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6 whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz: his body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of 7 his words like 'the voice of a multitude. And I Daniel of the shining being which follows, contains many reminiscences of Ez. i. and ix.

a certain man] a man: the Hebrew idiom, as 1 Ki. xxii. 9, &c. clothed in linen] The expression is suggested probably by Ez. ix. 2, 3, 11, x. 2, 6, 7. (White) linen garments were worn (on certain occasions) by priests or others performing sacred offices (Lev. vi. 10, xvi. 4; 1 Sam. ii. 18, xxii. 18; 2 Sam. vi. 14). Here, as in Ezek., the linen vesture indicates a celestial visitant: cf. Mark xvi. 5, Rev. xv. 6 (R.V. marg.).

whose loins, &c.] A girdle richly ornamented with gold was about his loins.

fine gold] Heb. kéthem, a choice, poetical word (e.g. Job xxviii. 19, xxxi. 24), the one generally used in the expression gold of Ophir' (Job xxviii. 16; Ps. xlv. 9; Is. xiii. 12).

Uphaz] only besides in Jer. x. 9, 'gold (zāhāb) from Uphaz.' No place Uphaz is, however, known; hence the reading in Jer. is probably corrupt, and we should read there 'from Ophir' (with Targ., Pesh., MSS. of LXX., and many moderns). Either the author of Daniel borrowed the expression from Jer. x. 9, after the text there had been corrupted; or we may suppose that Uphaz (DIN) here is simply a scribal error for Ophir (N): comp. the last note.

6. The dazzling appearance of his person.

His body] The word used in Ez. i. 11, 23.

the beryl] the chrysolith (as LXX. in Ex. and Ez. xxviii. 13)—said (see Smith, D. B., s. v. BERYL) to be the topaz of the moderns-a flashing stone, described by Pliny as 'a transparent stone with a refulgence like that of gold.' Comp. Ex. xxviii. 20, and especially Ez. i. 16, x. 9, where the wheels of the chariot in Ez.'s vision are compared to the same stone. The Heb. is tarshish: it may be so called, as Pliny says of the chrysolith, on account of its having been brought from Spain (Tarshish, Tartessus).

as the appearance of lightning,...as torches of fire] cf. Ez. i. 13 (R.V. marg.), 'In the midst of the living creatures was an appearance like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches...and out of the fire went forth lightning.'

like the gleaming of burnished brass] from Ez. i. 7 (of the feet of the cherubic figures which supported the throne) and they sparkled like the gleaming of burnished brass.' Gleaming is lit. eye, fig. of something sparkling so Ez. i. 4, 16, 22, 27, viii. 2, x. 9; Prov. xxiii. 31 (A.V. in all 'colour").

the voice of his words] or, the sound of his words: the words do not seem to become articulate until v. II.

like the voice of a multitude] Is. xiii. 4 (the Heb. for 'voice,'

alone saw the vision: for the men that were with me saw not the vision; but a great quaking fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves. Therefore I was left alone, 8

and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength. Yet heard I the voice of his, words: and when I heard the voice of his words, then was I in a deep sleep on my face, and my face toward the ground. And behold, a hand touched me, which set me 10 'sound,' 'noise' is the same). But the expression is perhaps suggested by Ez. i. 24 (R. V.) 'a noise of tumult' (where the Heb. for tumult partly resembles that for multitude here). An impressive, but inarticulate, sound seems to be what the comparison is intended to suggest. With the last three clauses of this verse, comp. the description of the risen Christ in Rev. i. 146, 15.

7. Cf. Acts ix. 7, xxii. 9.

howbeit (v. 21) a great quaking] or trembling: the Heb. is the same as in Gen. xxvii. 33 (lit. Isaac trembled with a great trembling'). They may have seen the effects of the vision upon Daniel (cf. v. 8). 8-9. Daniel was left alone, and fell motionless, as if stunned, upon the earth.

8.

And I (emph.) was left alone, and saw this great vision] 'great,' on account of the majestic appearance of the angel.

and there was left (v. 17) no strength in me] Cf. 1 Sam. xxviii. 20. The vision itself is more impressive than that of Gabriel in viii. 16—18, and its effects upon Daniel are more marked. Comp. Rev. i. 17.

comeliness] The meaning is dignity of countenance. Majesty, glory, is the idea of the word: cf. (of God) Ps. viii. 1, Hab. iii. 3; (of a king), Ps. xlv. 3, Jer. xxii. 18 ('Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!'); of the Israel of the future, compared to a nobly-spreading tree, Hos. xiv. 6 (where 'beauty,' A.V., R.V., is inadequate).

was turned upon me into corruption] i.e. disfigured, or destroyed, by sudden pallor. The Hebrew word rendered 'corruption' is cognate with that rendered 'marred' in Is. lii. 14 (also of the countenance). For 'upon,' cf. v. 9, vii. 28; and see on ii. 1.

retained no strength] In the Heb., a late idiom, found otherwise only v. 16, xi. 6; 1 Chr. xxix. 14; 2 Chr. ii. 5, xiii. 20, xxii. 9.

9. And I heard the voice, &c.] or, the sound (twice): see on v. 6. then was I in, &c.] R.V. then was I fallen into a deep sleep. The clause appears to describe, not the effect of the words which Daniel heard, but the state in which he already was, when he heard them. On the expression a deep (or dead) sleep, see on viii. 18. on my face, with my face, &c.] cf. viii. 17, 18.

10-18. Daniel is gradually revived and reassured.

10.

An invisible hand, touching him, reassured him, and partly raised him up.

set me] lit. caused me to move to and fro or totter (see on Am. iv. 8),

I upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands. And he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright: for unto thee am I now sent. And when he had spoken 12 this word unto me, I stood trembling. Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come 13 for thy words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia

i.e. here, as the context shews, 'set me tottering upon my knees,' &c. : so R.V. marg. Cf. 2 Esdr. v. 15.

11. And he said unto me] The speaker is the dazzling being described in vv. 5, 6.

thou man greatly beloved] greatly desired, lit. man of desirablenesses: see on ix. 23.

stand upright] lit. stand upon thy standing, the idiom explained on viii. 18.

for now am I sent unto thee] now, i.e. (ix. 22) at last, after the delay described in v. 12.

trembling] that I should have been accosted by a being so august. The word, as Ezr. x. 9 (not as v. 7, above).

12. set thine heart] lit. give thine heart, i.e. apply thyself: a late idiom, found otherwise only in 1 Chr. xxii. 19; 2 Chr. xi. 16; Eccl. i. 13, 17, vii. 21, viii. 9, 16.

to understand] viz. the future destiny of Israel. Anxious questionings on the future of his people were the occasion of his prolonged mourning and abstinence (vv. 2, 3).

and to humble thyself before thy God] The verb, though it may be used more generally (Ps. cvii. 17), is applied here, as in Ezr. viii. 21 ('then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek of him a straight way,' &c.), to the self-denial and mortification accompanying a fast. The more common (and technical) expression in the same sense is to humble (or [R.V.] afflict) the soul: see Lev. xvi. 29, 31; xxiii. 27, 29, 32; Num. xxix. 7 (all of the fast of the Day of Atonement); Is. lviii. 3, 5; Ps. xxxv. 13 ('I humbled my soul in fasting'); in a more general sense, Num. xxx. 13 (of a vow of self-denial). The corresponding subst. ta'ănith has the same meaning in Ezr. ix. 5 (R. V. marg.); and regularly in post-Biblical Hebrew (the Mishnic treatise 'Ta'anith deals with fasting).

and I am come because of thy words] i.e. the prayer implied in vv. 'I am come' is resumed at the beginning of v. 14, the explanation of the angel's delay in v. 13 being parenthetical.

2, 3.

13. The opposition, for 21 days (cf. v. 2), of the 'prince,' i.e. the patron-angel, of Persia, prevented the dazzling being from reaching Daniel sooner.

the prince of the kingdom of Persia] its patron- or guardian-angel.

withstood me one and twenty days: but lo, Michael, one

The doctrine of tutelary angels, presiding over the destinies of particular nations, though there appears a trace of the idea in Is. xxiv. 21, and according to some commentators, in Ps. lxxxii., is found for the first time distinctly in the O.T. in this prophecy of Dan. (x. 13, 20, 21, xi. I, xii. 1). In the earlier books of the O.T. angels appear merely as the 'messengers' of Jehovah, with little or no personal character or distinctness of their own: in the later books of the O.T. grades and differences begin to be recognised among them; particular angels are appropriated to particular purposes or functions; and they begin to receive individual names (see below). The origin of the idea of patronangels is matter of conjecture: even as applied to Israel, it evidently signifies more than is implied in such passages as Ex. xxiii. 20, 23, xxxii. 34, xxxiii. 2 (which speak of an angel leading Israel to its home in Canaan). According to some (see the art. ANGEL in the Encycl. Biblica, col. 108), they are the ancient 'gods of the nations,'-which, according to Deut. xxix. 26 (cf. iv. 19), are allotted' by Jehovah to the several peoples of the earth,-transformed into 'angels,' under the teachings of a more consistent monotheism, for the purpose of being more distinctly subordinated to Him; according to others (see the art. ANGEL in Hastings' Dict. of the Bible, p. 96 b), the idea is due to the tendencies which arose in later times, (1) of conceiving God as ruling the world by intermediate agencies, and (2) of personifying abstract conceptions, such as the 'spirit,' or genius, of a nation, and of locating such personified forces in the supersensible world, whence they ruled the destinies of men. Other passages in which the same idea is found are Ecclus. xvii. 17 ἑκάστῳ ἔθνει κατέστησεν ἡγούμενον); and Deut. xxxii. 8 LXX. ('he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God [ for a reading thought by some moderns to be the original). The later Jews developed the doctrine further, teaching, for instance, that each of the 70 nations mentioned in Gen. x. had its Angel-Prince, who defended its interests, and pleaded its cause with God (cf. the Targ. of Ps. -Jon. on Gen. xi. 7, 8 and Deut. xxxii. 8; and Weber, System der Altsynag. Theol., p. 165 f.). Michael] the patron-angel of the Jews (v. 21, xii. 1). The idea of the passage is that the fortunes of nations are determined by the angels representing them in heaven: the success or failure of these regulating the success or failure of the nations themselves. Cf. Is. xxiv. 21.

As was remarked in the last note but one, it is not till the later books

of the O.T. that angels begin to receive names. The only angels mentioned by name in O.T. and N.T. are 'the Satan' (i.e. the unfriendly Opposer or Thwarter: see Davidson's note on Job i. 6), Job i.-ii., Zech. iii. 1, 2, 1 Ch. xxi. 1 [altered from the parallel, 2 Sam. xxiv. 1], and frequently in the N.T.; Michael, here and v. 21, xii. 1, Jude 9, Rev. xii. 7; and Gabriel, Daniel viii. 16, ix. 21, Luke i. 19, 26. In the extra-canonical books other names of angels appear. Thus in the Book of Tobit, an angel Raphael is named, who, disguised as a man, performs various offices for Tobit and Tobias (iii. 17, v. 4, &c.); in xii. 15 (cf. v. 12), he is said to be one of the seven

of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained

holy angels [cf. Enoch lxxxi. 5 'those seven holy ones,' xc. 21, 22] which present the prayers of the saints' to God. In 2 (4) Esdr. iv. 1, v. 20, x. 28, Uriel is mentioned; and in iv. 36 (R.V.) Jeremiel, the archangel.' In the book of Enoch many names of angels occur: in ix. I [see the Greek text, in Charles' ed., p. 333] and elsewhere, Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel; in xx. 1-7 (p. 356 f., Charles) the names and offices of seven principal angels, or 'archangels,' are enumerated (Uriel, Raphael, Raguel, Michael, Sariel, Gabriel, and Remeiel); in xl. 2-10, those of four principal angels, called here 'presences' (cf. Is. lxiii. 9), Michael, Rufael (Raphael), Gabriel, and Phanuel (1): the names of many fallen angels, who seduced the children of men (Gen. vi. 2, 5), are also given (vi. 7, viii. 1—3, lxix. 1-15, &c.). See, further, on the names and functions of angels in the later Jewish Angelology, Weber, l. c. p. 161 ff.; Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus, ii. 745 ff.; and cf. A. B. Davidson's art. ANGEL in Hastings' Dict. of the Bible.

one of the chief princes] The reference is evidently to some group of superior angels, or (to adopt the later Greek expression) 'archangels.' In the book of Enoch, as has just been shewn, sometimes four angels (see esp. xl. 2-9), sometimes seven, are distinguished above the rest. Among the later Jews (Edersheim, .c. p. 748 f.; Midrash Rabba on Numb. ii. 20) Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, and Raphael were usually regarded as the four principal angels, privileged to stand immediately about the throne of God; but seven are mentioned, not only in Enoch xx. 1-7, lxxxi. 5, xc. 21, but also in Tob. xii. 15 (see the last note), and Rev. viii. 2 ('the seven angels which stand before God'); and probably these seven are alluded to here. Cf. Jude 9, where Michael is called the archangel.'

·

Michael is the warrior-angel (cf. Rev. xii. 7), whose special office it is to protect the interests of Israel; in Enoch xx. 5 he is described as ὁ εἷς τῶν ἁγίων ἀγγέλων ὃς ἐπὶ τῶν τοῦ λαοῦ ἀγαθῶν τέτακται [καὶ] ἐπὶ Tλa; in the Assumption of Moses x. 2 (ed. Charles, 1897) he appears to be the angel' who avenges Israel on their enemies at the end of the world; in the legend quoted in Jude 9 (see the patristic quotations, in Charles, . c. p. 106 ff.), it is he who, as the angelic patron of Israel, defends the body of Moses against the devil (who claims it on the ground that Moses has been guilty of the murder of the Egyptians). For other extra-Biblical references to Michael, see Hastings' Dict. of the Bible, s. v.

remained there] properly, was left over there (the word used implying that others had departed, or been destroyed, Gen. xxxii. 24; 1 Sam. xxx. 9; 1 Ki. xix. 10; Am. vi. 9), though the meaning of the expression here is far from certain. According to some it is simply I remained there, which, however, does not do justice to the word used; according to v. Lengerke, Ges., and Keil, it is I had the superiority, i.e. obtained the victory (cf. Luther, da behielt ich den Sieg), the prince' of Persia having been, at least temporarily (see v. 20), disabled; according to

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