The Vision of the Temple Waters.

ness.

EZEKIEL, XLVIII.

Jordan, and so along the Ghor into the the Dead sea. The main point in the picture is the rapid augmentation from a petty stream into a mighty river, not by the influx of side-streams, but by its own self-supply from the sacred miraculous source in the temple. [HENDERSON.] (Cf. Psalm 36. 8, 9; 46. 4; Isaiah, 11. 9; Habakkuk, 2. 14.). Searching into the things of God, we find some easy to understand, as the water up to the ancles; others more difficult, which require a deeper search, as the waters up to the knees or loins; others beyond our reach, of which we can only adore the depth (Romans, 11. 33.). The healing of the waters of the Dead sea here answers to, "there shall be no more curse" (Revelation, 22. 3; cf. Zechariah, 14. 11.). 7. trees-not merely one tree of life, as in Paradise (Genesis, 2.), but many: to supply immortal food and medicine to the people of God, who themselves also become "trees of righteousness," (Isaiah, 61. 3) planted by the waters, and (Psalm 1. 3) bearing fruit unto holi8. the desert- or plain, Hebrew "Arabah" (Deuteronomy, 3. 17; 4. 49; Joshua, 3. 16,), which is the name still given to the valley of the Jordan and the plain South of the Dead sea, and extending to the Elanitic gulf of the Red sea. the sea-the Dead sea. The sea" noted as covering with its waters the guilty cities of the plain, Sodom and Gomorrah. In its bituminous waters no vegetable or animal life is said to be found. But now death is to give place to life in Judea, and throughout the world, as symbolised by the healing of these death-pervaded waters covering the doomed cities. Cf. as to "the sea" in general, regarded as a symbol of the troubled powers of nature, disordered by the fall, henceforth to rage no more, Revelation, 21. 1. 9. rivers-in Hebrew, "two rivers." Hebrew expositors think that the waters from the Hence temple were divided into two branches, the one emptying itself into the eastern or Dead sea, the other into the western or Mediterranean. So Zechariah, 14. 8. However, though this probably is covertly implied in the Hebrew dual, the flowing of the waters into the Dead sea only is expressed. Cf. v. 8, "waters healed," which can apply only to it, not to the Mediterranean; also v. 10, "fish as the fish of the great sea;" the Dead sea, when healed, containing fish, as the Ríediterranean does. 10. En-gedi... En-eglaim-Engedi (meaning "fountain of the kid"), anciently, Hazazon-Tamar, now Ain-Jidy: West of the Dead sea: David's place of refuge from Saul. En-eglaim means "fountain of two calves," on the confines of Moab, over against En-gedi, and near where Jordan enters the Dead sea (Isaiah, 15. 8.). These two limits are fixed on, to comprise between them the whole Dead sea. fish ... according to their kinds-JEROME quotes an ancient theory that "there are 153 kinds of fishes," all of which were taken by the apostles (John, 21. 11,), and not one remained uncaptured; signifying that both the noble and base-born, the rich and the poor, and every class, are being drawn out of the sea of the world to salvation. Cf. Matthew, 13. 47, the gospel net; the apostles being fishermen, at first literally, afterwards spiritually (Matthew, 4. 19.). 11. marishes-marshes. The region is known to have such pits and marshes. take the salt collected by evaporation in these pits for The Arabs their own use, and that of their flocks. not be healed -those not reached by the healing waters of the gospel, through their sloth and earthly-mindedness, are given over (Revelation, 22. 11) to their own bitterness and barrenness (as "saltness" is often employed to express. Deuteronomy, 29. 23; Psalm 107. 34; Zephaniah, 2. 9;); an awful example to others in the punishment they suffer (2 Peter, 2. 6.). 12. Instead of the "vine of Sodom and grapes of Gomorrah" (Deuteronomy, 32. 32,), nauseous and unwholesome, trees of life-giving and life-restoring virtue shall bloom similar in properties to, and exceeding in number, the tree of life in Eden

043

Borders and Divisions of the Land.

...

ing not only the unfailing character of the heavenly (Revelation, 2. 7; 22. 2, 14.). leaf medicine of the tree of life, but also that the graces of not fade-expressthe believer (as a tree of righteousness), which are the leaves, and his deeds, which are the fruits that flow from those graces, are immortal (Psalm 1. 3; Jeremiah, 17. 8; Matthew, 10. 42; 1 Corinthians, 15. 58.). new fruit-lit., firstlings, or first-fruit. They are still, each month afresh, as it were, yielding their first-fruit. [FAIRBAIRN.] The first-born of a thing, in Hebrew idiom, means the chiefest. As Job, 18. 15, "the firstborn of death," i.e., the most fatal death. division of the land: the boundaries. The latter are substantially the same as those given by Moses in 13. The reNumbers, 34.; they here begin with the North, but in Numbers, 34. they begin with the South. It is only Canaan proper, exclusive of the possession of the two and a half tribes beyond Jordan that is here divided. Joseph... two portions-according to the original promise of Jacob (Genesis, 48. 5, 22.). Joseph's sons were given the birth-right, forfeited by Reuben the firstborn (1 Chronicles, 5. 1.). Therefore the former is here put first. His two sons having distinct portions make before specified "twelve tribes of Israel," for Levi had up the whole number twelve portions, as he had just no separate inheritance, so that he is not reckoned in the twelve. 15. Zedad-on the North boundary of Canaan. 16. Hamath-as Israel was a separate people, so their land was a separate land. On no scene could the sacred history have been so well transacted as on it. On the East was the sandy desert. On the North and South mountains. sea shore. But it was not always to be a separate land. On the West an inhospitable valley of El-Bekaa, leading to "the entering in of Between the parallel ranges of Lebanon is the long Hamath" on the Orontes, in the Syrian frontier. Roman roads, and the harbour made at Cesarea, opened out doors through which the gospel should go from it to all lands. So in the last days when all shail flock to Jerusalem as the religious centre of the world. 8. 8;; meaning welis. Hazar-hatticon-meaning "the Berothah-a city in Syria conquered by David (2 Samuel, middle village." Hauran-a tract in Syria, South of Damascus; Auranitis, North of Canaan, meaning "village of fountains." 18. east sea--the Dead sea. The border is to go down 17. Hazar-enan-a town in the straight to it by the valley of the Jordan. So Numbers, 34. 11, 12.

Tamar, the last town of Judea, by the Dead sea. 19. Tamar-not Tadmor in the desert, but Meaning abounding near it. 22. to the strangers-It is altogether "palm-tree" so called from palm-trees unprecedented under the old covenant, that "strangers" should have "inheritance" among the tribes. There would not be locally room within Canaan for more than the tribes. The literal sense must therefore be modified, as expressing that Gentiles are not to be excluded from settling among the covenant people, and that spiritually their privileges are not to be less than those of Israel (Romans, 10. 12; Galatians, 3. 28; Ephesians, 3. 6; Colossians, 3. 11; Revelation, 7. 9, 10.). Still,

sojourneth," in v. 23, implies, that in Canaan, the as settlers. covenant-people are regarded as at home, the strangers

CHAPTER XLVIII.

SEVERAL TRIBES. 1. Dan-The lands are divided into Ver. 1-35. ALLOTMENT OF THE LAND TO THE portions of ideal exactness, running alongside of each in a common relation to the temple in the centre: other, the whole breadth from West to East, standing seven tribes' portions on the North, five in the smaller division in the South. The portions of the city, the temple, the prince, and the priesthood, are in the middle, not within the boundaries of any tribe, all alike having a common interest in them. Judah has the place of honour next the centre on the North,

Introduction.

DANIEL.

Introduction. Benjamin the corresponding place of honour next the apportioned to the city out of the 25,000 square, are to centre on the South; because of the adherence of these | be laid off in a square of 4500, with the 250 all round two to the temple ordinances and to the house of David for suburbs. profane-i.e., not strictly sacred as the for so long, when the others deserted them. Dan, on sacerdotal portions, but applied to secular uses. 24. the contrary, so long locally and morally semi-heathen Benjamin-cf. Jacob's prophecy (Genesis, 49.27; Denter (Judges, 18.), is to have the least honourable place, at nomy, 33. 12.). It alone with Judah had been throughthe extreme North. For the same reason, St. John out loyal to the house of David, so its prowess at the (Revelation, 7. 5-8) omits Dan altogether. 3. Asher- "night" of the national history was celebrated as well a tribe of which no one of note is mentioned in the as "in the morning." 25. Simeon-omitted in the Old Testament. In the New Testament one is singled blessing of Moses in Deuteronomy, 33., perhaps be out of it, the prophetess Anna. 4. Manasseh-the inter-cause of the Simeonite "prince," who, at Baal-peor led course and unity between the two and a half tribes the Israelites in their idolatrous whoredoms with East of the Jordan, and the nine and a half West of it, had been much kept up by the splitting of Manasseh, causing the visits of kinsmen one to the other from both sides of the Jordan. There shall be no need for this in the new order of things. 5. Ephraim-This tribe, with its two dependent tribes, Manasseh and Benjamin, for upwards of 400 years under the judges held the preeminence. 6. Reuben-doomed formerly for incest and instability "not to excel" (Genesis, 49. 4.). So no Jehovah-Shammah. Not that the city will be called distinguished prophet, priest, or king had come from so in mere name, but that the reality will be best it. Of it were the notorious Dathan and Abiram, the expressed by this descriptive title Jeremiah, mutineers. A pastoral and Bedouin character marked 17; 33. 16; Zechariah, 2. 10; Revelation, 21. 3; it and Gad (Judges, 5. 16.). 15-17. The 5000 rods, 22. 3.).

Midian (Numbers, 25, 14.). 26. Issachar-Its ancient portion had been on the plain of Esdraelon. Compared (Genesis, 49. 14) to "a strong ass crouching between two burdens," i.e., Tribute and Tillage; never medding with wars except in self-defence. 31. gates-Revelation, 21. 12, &c.). The twelve gates bear the names of the twelve tribes, to imply that all are regarded as having an interest in it. 35. Lord is there

DAN

THE

BOOK OF DANIEL.

INTRODUCTION.

ANIEL, ie., God is my judge; probably of the blood royal (cf. ch. 1. 3, with 1 Chronicles, 3. 1, where a son of Dund a named so). Jerusalem may have been his birth-place (though ch. 9. 24," thy holy city," does not necessarily imply that He was carried to Babylon among the Hebrew captives brought thither by Nebuchadnezzar at the first deportation in the fourth year of Jehoiakim. As he and his three companions are called (ch. 1. 4,)," children," he cannot have been more than about twelve years old when put in training, according to Eastern etiquette to be a courtier (ch, 1, 3, 6.). He then received a new name, by which it was usual to mark a change in one's condition (2 Kings, 23, 34; 24. 17; Ezra, 5, 14; Esther, 27 Belteshazzar, i.e., a prince favoured by Bel. His piety and wisdom were proverbial among his countrymen at an early period; probably owing to that noble proof he gave of faithfulness, combined with wisdom, in abstaining from the food sent to him from the king's table, as being polluted by the idolatries usual at heathen banquets (ch. 1. 8-16). Hence Ezekiel's reference to him (Ezekiel, 14. 14, 20; 28. 3) is precisely of that kind we should expect; a coincidence which must be undesigned Ezekiel refers to him not as a writer, but as exhibiting a character righteous and wise in discerning secrets, in those circums stances now found in his book, which are earlier than the time when Ezekiel wrote. As Joseph rose in Egypt by inser preting Pharaoh's dreams, so Daniel, by interpreting Nebuchadnezzar's, was promoted to be governor of Babylonia, sui president of the Magian priest-caste. Under Evil-merodach, Nebuchadnezzar's successor, as a change of officers often attens the accession of a new king, Daniel seems to have had a lower post, which led him occasionally to be away from Babyki (ch. 8. 2, 27.). Again he came into note when he read the mystic writing of Belshazzar's doom on the wall on the might of that monarch's impious feast. Berosus calls the last Babylonian king Naboueddus, and says he was not killed, but had an honourable abode in Carmania assigned to him, after having surrendered voluntarily in Borsippa. Raulinson has cleared up the discrepancy from the Nineveh inscription. Belshazzar was joint-king with his father, Evil-merodach er Naboneddus (called Minus in the inscriptions), to whom he was subordinate. He shut himself up in Babylon, whilst the other king took refuge elsewhere, viz., in Borsippa. Berosus gives the Chaldean account, which suppresses all about Be shazzar, as being to the national dishonour. Had Daniel been a late book, he would no doubt have taken up the later account of Berosus. If he gave a history differing from that current in Babylonia, the Jews of that region would not have received it as true. Darius the Mede, or Cyaxares II., succeeded and reigned two years. The mention of this monarcis reign, almost unknown to profane history, being eclipsed by the splendour of Cyrus, is an incidental proof that Dan wrote as a contemporary historian of events which he knew, and did not borrow from others. In the third year of Cyrus he saw the visions (chs. 10.-12) relating to his people down to the latest days and the coming resurrection. He must have been about eighty-four years old at this time. Tradition represents Daniel as having died and been buried at Shusha Though his advanced age did not allow him to be among those who returned to Palestine, yet he never ceased to have his people's interests nearest to his heart (ch. 9. and 10. 12.).

AUTHENTICITY OF THE BOOK OF DANIEL, Ch. 7. 1, 28; 8. 2; 9. 2; 10. 1, 9; 12 4, 5, testify that it was ecar posed by Daniel himself. He does not mention himself in the first six chapters, which are historical; for in these it is bot the author, but the events which are the prominent point. In the last six, which are prophetical, the author makes h self known, for here it was needed, prophecy being a revelation of words to particular men. It holds a third rank in the Hebrew canon; not among the prophets, but in the Hagiographa (Chetubim), between Esther and Ezra, books like it relating to the captivity; because he did not strictly belong to those who held exclusively the profession of "prophets" in the thee cracy, but was rather a "seer," having the gift, but not the office of prophet. Were the book an interpolated one, it would have been doubtless placed among the prophets. Its present position is a proof of its genuineness, as it was deliberaids 014

Introduction.

DANIEL

Introduction.

put in a position different from that where most would expect to find it. Placed between Esther, and Ezra and Nehemiah, it separated the historical books of the time after the captivity. Thus, Daniel was, as Bengel calls him, the politician, chronologer, and historian among the prophets. The Psalms also, though many are prophetical, are ranked with the Hagiographa, not with the prophets; and the Revelation of John is separated from his epistles, as Daniel is from the Old Testament prophets. Instead of writing in the midst of the covenant-people, and making them the foreground of his picture, he writes in a heathen court, the world-kingdoms occupying the foreground, and the kingdom of God, though ultimately made the most significant, the background. His peculiar position in the heathen court is reflected in his peculiar position in the canon. As the "prophets" in the Old Testament, so the epistles of the apostles in the New Testament were written by divinely-commissioned persons for their contemporaries. But Daniel and John were not in immediate contact with the congregation, but isolated and alone with God, the one in a heathen court, the other on a lonely isie (Revelation, 1. 9.). Porphyry, the assailant of Christianity in the third century, asserted that the book of Daniel was a A conclusive proof of Daniel's forgery of the time of the Maccabees, 170-164 B.C., a time when confessedly there were no prophets, written after the events as to Antiochus Epiphanes, which it professes to foretell; so accurate are the details. inspiration, if his prophecies can be shown to have been before the events. Now we know, from Josephus, that the Jews iu Christ's days recognised Daniel as in the canon. Zechariah, Ezra, and Nehemiah, centuries before Antiochus, refer to it. Jesus refers to it in His characteristic designation, "Son of man," Matthew, 24. 30 (Daniel, 7. 13;); also expressly by name, and as a "prophet," in Matthew, 21. 15 (cf. Matthew, 24. 21, with Daniel, 12. 1, &c.); and in the moment that decided His life (Matthew, 26. 64) or death, when the high priest adjured him by the living God. Also, in Luke, 1. 19-26, “Gabriel" is mentioned, whose name occurs no where else in Scripture, save ch. 8 16; 9. 21. Besides the references to it in Revelation, Paul confirms the prophetical part of it, as to the blasphemous king (Daniel, 7. 8, 25; 11. 36) in 1 Corinthians, 6. 2; 2 Thessa lonians, 2, 3, 4; the narrative part, as to the miraculous deliverances from "the lions" and the fire," in Hebrews, 11. 33, 31. Thus the book is expressly attested by the New Testament on the three points, made the stumbling-block of neologists -the predictions, the narratives of miracles, and the manifestations of angels. An objection has been started to the unity But Matthew. 21. 44, would be an enigma, if it of the book, viz., that Jesus quotes no part of the first half of Daniel.

were not a reference to the "stone that smote the image" (Daniel, 2, 34, 35, 44, 45.). Thus the New Testament sanctions chs. 2., 3., 6., 7., and 11. The design of the miracles in the heathen courts where Daniel was, as of those of Moses in Egypt, way to lead the world-power, which seemed to be victorious over the theocracy, to see the essential inner superiority of the seemingly-fallen kingdom of God to itself, and to show prostrate Israel that the power of God was the same as of old in Egypt. The first book of Maccabees (cf. 1 Maccabees, 1. 24; 9. 27, 40, with Daniel, 12. 1; 11. 26, of LXX.) refers to Daniel as an accredited book, and even refers to the LXX, Alexandrian version of it. The fact of Daniel having a place in the LXX. shows it was received by the Jews at large prior to the Maccabean times The LXX. version so arbitrarily deviated from the Hebrew Daniel, that Theodotion's version was substituted for it in the early Christian church. Josephus (Antiquities, 7. 11. 8) mentions that Alexander the Great had designed to punish the Jews for their fidelity to Darius, but that Jaddun (332 B.C.), the high priest, met him at the head of a procession, and averted his wrath by showing him Daniel's prophecy that a Grecian monarch should overthrow Persia. Certain it is Alexander favoured the Jews, and Josephus' statement gives an explanation of the fact; at least it shows that the Jews in Josephus' days believed that Daniel was extant in Alexander's days, long before the Maccabees. With Jaddua (high priest from B.C. 341-322) the Old Testament history ends (Nehemiah, 12. 11.). (The register of the priests and Levites was not written by Nehemiah, who died about 400 B.C., but was inserted with divine sauction by the collectors of the canon subsequently.) An objection to Daniel's authenticity has been rested on a few Greek words found in it. But these are mostly names of Greek musical instruments, which were imported by Greece from the East, rather than vice versa. Some of the words are derived from the common Indo-Germanic stock of both Greek and Chaldee: hence their appearance in both tongues. And one or two may have come through the Greeks of Asia Minor to the Chaldee. The fact that from the fourth verse of the second chapter to the end of the seventh, the Janguage is Chaldee, but the rest Hebrew, is not an argument against, but for, its authenticity. So in Ezra the two languages are found. The work, if that of one author, must have been composed by some one in the circumstances of Daniel, ie., by one familiar with both languages. No native-born Hebrew who had not lived in Chaldea would know Chaldee so well, as to use it with the same idiomatic ease as his native tongue; the very impurities in Daniel's use of both are just such as were natural to one in his circumstances, but unnatural to one in a later age, or to one not half-Hebrew, half-Chaldean, in residence as Daniel was. Those parts of Daniel which concern the whole world are mostly Chaldee, then the language of the world-empire. So Greek was made the language of the New Testament, which was designed for the whole world. Those affecting the Jews, mostly Hebrew: and this uot so impure as that of Ezekiel. His Chaldee is a mixture of Hebrew and Aramaic. Two predictions alone are enough to prove: (1.) That Daniel was a true prophet. (2.) That his prophecies reach beyond Antiochus; viz., he foretells the rise of the four great monarchies, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome (the last not being in Daniel's time known beyond the precincts of Italy, or rather of Latium), and that no other earthly kingdom would subvert the fourth, but that it would divide into parts. All this has come to pass. No fifth great earthly monarchy has arisen, though often attempted, as by Charlemagne, Charles V., and Napoleon. (2) The time of Messiah's advent, as dated from a certain decree, His being cut off, and the destruction of the city. "He who denies Daniel's prophecies," says Sir Isaac Newton, "undermines Christianity, which is founded on Daniel's prophecies concerning Christ." CHARACTERISTICS OF DANIEL. The vision mode of revelation is the exception in other prophets, the rule in Daniel. In Zechariah (1.-6.), who lived after Daniel, the same mode appears, but the other form from the seventh chapter to the end. The Revelation of S. John alone is perfectly parallel to Daniel, which may be called the Old Testament apocalypse. In the contents too there is the difference above noticed, that he views the kingdom of God from the standpoint of the world-kingdoms, the development of which is his great subject. This mode of viewing it was appropriate to his own position in a heathen court, and to the relation of subjection in which the covenant people then stood to the worldpowers. No longer are single powers of the world incidentally introduced, but the universal monarchies are the chief theme, in which the worldly principle, opposed to the kingdom of God, manifests itself fully. The near and distant are not seen in the same perspective, as by the other prophets who viewed the whole future from the eschatological point; but in Daniel the historical details are given of that development of the world-powers which must precede the advent of the kingdom, [Auberlen.]

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY. The exile is the historical basis of Daniel's prophecies, as Daniel implies in the first chapter, which commences with the beginning, and ends with the termination, of the captivity (ch. 1. 1, 21; cf. ch. 9. 1, 2). A new stage in the theocracy begins with the captivity. Nebuchadnezzar made three incursions into Judah. The first under Jehoiakim (606 B.C.), in which Daniel was carried away, subjected the theocracy to the

Introduction.

DANIEL, I.

Introduction. Babylonian world-power. The second (598 B.C.), was that in which Jehoiachin and Ezekiel were carried away. The third (588 B.C.), in which Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and carried away Zedekiah. Originally Abraham was raised out of the "sea" (Daniel, 7. 2) of the nations, as an island holy to God, and his seed chosen as God's mediator of His revelations of love to mankind. Under David and Solomon, the theocracy, as opposed to the heathen power, attained its climax in the Old Testament, not only being independent, but lord of the surrounding nations; so that the period of there two kings was henceforth made the type of the Messianic. But when God's people, instead of resting on Him, seeks alliance with the world-power, that very power is made the instrument of its chastisement. So Ephraim (722 B.C.) fell by Assyria, and Judah also, drawn into the sphere of the world's movements from the time of Aliaz, who sought Assyrian help (740 B.C.; Isaiah, 7.), at last fell by Babylon, and thenceforth has been more or less dependent on the world-monarchies, and se, till Messiah, was favoured with no revelations from the time of Malachi, 400 years. Thus, from the beginning of the exile, the theocracy, in the strict sense, ceased on earth; the rule of the world-powers superseding it. But God's covenant with Israel remains firm (Romans, 11. 29;); therefore, a period of blessing under Messiah's kingdom is now foretold as about to follow their long chastisement. The exile thus is the turning point in the history of the theocracy, which Ross the divides: (1.) From Adam to the exodus out of Egypt. (2.) From the exodus to the beginning of the Babylonian captivity (3.) From the captivity to the millennium. (4.) From the millennium to the end of the world. The position of Denial in the Babylonian court was in unison with the altered relations of the theocracy and the world-power, which new relation was to be the theme of his prophecy. Earlier prophets, from the stand-point of Israel, treated of Israel in its relation to the world-powers; Daniel, from Babylon the centre of the then world-power, treats of the world-powers in their relation to Israel. His seventy years' residence in Babylon, and his high official position there, gave him an insight into the world't politics, fitting him to be the recipient of political revelations. Whilst his spiritual experiences, gained through Net chadnezzar's humiliation, Belshazzar's downfall, and the rapid decay of the Babylonian empire itself, as well as de miraculous deliverances of himself and his friends (ch. 3.-6.), all fitted him for regarding things from the spiritual stand point, from which the world's power appears transient, but the glory of God's kingdom eternal. As his political position was the body; the school of magicians in which he had studied for three years (ch. 1. 4, 5) was the soul; and his mind strast in faith and nourished by the earlier prophecies (ch. 9. 2,), the spirit of his prophecy, which only waited for the spirit d revelation from above to kindle it. So God fits His organs for their work. Auberlen compares Daniel to Joseph: the out at the beginning, the other at the end of the Jewish history of revelation; both representatives of God and His people at heathen courts; both interpreters of the dim presentiments of truth, expressed in God-sent dreams, and therefore raiset to honour by the powers of the world; so representing Israel's calling to be a royal priesthood among the nations; and types of Christ, the true Israel, and of Israel's destination to be a light to lighten the whole Gentile world, as Romans, 11. 12, 15, foretells. As Achilles at the beginning, and Alexander at the end, of Grecian history are the mirrors of the whole life of the Hellenic people; so Joseph and Daniel of Israel.

CONTENTS OF THE BOOK. Historical and biographical introduction in the first chapter. Daniel, a captive exile, is representative of his nation, in its servitude and exile; while his heavenly insight into dreams, far excelling that of the Magi, represents the divine superiority of the covenant-people over their heathen lords. The high dignities, even in the world, which he thereby attained, typify the giving of the earth-kingdom at last "to the people of the saints of the Most High" (ch. 7. 27.). Thus Daniel's personal history is the typical foundation of his prophecy. The prophets had to experienc in themselves, and in their age, something of what they foretold about future times; just as David felt much of Chrig's sufferings in His own person (cf. Hosea, 1. 2-9, 10, 11 ; 2. ; 3.). So Jonah, 1., &c. [Ros.] Hence biographical notices of Daniel and his friends are inserted among his prophecies. Chs. 2-12. coutain the substance of the book, and consist of tra parts. The first, viz., chs. 2.-7., represent the development of the world-powers, viewed from a historical point. The sexca chs. 8.-12., their development in relation to Israel, especially in the future preceding Christ's first advent, foretold in the ninth chapter. But prophecy looks beyond the immediate future to the complete fulfilment in the last days, since for individual parts in the organic history of salvation cannot be understood except in connection with the whole. Also Istad looked forward to the Messianic time, not only for spiritual salvation, but also for the visible restoration of the kidm which even now we too expect. The prophecy which they needed ought therefore to comprise both, and so much of the history of the world as would elapse before the final consummation. The period of Daniel's prophecies, therefore, is that from the downfall of the theocracy at the captivity till its final restoration-yet future, the period of the dominion of the world-powers, not set aside by Christ's first coming (John, 18. 36, for, to have taken the earth-kingdom then, would have been to take it from Satan's hands, Matthew, 4. 8-10,), but to be superseded by His universal and everlasting kingdom at His second coming (Revelation, 11. 15.). Thus the general survey of the development and final destiny of the world-power (chs. 2.-7.) fittingly precedes the disclosures as to the immediate future (chs. 8.-12). Daniel marks this division by writing the first part in Chaldee, and the second, and the introduction, in Hebrew; the former, referring to the powers of the world. in the language of the then dominant world-power under which he lived; the latter, relating to the people of God, in thet own language. An interpolator in a later age would have used Hebrew, the language of the ancient prophets throughout, or if anywhere Aramaic, so as to be understood by his contemporaries, he would have used it in the second rather ELAN E the first part, as having a more immediate referenee to his own times. [Auberlen.]

CHAPTER I.

kim: This probably took place in the end of the thin! Ver. 1-21. THE BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY BEGINS; year of Jehoiakim, shortly before the battle at Carche DANIEL'S EDUCATION AT BABYLON, &C. 1. third year mish. [FAIRBAIRN.] Nebuchadnezzar took aWBY -cf. Jeremiah, 25. 1, "the fourth year;" Jehoiakim the captives as hostages for the submission of the came to the throne at the end of the year, which Jere- Hebrews. Historical Scripture gives no positive miah reckons as the first year, but which Daniel leaves account of this first deportation, with which the Dalyout of count, being an incomplete year: thus, in Jere- lonian captivity, i.e., Judah's subjection to Babylea miah, it is the fourth year," in Daniel, "the third," for seventy years (Jeremiah, 29. 10,, begins. [JAHN.] However Jeremiah (25. 1; 46. 2) merely says, 2 Chronicles, 36. 6, 7, states, that Nebuchadnezzar ħad the fourth year of Jehoiakim coincided with the first of intended "to carry Jehoiakim to Babylon," and the Nebuchadnezzar, when the latter conquered the Egyp-he "carried off the vessels of the house of the Lord" tians at Carchemish; not that the deportation of cap tices from Jerusalem was in the fourth year of Jelioia

thither. But Jeboiakim died at Jerusalem, before the conqueror's intention as to him was carried into effec