The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Daniel

641

"Bread of desires" is the opposite of "bread of affliction" in Deut. xvi. 3. Comp. Gen. xxvii. 25; Isa. xxii. 13, etc.

642

Comp. Amos vi. 6; Ruth iii. 3; 2 Sam. xii. 20, xiv. 2.

643

He fasted from Abib 3 to 24. The festival of the New Moon might prevent him from fasting on Abib 1, 2.

644

Hiddekel ("the rushing") occurs only in Gen. ii. 14. It is the Assyrian idiglat.

645

For the girdle see Ezek. xxiii. 15. Ewald (with the Vulg., Chald., and Syriac) regards Uphaz as a clerical error for Ophir (Psalm xlv. 9). LXX., Μωφάζ (Jer. x. 9, where alone it occurs). The LXX. omit it here. Vulg., Auro obrizo.

646

Heb., eben tarshish (Exod. xxviii. 2); Vulg., crysolithus; R.V. and A.V., "beryl" (Ezek. i. 16). Comp. Skr., tarisha, "the sea."

647

Theodot., τὰ σκέλη; LXX., οἱ πόδες (Rev. i. 15) – lit. "foot-hold"; Vulg., quæ deorsum sunt usque ad pedes.

648

This description of the vision follows Ezek. i. 16-24, ix. 2, and is followed in Rev. i. 13-15. The "deep murmur" is referred to the sound of the sea by St. John; A.V., "the voice of a multitude"; LXX., θόρυβος. Comp. Isa. xiii. 4; Ezek. xliii. 2.

649

Rashi guesses that they were Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.

650

Comp. Acts ix. 7, xxii. 11.

651

Comp. Hab. iii. 16; Dan. viii. 18.

652

Lit. "shook" or "caused me to tremble upon my knees and the palms of my hand."

653

x. 11. LXX., ἄνθρωπος ἐλεεινὸς εἶ; Tert., De Jejun., 7, "homo es miserabilis" (sc., "jejunando").

654

The protecting genius of Persia (Isa. xxiv. 21; Psalm lxxxii.; Ecclus. xvii. 17).

655

Michael, "who is like God" (Jude 9; Rev. xii. 7).

656

Heb., nôthartî. "I came off victorious," or "obtained the precedence" (Luther, Gesenius, etc.); "I was delayed" (Hitzig); "I was superfluous" (Ewald); "Was left over" (Zöckler); "I remained" (A.V.); "Was not needed" (R.V. marg.). The LXX. and Theodoret seem to follow another text.

657

LXX., "with the army of the king of the Persians."

658

Again the text and rendering are uncertain.

659

So Hitzig and Ewald. The view that they are distinct persons is taken by Zöckler, Von Lengerke, etc. Other guesses are that the "man clothed in linen" is the angel who called Gabriel (viii. 16); or Michael; or "the angel of the Covenant" (Vitringa); or Christ; or "he who letteth" (ὁ κατέχων, 2 Thess. ii. 7), whom Zöckler takes to be "the good principle of the world-power."

660

Thus in the LXX. (Dent, xxxii. 8) we read of angels of the nations. See too Isa. xlvi. 2; Jer. xlvi. 25. Comp. Baruch iv. 7; Ecclus. xvii. 17; Frankel, Vorstudien, p. 66.

661

Daniel, p. 162.

662

On this chapter see Smend, Zeitschr. für Alttest. Wissenschaft, v. 241.

663

Ewald, Prophets, v. 293 (E. Tr.).

664

Doubtless the three mentioned in Ezra iv. 5-7: Ahasuerus (Xerxes), Artaxerxes, and Darius.

665

Heb., Hakkôl– lit. "the all." There were probably Jews in his army (Jos. c. Ap., I. 22: comp. Herod., vii. 89).

666

Zöckler met the difficulty by calling the number four "symbolic," a method as easy as it is profoundly unsatisfactory.

667

Herod., iii. 96, iv. 27-29.

668

Q. Curt., X. v. 35.

669

See Grote, xii. 133. Alexander had a natural son, Herakles, and a posthumous son, Alexander, by Roxana. Both were murdered – the former by Polysperchon. See Diod. Sic., xix. 105, xx. 28; Pausan., ix. 7; Justin, xv. 2; Appian, Syr., c. 51.

670

The King of the Negeb (comp. Isa. xxx. 6, 7). LXX., Egypt. Ptolemy assumed the crown about b. c. 304.

671

See Stade, Gesch., ii. 276. Seleucus Nicator was deemed so important as to give his name to the Seleucid æra (1 Macc. i. 10, ἔτη βασιλείας Ἑλλήνων).

672

Diod. Sic., xix. 55-58; Appian, Syr., c. 52. He ruled from Phrygia to the Indus, and was the most powerful of the Diadochi. The word one is not expressed in the Hebrew: "but as for one of his captains." There may be some corruption of the text. Seleucus can scarcely be regarded as a vassal of Ptolemy, but of Alexander.

673

Appian, Syr., c. 55; Polyænus, viii. 50; Justin, xxvii. 1. See Herzberg, Gesch. v. Hellas u. Rom., i. 576. Dates are not certain.

674

Jer., ad loc. (Dan. xi. 6).

675

The rendering is much disputed, and some versions, punctuating differently, have, "his seed [i. e., his daughter] shall not stand." Every clause of the passage has received varying interpretations.

676

Polyb., v. 58.

677

Heb., nasîkîm; LXX., τὰ χωνευτά; Vulg., sculptilia.

678

Herodotus (iii. 47) says that he ordered the images to be burnt. On the Marmor Adulitanum, Ptolemy Euergetes boasted that he had united Mesopotamia, Babylonia, Persia, Susiana, Media, and all countries as far as Bactria under his rule. The inscription was seen at Adules by Cosmas Indicopleustes, and recorded by him (Wolf u. Buttmann, Museum, ii. 162).

679

R.V. marg., "He shall continue more years than the King of the North." Ptolemy Euergetes died b. c. 247; Seleucus Kallinikos, b. c. 225. It must be borne in mind that in almost every clause the readings, renderings, and interpolations vary. I give what seem to be the best attested and the most probable.

680

Justin, xxvii. 2.

681

See 3 Macc. i. 2-8; Jos., B. J., IV. xi. 5. The Seleucid army lost ten thousand foot, three hundred horse, five elephants, and more than four thousand prisoners (Polyb., v. 86).

682

Justin says (xxx. i): "Spoliasset regem Antiochum si fortunam virtute juvisset."

683

Chāzôn, "the vision." Grätz renders it, "to cause the Law to totter"; but this cannot be right.

684

E.g., Joseph, and his son Hyrcanus.

685

Polyb., xxviii. 1; Liv., xxxiii. 19; Jos., Antt., XII. iii. 4. See St. Jerome, ad loc.

686

Vulg., terra inclyta; but in viii. 9, fortitudo.

687

In the choice of the Hebrew words qatsîn cher'patho lo, Dr. Joël suspects a sort of anagram of Cornelius Scipio, like the ἀπὸ μέλιτος for Ptolemy, and the ἵον Ἥρας for Arsione in Lycophron; but the real meaning and rendering of the verse are highly uncertain.

688

Liv., xii. 19: "Otiosum, nullisque admodum rebus gestis nobilitatum."

689

2 Macc. iii. 7 ff. The reading and rendering are very uncertain.

690

Joël, Notizen, p. 16.

691

See Jost, i. 110.

692

Vulg., vilissimus et indignus decore regio; R.V., "to whom they had not given the honour of a kingdom"; Ewald, "upon him shall not be set the splendour of a kingdom." Dr. Joël sees in nibzeh a contemptuous paronomasia on "Epiphanes" (Notizen, p. 17).

693

Dan. viii. 22; 2 Macc. v. 25.

694

Jos., Antt., XII. v. 1.

695

Jerome, amicitias simulans.

696

See 1 Macc. iii. 30; 1 Macc. i. 19; Polyb., xxvii. 17; Diod. Sic., xxx. 22. What his unkingly stratagems were we do not know.

697

Liv., xliv. 19: "Antiochus per honestam speciem majoris Ptolemæi reducendi in regnum," etc.

698

Or "Paunch." He was so called from his corpulence. Comp. the name Mirabeau, Tonneau.

699

2 Macc. v. 5-21; 1 Macc. i. 20-24.

700

The LXX. render this ἥξουσι Ῥωμαῖοι. Comp. Numb. xxiv. 24; Jerome, Trieres et Romani. On "Chittim" (Gen. x. 4) see Jos., Antt., I. vi. 1.

701

Polyb., xxix. 11; Appian, Syr., 66; Liv., xlv. 12; Vell. Paterc., i. 10. According to Polybius (xxxi. 5), Epiphanes, by his crafty dissimulation, afterwards completely hoodwinked the ambassador Tiberius Gracchus.

702

2 Macc. vi. 2. Our best available historical comments on this chapter are to be found in the two books of Maccabees.

703

1 Macc. ii. 42, iii. 11, iv. 14, vii. 13; 2 Macc. xiv. 6.

704

Diod. Sic, xxxi. 1; 1 Macc. i. 43. Polybius (xxxi. 4) says "he committed sacrilege in most of the temples" (τὰ πλεῖστα τῶν ἱερῶν).

705

Jahn (Heb. Com., § xcii.) sees in the words "neither shall he regard the desire of women" an allusion to his exclusion of women from the festival at Daphne. Some explain the passage by his robbery of the Temple of Artemis or Aphrodite in Elymais (Polyb., xxxi. 11; Appian, Syr., 66; 1 Macc. vi. 1-4; 2 Macc. ix. 2). All is vague and uncertain.

706

Polyb., xxvi. 10; 2 Macc. vi. 2; Liv., xii. 20. The Hebrew Eloah Mauzzîm is understood by the LXX., Theodotion, the Vulgate, and Luther to be a god called Mauzzim (Μαωζείμ). See Herzog, Real-Encycl., s. v. "Meussin." Cicero (c. Verr., vii. 72) calls the Capitol arx omnium nationum. The reader must judge for himself as to the validity of the remark of Pusey (p. 92), that "all this is alien from the character of Antiochus."

707

R.V. The translation is difficult and uncertain.

708

The LXX. here render this expression (which puzzled them, and which they omit in vv. 16, 41) by θέλησις. Theodot., τὴν γῆν τοῦ Σαβαείμ.

709

Ewald takes these for metaphoric designations of the Hellenising Jews. Some (e. g., Zöckler) understand these verses as a recapitulation of the exploits of Antiochus. The whole clause is surrounded by historic uncertainties.

710

The origin of the name Maccabee still remains uncertain. Some make it stand for the initials of the Hebrew words, "Who among the gods is like Jehovah?" in Exod. xv. 11; or of Mattathias Kohen (priest), Ben-Johanan (Biesenthal). Others make it mean "the Hammerer" (comp. Charles Martel). See Jost, i. 116; Prideaux, ii. 199 (so Grotius, and Buxtorf, De Abbreviaturis).

711

Vulg., Aphadno. The LXX. omit it. Theodot., Apadano; Symm., "his stable."

712

Porphyry says that "he pitched his tent in a place called Apedno, between the Tigris and Euphrates"; but even if these rivers should be called seas, they have nothing to do with the Holy Mountain. Apedno seems to be a mere guess from the word אפדן, "palace" or "tent," in this verse. See Jer. xliii. 10 (Targum). Roland, however, quotes Procopius (De ædif. Justiniani, ii. 4) as authority for a place called Apadnas, near Amida, on the Tigris. See Pusey, p. 39.

713

Jahn, § xcv.

714

2 Macc. ix.; Jos., Antt., XII. ix. 1, 2; Milman, Hist. of the Jews, ii. 9. Appian describes his lingering and wasting illness by the word φθίνων (Syriaca, 66).

715

See too Joel ii. 2.

716

Enoch xc. 16.

717

Rev. xvi. 14, xix. 19.

718

Comp. Matt. xxiv. 6, 7, 21, 22.

719

Such is the reading of the LXX., Vulgate, Peshitta, Symmachus, etc.

720

Zech. xiv. 1-7.

721

Comp. vii. 10: "And the books were opened."

722

Mal. iii. 16.

723

Rev. xx. 12-15. Compare too Phil. iv. 3: "With Clement also, and the rest of my fellow-workers, whose names are in the book of life."

724

"Many sleepers in the land of dust" seems to mean the dead. Comp. Jer. li. 39; Psalm xxii. 29; 1 Thess. iv. 14; Acts vii. 60. For "shame" see Jer. xxiii. 40. The word for "abhorrence" only occurs in Isa. lxvi. 24. The allusion seems to be to the ἀνάστασις κρίσεως (John v. 29), the δεύτερος θάνατος of Rev. xx. 14. Comp. Enoch xxii.

725

Isa. lxvi. 24.

726

It is certain that the doctrine of the Resurrection acquired more clearness in the minds of the Jews at and after the period of the Exile; nor is there anything derogatory to the workings of the Spirit of God which lighteth every man, in the view which supposes that they may have learnt something on this subject from the Babylonians and Assyrians. See the testimonies of St. Peter and St. Paul as to some degree of Ethnic inspiration in Acts x. 34, 35, xvii. 25-31.

727

See Ezek. xxxvii. 1-4.

728

Theodoret says that "many" means "all," as in Rom. v. 15; but there it is "the many," and the parallel is altogether defective. Hofmann gets over the difficulty by rendering it, "And in multitudes shall they arise." Many commentators explain it not of the final but of some partial resurrection. Few will now be content with such autocratic remarks as that of Calvin: "Multos hic ponit pro omnibus ut certum est."

729

Lit. "those that justify the multitude." Comp. Isa. liii. 11, and see Dan. xi. 33-35.

730

Matt. xiii. 43; 1 Cor. xv. 41; Rev. ii. 28.

731

Comp. Zech. iv. 10. This sense cannot be rigidly established.

732

He refers to 1 Macc. i. 9, which says of the successors of Alexander, καὶ ἐπλήθυναν κακὰ ἐν τῃ γῃ.

733

Jerome guesses that they are the angels of Persia and Greece. The word הַיְאר lit. "the canal," is often used of the Nile.

734

The LXX. reads καὶ εἷπα, "and I said," making Daniel the speaker (so too the Vulgate); but the form of the passage is so closely analogous to viii. 13, as to leave no doubt that here too "one saint is speaking to another saint."

735

Comp. Gen. xiv. 22; Deut. xxxii. 40, "For I lift up My hand unto heaven, and say, I live for ever"; Ezek. xx. 5, 6, etc.

736

Those who can rest content with such exegesis may explain this to imply that "the reign of antichrist will be divided into three periods – the first long, the second longer, the third shortest of all," just as the seventy weeks of chap. ix. are composed of 7 × 62 × 1.

737

By way of comment see 1 Macc. v.; 2 Macc. viii.

738

לֵךְ is encouraging, as in ver. 13.

739

Comp. Rev. xxii. 11.

740

The small heathen altar to Zeus was built by Antiochus upon the great altar of burnt offering on Kisleu 15, b. c. 168. The revolt of Mattathias and his seven sons began b. c. 167. Judas the Maccabee defeated the Syrian generals Apollonius, Seron, and Gorgias b. c. 166, and Lysias at Beth-sur in b. c. 165. He cleansed and rededicated the Temple on Kisleu 25, b. c. 165.

741

The "time, times, and a half." The 1,290 days, 1,335 days and the 1,150 days, and the 2,300 days of viii. 14 all agree in indicating three years with a shorter or longer fraction. It will be observed that in each case there is a certain reticence or vagueness as to the terminus ad quem. It is interesting to note that in Rev. xi. 2, 3, the period of 42 months = 1,260 days = 3½ years of months of 30 days with no intercalary month.