John Gill Commentary Daniel 10

In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia
Not of his being king of Persia only, but of the Medopersian empire, after he had subdued the Babylonian empire, and annexed it to his dominions; and this is not to be reckoned from the time of his taking Babylon, and putting the government of it into the hands of his uncle Darius, with whom he jointly reigned; but from the time of his uncle's death, when he was sole monarch of the whole empire:

He reigned thirty years, as Cicero ^F20, from a Persian writer, relates; which is to be reckoned from the time of his being appointed by his uncle commander-in-chief of the Persian and Median armies; for from his taking of Babylon to his death were but nine years; and so many years the canon of Ptolemy assigns to his reign, taking in the two years he reigned with his uncle; for from his being sole monarch, after the death of Cyaxares, or Darius the Mede his uncle, were but seven years; which, according to Xenophon ^F21, is the whole of his reign, who reckons it from there.

And it was in the third of these that Daniel had the visions contained in this and the two following chapters; which, according to Bishop Usher ^F23, and Dean Prideaux ^F24, was in the year of the world 3470 A.M. and 534 B.C. Mr. Bedford ^F25 places it in the year 533 B.C. How long Daniel lived after this is not certain; very probably he died quickly after, since he must be in a very advanced age; for the third year of Cyrus being the seventy third of his captivity, as Dean Prideaux

observes. If he was eighteen years of age, as that learned man thinks is the least that can be supposed at the time of his carrying into Babylon, he must have been in the ninety first year of his age at this time. Or if he was but fifteen years of age at that time, which is the opinion of Aben Ezra on (Daniel 1:4), he must be eighty eight years of age in the third year of Cyrus.

The Dutch annotators observe, that Daniel lived in the court of Babylon above seventy seven years, which will carry his age to a greater length still.

Jarchi on (Daniel 1:21) asserts Daniel to be the same with Hatach in (Esther 4:5), and so the Targum on that place, who lived in the times of Ahasuerus, supposed to be Xerxes. Now between the third of Cyrus and the beginning of Xerxes's reign is mentioned a space of seventy one years, which, added to the least number eighty eight before given, will make Daniel now to be one hundred and fifty nine years old when Ahasuerus or Xerxes began his reign. This is not only an age unfit for such business Hatach was employed in, but also does not agree with the period in which Daniel lived, when it was not usual for men to live so long, and must be exploded as fabulous ^F26:

a thing was revealed unto Daniel; a secret, which he otherwise could never have known. This was a singular favour to him, and showed him to be a friend of God, a favourite of his. It respected the Persian and Grecian monarchies, the various kings of Egypt and Syria, and what should befall them, and the times of Antiochus, and the troubles the Jews would have through him:

(whose name was called Belteshazzar); a name given him by the prince of the eunuchs; see (Daniel 1:7):

and the thing was true; was not a false vision, a mere fancy of the brain, an empty conjecture, a delusion of the mind, like the divination and soothsaying of the Gentiles, but a real thing, that was sure and certain, and would be fulfilled, and might be depended upon. But the time appointed was long, before the whole would be accomplished, for it reached to the times of Antiochus, three hundred years after this, yes, to the resurrection of the dead, and the end of all things. Or, "a great host", or "army" ^F1; a vast appearance of things were represented to him; not a host of angels, as Saadiah, but a vast number of facts, like an army of them, and which respected armies and battles; or it may denote the force, power, and efficacy of the word that was true, which should not fail, but be certainly fulfilled:

and he understood the thing, and had understanding of the vision; That is, Daniel understood "the word" ^F2, or words of the prophecy, in which it was expressed; they were clear and plain, and not obscure, dark, and doubtful. He had a clear view of each of the parts of it, of the whole series of things, the connection of facts, and their dependence on one another, and their certain accomplishment; he saw them in their order, as they were presented to him in vision and prophecy, and was not at any loss about the meaning of any part of them, or the words by which they were signified.

FOOTNOTES:

• F20: De Divinatione, l. 1.
• F21: Cyropaedia, l. 8. c. 45.
• F23: Annales Vet. Test. A. M. 3470.
• F24: Connexion par. 1. p. 161, 162.
• F25: Scripture Chronology, p. 718.
• F26: Ut supra. (Connexion par. 1. p. 161, 162)
• F1: (lwdg abuw) "et militia magna", Pagninus, Montanus, Gejerus; "militia seu belligeratio ingens", Michaelis.
• F2: (rbdh ta) "verbum", Pagninus, Montanus, Munster.

In those days I Daniel was mourning
Either on account of what had been revealed to him in the last vision or prophecy of the seventy weeks; by which it appeared what wickedness the people of the Jews would be guilty of in cutting off the Messiah; and what desolations would come upon their land, city, and temple, for such usage of him: as also because of the present case of his people; many of them continuing in the country of Babylon, when they had liberty to return to their land: or because of the hindrance the Jews met with in rebuilding their city and temple, who had returned thither; of which Daniel had an account, and which caused him to mourn in secret: and so he continued three full weeks ;
or, "three weeks of days" ^F3 ; so called, to distinguish them from weeks of years, mentioned in the preceding chapter.

FOOTNOTES:

• F3: (Mymy Myebv hvlv) "tribus hebdomadibus dierum", Munster, Calvin, Tigurine version; "trium hebdomadarum diebus", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, so Junius & Tremellius, Medus.

I ate no pleasant bread
Or, "bread of desires" ^F4 ; such as was made of the finest of the wheat, and was eaten in the courts of princes where Daniel was. According to some Jewish Rabbins in Ben Melech, hot bread is meant; but in general it means the best of bread, such as had good qualities to make it desirable. Daniel refrained from this while he was humbling and afflicting himself on this sorrowful occasion, but ate coarse bread, black and grainy.

neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth ;
not delicate meat, as of fish, fowl, deer, and the like, as Saadiah observes; but contented himself with meaner fare. Nor did he drink generous wine, as he had used to do, living in a king's court, and which his old age made necessary for him, since he could come at it; but he abstained from it, and other lawful pleasures of nature, the more to give himself up to acts of devotion and contemplation.

neither did I anoint myself at all, until three whole weeks were
fulfilled ;
which was frequently done by the Jews, especially at feasts, and by the Persians every day, among whom he now was. But this he refrained from, as was usual in times of fasting and humiliation; see (Matthew 6:17) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F4: (twdmx Mxl) "panem desideriorum", Pagninus, Montanus; "desiderabilium", Junius & Tremellius; "desiderabilem", V. L. Vatablus, Piscator.

And in the four and twentieth day of the first month
Of the third year of Cyrus, as Jacchiades; or rather of the Jewish year, the month Ab or Nisan, which answers to part of March and April; so that Daniel's fast began on the third day of the month, and lasted to the twenty fourth, in which time was the Jewish passover; and by this it seems it was not now kept; and perhaps in those times was not used to be observed by the Jews in a foreign land: as I was by the side of the great river, which is Hiddekel ;

the same with the Tigris, called by both names from the swiftness and rapidity of its motion, "hiddekel" signifying both sharp and swift; and tigris, in the Persian language, a dart; see (Genesis 2:14) . This is the same river the Targum of Jonathan on (Genesis 2:14) calls Diglath; and is by Pliny ^F5 called Diglito, who observes that it has the name of Tigris from its swiftness; so he says the Medes call an arrow; likewise Curtius ^F6 takes notice of the same, and says that it is named Tigris from the celerity with which it flows; for in the Persian language they call a dart "tigris": so (dx) signifies in the Hebrew language "sharp" or "polished", as an arrow is; and (lq) , "swift", as an arrow flies, and both make Hiddekel: now this river was near Shushan, where Daniel resided; nay, Benjamin of Tudela ^F7 says, that the river Hiddekel divides the city of Shushan, over which is a bridge, on one side of which Jews dwelt, at the time he was there; unless he means that it cuts and divides the province of Elam in Persia, he had before been speaking of; and so Diodorus Siculus ^F8 says, that both Euphrates and Tigris pass through Media into Mesopotamia; wherefore it is no wonder to hear of Daniel by the side of the river Hiddekel or Tigris:

here Daniel was, not in vision, but in person, having others with him, as appears from a following verse; by it he was walking, contemplating, praying, or conversing.

FOOTNOTES:

• F5: Nat. Hist. l. 6. c. 27.
• F6: Hist. l. 4. c. 9.
• F7: Itinerarium, p. 86.
• F8: Bibliothec. l. 2. p. 99.

Then I lifted up mine eyes, and looked
Being excited to it, by an object presented, of an unusual appearance, which engaged his attention, and caused him to look wistly at it: and, behold a certain man clothed in linen; not Gabriel, but the Son of God, the Messiah; who, though not as yet incarnate, yet was so in the counsel and purpose of God; had agreed in covenant to be man, was promised and prophesied of as such; and now appeared in a human form, as he frequently did before his incarnation, as a pledge of it, and showing his readiness to assume human nature: he appears here "clothed in linen", in the habit of a priest; which office he sustains, and executes by the sacrifice of himself, and by his prevalent intercession; and may denote his purity and innocence, as well as direct us to his spotless righteousness he is the author of, which is like fine linen, clean and white, (Revelation 19:8).

whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz; or of Fez, which is the best gold. Some take it to be the same with the gold of Ophir, often spoken of in Scripture; so the Targum on (Jeremiah 10:9), renders Uphaz by Ophir. Ptolemy ^F9 makes mention of a river called Phasis in the island of Taprobane or Zeilan, where Bochart ^F11 seems to think Ophir was, from which the gold of that name came; and the same geographer ^F12 takes notice of a city and river of the same name in Colchis; perhaps the same with Pison, which encompassed Havilah, where was good gold, (Genesis 2:11Genesis 2:12), and both Strabo ^F13 and Pliny ^F14 say that much gold was found in that country, and taken out of rivers there; and was so plentiful, that even chambers were made of gold. Some think that this was an island in India called Paz or Topaz, and might with the Jews go by all three names, Paz, Topaz, and Uphaz ^F15; however, it is certain, that very fine gold, even the finest gold, is here designed: and the loins of this illustrious Person being girded with a girdle made of it, as it may be expressive of his royal dignity, so likewise of his readiness to do any service he was employed in, as man and Mediator; and especially the great work of man's redemption and salvation, for the sake of which he would really become man, as he has, as well as now he appeared as one; see (Revelation 1:13) where Christ is said to be "girt with a golden girdle"; and such an one was this.

And which is to be understood, not of his girdle as a King, which is a girdle of faithfulness and righteousness, (Isaiah 11:5), all his administrations of government being just and true; though such a girdle well suits him, and his character in the discharge of every office, as well as his kingly office; nor of his girdle as a Prophet, which is the girdle of truth, which all his faithful ministers are girt with, (Ephesians 6:14), and he in a more eminent manner, who is full of grace and truth, and by whom both came, and who is truth itself; but of his girdle as a Priest; for as such is he here habited, and such a girdle the priests used to wear, even the girdle of the ephod, made of gold, blue, purple, and fine twined linen, (Exodus 28:8), and this is the girdle of love, which constrained Christ to become the surety and substitute of his people; to take upon him their nature, and their sins; to offer himself a sacrifice for them, and to be their advocate with the Father; and the form and matter of this girdle being round about him, and of gold, may denote the perfection, duration, and eternity of his love.

FOOTNOTES:

• F9: Geograph. l. 7. c. 4.
• F11: Phaleg. l. 2. c. 27. col. 141.
• F12: Ptolem. Geograph. l. 5. c. 10.
• F13: Geograph. l. 11. p. 343.
• F14: Nat. Hist. l. 33. c. 3.
• F15: Hiller. Onomastic. Sacr. c. 8. p. 141.