects, but without asking the way...
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...
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).
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.
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...
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.
Son of man--(See on Eze 2:1). Not merely Son of David, and King of Israel, but Head of restored humanity (corresponding to the world-wide horizon of Daniel's prophecy); the seed of the woman,...
four--whereas but three had been cast in. loose--whereas they had been cast in "bound." Nebuchadnezzar's question, in Da 3:24, is as if he can scarcely trust his own memory as to a fact so recent,...
cannot--Daniel, being learned in all the lore of the Chaldeans (Da 1:4), could authoritatively declare the impossibility of mere man solving the king's difficulty. soothsayers--from a root, "to cut...