Can't find the answer are looking for?
Ask a Questionflame...slew those men--(Da 6:24; Ps 7:16).
God hath fixed the number of years of thine empire, and that number is now complete.
set before us--not ambiguously, but plainly, so that we were without excuse.
stood...before the king--that is, were advanced to a position of favor near the throne.
captain of the king's guard--commanding the executioners (Margin; and Ge 37:36, Margin).
revealed...in...night vision--(Job 33:15, 16).
Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin--literally, "numbered, weighed, and dividers."
Such a despotic decree is quite explicable by remembering that the king, as the incarnation of Ormuzd, might demand such an act of religious obedience as a test of loyalty. Persecuting laws are...
prayer...supplications--literally, "intercessions...entreaties for mercy." Praying for blessings, and deprecating evils.
serve not thy gods--not only not the golden image, but also not any of Nebuchadnezzar's gods.
body--literally, "sheath": the body being the "sheath" of the soul.
decree of the Most High--What was termed in Da 4:17 by Nebuchadnezzar, "the decree of the watchers," is here more accurately termed by Daniel, "the decree of the Most High." They are but His...
an hand--namely, of Gabriel, who interpreted other revelations to Daniel (Da 8:16) [Theodoret]. set me upon my knees--Gesenius translates, "cause me to reel on my knees," &c.
Daniel and his companions do not seem to have been actually numbered among the Magi or Chaldeans, and so were not summoned before the king. Providence ordered it so that all mere human wisdom...
That Daniel--contemptuously. 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...
occasion...concerning the kingdom--pretext for accusation in his administration (Ec 4:4).
come into his kingdom--Egypt: not only with impunity, but with great spoil.
Here appears the reason why Daniel sought "time" (Da 2:16), namely he wished to engage his friends to join him in prayer to God to reveal the dream to him.
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...
whose are all thy ways--(Jer 10:23).
look...more stout than...fellows--namely, than that of the other horns.
understood not--Daniel "understood" the main features of the vision as to Antiochus (Da 10:1, 14), but not as to the times. 1Pe 1:10-12 refers mainly to Daniel: for it is he who foretells "the...
fell upon...face, and worshipped Daniel--worshipping God in the person of Daniel. Symbolical of the future prostration of the world power before Messiah and His kingdom (Php 2:10). As other...
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...
It may seem strange that Daniel was not first summoned. But it was ordered by God's providence that he should be reserved to the last, in order that all mere human means should be proved vain,...
Daniel was preferred--probably because of his having so wonderfully foretold the fall of Babylon. Hence the very expression used by the queen mother on that occasion (Da 5:12) is here used,...
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...
Daniel requested--Contrast this honorable remembrance of his humble friends in his elevation with the spirit of the children of the world in the chief butler's case (Ge 40:23; Ec 9:15, 16; Am 6:6)....
pulse--The Hebrew expresses any vegetable grown from seeds, that is, vegetable food in general [Gesenius].
heart was made like...beasts--literally, "he made his heart like the beasts," that is, he desired to dwell with them.