CHAPTER 1
1. In the third year of the reign of Yehoyaqim, king of Yehudah, Nevukhadnetzar the king of Bavel [Babylon] came to Yerushalayim and besieged it.
This story is told in more detail in 2 Kings 24. Bavel was a giant city-state, 65 miles southwest of today’s Iraqi capital, Baghdad. Saddam Hussein started rebuilding it, and now it is a U.S. military command center. It had been thriving in its own domain since shortly after the Deluge of Noakh (Genesis 11); it was the site of the infamous tower of Bavel, built as a way to escape YHWH’s judgment. With poetic justice, now a young man named “Elohim is my judge” has been brought here, and will bring forth that judgment through various means. But it did not become an empire, ironically (but much like the Egyptian pattern), until it was overtaken by the Chaldeans, who came from southern Mesopotamia, largely in what we call Kuwait today. (Resources may be recognized better from the outside.)
2. And YHWH delivered Yehoyaqim, the king of Yehudah, into his hand, along with some of the vessels of the House of Elohim, which he took to the house of his elohim in the land of Shinar. And he brought them into the treasury of his elohim.
Shinar: a term equivalent to Mesopotamia—the plain between the Hiddeqel (Tigris) and Ferath (Euphrates) rivers. His elohim: specifically, Bel, a variant of Ba’al, from which some of the names in the book, including the Babylonian name assigned to Daniel himself, are derived. We cannot help but notice the similarity with the English word “bell”. Bells have always had a mystical and religious significance, beginning with the bells (called instead by the name pa’amonim—something struck—in Hebrew) that were on the high priest’s garments to call attention to his arrival so everyone would rise to their feet when he approached because of his position. (Lev. 19:32) No one else is authorized in Scripture to use them in the context of worship, so church bells are certainly an illegitimate counterfeit of something YHWH used for His purposes.
3. Then the king told Ashpenaz, the chief of his chamberlains, to bring some of the sons of Israel—specifically of the royal seed and from the nobility:
Chamberlains: Literally "eunuchs", and this is how the term was originally used, but later it came to include any sort of court official or minister of state, though the practice of castration persisted in some cases, mainly (understandably) for those assigned as attendants of the harem, as seen in the book of Hadassah/Esther. This was the first wave of exiles, being the “cream of the crop”—the elite and highly intelligent, whom the emperor wanted to educate and use for his purposes. He did not intend to take the whole Jewish nation into captivity, but the rebellion of the later kings of Yehudah pushed him to take stricter measures, but this also fulfilled the words of YHWH since they owed the Land a Sabbath. (2 Chron. 36:21, based on Lev. 26:43)
4. boys in whom there was no blemish at all, but were pleasing to look at, well-instructed in all [kinds of] wisdom, knowledgeable in science, perceptive in learning, and who were hardy enough in their condition to be employed in the king's palace, and to teach them the script and the spoken language of the Chaldeans.
After bringing the monetary treasures, he brings the real treasures of Yehudah—its people, with the litmus test being the knowledge they already had, evidencing their aptitude to learn skills he needed in his courts. They were capable of doing whatever their surroundings required, because they had a well-rounded education that set them in readiness to gain wisdom from every kind of source (filtering it all through the Torah, of course). How much more valuable would we be to our King if we spend our time learning things that are useful to His Kingdom than wasting it on trivial pursuits? Yaaqov 1:5 tells us to ask YHWH for wisdom, and He usually answers by taking us through experiences rather than waving a miracle wand and instantly changing our minds. Pleasing to look at: They are the “blue-bloods” who have not been worn out by physical labor, with which to decorate his court. As recently as the Ottoman Turks, this practice of staffing one’s court from other nations persisted, chiefly due to the fact that while there is often intrigue and rivalry among members of the royal household who could qualify for the throne, those brought from outside know their limits and are unlikely to mutiny. He may have also wanted them for the purpose of marrying off Babylonian women so that the “gene pool” here would be enhanced. The term for “pleasing to look at” can also mean “perceptive” and is even related to the term for “vision” as in a prophetic revelation, so it could be that being inclined to such understanding was even one of the characteristics the king’s scouts looked for in his choice of whom to conscript for his training. We do see such an aptitude show up later in the boys this account focuses on, though its onset may have come for a different reason. (v. 17) Knowledgeable in science: or discriminating in knowledge. Chaldeans: Heb., Khasdim, which sometimes in itself referred to astrologers. (Strong).
5. So daily the king set before them rations from the royal food and the wine that he drank so that he might cause them to grow, and [gave them] three years of training, so that at the end of them they might be in the royal employ.
Rations: Heb., matter of the day, or, a word a day—the same way YHWH is said to have apportioned the manna in the wilderness, and He Himself described this as a test of obedience. (Ex. 16:4) We do not live by bread alone, but by YHWH’s words. (Deut. 8:3; compare 2 Corinthians 6:14-18) If Daniel heard the provisions described in these terms, he would be especially on the alert for the agenda which the king was hiding behind this lavish spread. (See note on v. 8.) Be in the royal employ: literally, stand before the king.
6. Now among them, from the sons of Yehudah, were Daniel, Hananyah, Misha’El, and Azaryah.
Daniel means “My judge is Elohim” (cf. 9:4). Hananyah means “YHWH has been gracious” or “favored by YHWH”; Misha’El, “Who is what Elohim is?”, and Azaryah: “YHWH has helped”. All of these names reflect the greatness of YHWH.
7. But the chief of the chamberlains assigned them different names: Daniel he now called Belteshatzar; he called Hananyah Shadrakh; he called Misha’El Meyshach; and Azaryah he called Aved-Nego.
Belteshatzar means “Bel who guards the treasure”; Shadrakh means “a royal scribe”. (Was his father the chief scribe taken in 2 Kings 25:19? ) Meyshach means “retiring”, and Aved-Nego, “Servant of Nego”, a variant of Nebo, the god after which the king himself was named, and was linked with the planet Mercury. (This chapter makes it clear that Babylon was highly interested in astrology. The Hebrews knew that the stars existed for the purpose of signs, and so were expert in this area of study. Daniel was later called the head of the Magi, a caste of officials who chose rulers based on such signs. It was their descendants who recognized the sign in the heavens that the Messiah had been born, based on information Daniel had taught them. Other forms of astrology such as horoscopes—the “kitsch”-level heir to this true science—are mere corruptions of something YHWH created for the use of the righteous.) Whether or not he was intentionally trying to erase their memories of YHWH by changing their names, all of these names were designed to bring them favor when they stood before the king. Note that their Hebrew names continue to be used in this chapter. Today we are discarding our Babylonian names and adopting Hebrew ones again, for when one’s name is changed, it can change the person. The right name can have a great effect on the outcome of one’s life. Where one is weak, a strong name that reflects what we hope he will become can be a goal for him to grow into.
8. Yet Daniel determined in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king's dainties or with the wine that he drank. So he asked the chief of the chamberlains that he might be permitted to not defile himself.
Not defile himself: literally, not redeem himself. King Shlomo tells us that if we are at all inclined to be enchanted by a king’s “dainties”, it would be better to put a knife to our own throats (Prov. 22:29; 23:1), for if you really like his food, you will find excuses to return there, and who would be invited back often by a king but one from whom he wants something? In other words, this “redemption” is in fact a bribery, for he is looking for something from you. If you become enamored with his table, you will obligate yourself to serve his purposes. Daniel had the dream job. But while any of the native-born Babylonians would probably have killed for this position, Daniel did not see himself as one of the delicacies on the king’s table—his showpieces (as in the note on v. 4)--but as existing for the purpose of the continuance of Israel. Though the king's foods were delicacies, Daniel knew that they were not prepared according to the kosher manner Elohim had established, and if they were under Elohim's interdict, they could not be beneficial to him. This food was probably also offered to idols—a major issue among the exiles in Paul’s day. He had "established upon his heart" the regulations Elohim had given His people before being taken into captivity, and he found his exile no excuse for Elohim's people to violate the covenant. Around this same time, Y’hezq’el was told to cook his meals over a fire fueled by human excrement--“defiled bread” to portray the condition of YHWH’s people in captivity. However, YHWH relented when Y’hezq’el pleaded that he had never eaten anything that was an abomination to YHWH. (4:6-17) This set a precedent for other exiles to ask YHWH to allow them to retain a Torah-based diet even while in their exile. Of course, this is applicable to us. This is the first recorded instance of Daniel's risking his life to remain faithful to Elohim. (See also 6:10.) Asked: In doing so he showed himself to be a leader in the preservation of Israel through avoidance of what others may have considered unavoidable assimilation. This gave others, like his three companions (3:12) and in the next generation, Mordekhai (Hadassah/Esther 3:2), the courage to follow suit. (Scherman)
9. Now Elohim had granted Daniel mercy to find favor before [the face of] the chief of the chamberlains,
Compare the experiences of Yoseyf in Egypt. (Gen. 39)
10. and the chief of the chamberlains told Daniel, "I am afraid of my master, the king, who has decided what your food and drink should be. For why should he see your faces looking more haggard than those who are in your circle? Then you would make me guilty before the king!"
Food: literally, bread, a picture of community; Daniel did not wish to partake intimately of any community other than Israel. Make me guilty: Or "forfeit me to the king"; his own competence would be called into question if those whom he had selected appeared unhealthy, which he assumed would be the case if they ate no meat (cf. v. 12). By tradition, the king supplied the youths with all things conducive to attaining excellence in studies: peace of mind due to his providing their daily necessities (they would not have to seek their own sustenance); proper food (that which he himself enjoyed); and sufficient time to accumulate knowledge. (Alshich, based on v. 5) To fail to appreciate these kindnesses on his part would seem like an unpardonable rebuff.
11. Then Daniel said to the overseer whom the chief of the chamberlains had appointed to be over Daniel, Hananyah, Misha’El, and Azaryah,
Overseer, or guardian.
12. "I beg you, test your servants for ten days: Let us be given some of the vegetables to eat and water to drink.
Servants: Daniel spoke not just for himself but for all who were with him, again showing himself a true leader in Israel. Vegetables: literally, seed, i.e., what is sown. It refers in particular to legumes, since they would provide more protein than other types of vegetables. This same term is used for beans and peas in modern Hebrew. Ten is the number of fullness, and Chaldea being a people related to Israel (it had been Avram’s birthplace), this probably held a significance for them as well. Or it may have just been a reasonable amount of time for the difference to become noticeable. If they had all become weakened and nearly starved by the siege of verse 1, simple foods like this would have brought them back to robust health (v. 5) more effectively than rich foods. (After the Holocaust, the emaciated skeletons of the Jewish survivors could not handle solid food; those who were fed upon their liberation from the death camps died, which quickly made their liberators switch to starting with mere broth which would not be such a shock to their systems.)
13. “Then let our faces and the faces of the boys who eat what the king apportions, then deal with your servants as you see [fit].”
What the king apportions: literally, the king’s ration--i.e., a share from the king’s own table. Daniel and his friends were “fasting” from that. Yahshua therefore derived the authority for his teaching that we should not have a “poor me”, haggard face when we fast, because these boys looked better after they had fasted than before.
14. So he listened to them in regard to this matter, and tested them for ten days.
Part of the favor he received probably stemmed from the respect and consideration they showed their overseer. He did not ask for exemption for the entire three years, though that was his hope; he asked only for a probationary period which in the long run would not have any ill effects on the overseer if it did not work. YHWH had told Yehudah through the prophets to submit to Bavel—to accept their captivity as His discipline, so they could learn from it and come back a more righteous people than they had been before. If they would do so, YHWH told them, things would go well for them in their captivity. (Yirmeyahu 27) So Daniel did not resist being taken. How far should we take this analogy in our exile? The “going with the flow” is limited by the point at which we begin to violate the Torah. While he was in this place which came to be known for such great religious freedom that the more common version of the Talmud was written there in its entirety, Daniel never regarded himself as fully part of it. He never regarded it as his home. He did not let himself become spoiled on the exotic foods of this foreign land, knowing this could make him as dissatisfied as the Israelites who longed for “the fleshpots of Egypt” when he eventually might return to his homeland. He used Bavel—as we should use our Babylon—as a place to re-establish Israel and restore it to its purpose.
15. Then at the end of the ten days, he noticed that they appeared better and their muscles firmer than any of the [other] boys who were eating the king’s portions.
16. So the overseer took away their apportioned ration and their banquet-wine, and provided them [with] vegetables.
What was the problem with the wine? It was not certified to be kosher—that is, it might have been processed on the Sabbath. This may have been a consideration, but this is more of a modern definition. Wine is symbolic of joy (Psalm 104:15), and Daniel did not want to find joy in the same sources the Babylonians did. He could also hardly partake of the feasts that were celebrating the recent defeat of the Jews. (Compare Deut. 32:32 and the attitude of the attitude of the exiles in Psalm 137 who were asked to share with their captors the joyful songs they had sung when free people in their own Land.)
17. So [as for] these four boys, Elohim gave them perceptiveness and insight into all [kinds of] book-learning and practical skill, and Daniel had discernment of [prophetic] visions and dreams.
YHWH rewarded their carefulness to follow His commands with skills that would give them the best possible advantages in their place of exile, since He could not yet take them out of exile. He says, “Those who honor Me I will honor” (1 Shmu’el 2:30), and this term “honor” literally means “heaviness” and by extension importance and authority. Every one of these is an apt description of how Daniel treated YHWH and how YHWH in turn gave him a “weighty” position.
18. Now at the end of the days, when the king had said to bring them, the chief of the court-officials brought them before Nevukhadnetzar.
Days: that is, the three years of preparation (v. 5).
19. When the king spoke with them, the likes of Daniel, Hananyah, Misha’El, and Azaryah were not found among any of [the rest of] them, so they remained in the king’s presence.
Remained: the term connotes standing (in both senses) and rising higher as well as permanence.
20. And [in] any matter of skill or discernment which the king required of them, he found them ten hands above any of the occult-writers and conjurers that were in all his realm.
I.e., sorcerers and astrologers; some render the first “horoscopists”. Ten hands: an idiom for “ten times better”, but also emphasizing the fact that their actions were superior as well as their health and intelligence. They beat them “hands down”!
21. And Daniel continued until year one of Koresh the king.
Koresh was king of Medo-Persia after Babylon fell. Koresh, a great statesman and warrior who essentially founded the Persian Empire, would be the one who, in accordance with Yeshayahu’s prophecy (44:28; 45:1), would in part end Yehudah’s mandatory captivity. This very same year was the one in which Koresh proclaimed that the Temple could be rebuilt (2 Chron. 36:22). The book of Ezra, set in that same year, picks up right where 2 Chronicles leaves off. (See note on 6:28.)
CHAPTER 2
1. Now in the second year of Nevukhadnetzar’s reign, Nevukhadnetzar had some dreams, and his breathing became labored, and his sleep was gone from upon him.
Second year: possibly a flashback to something that had begun long before the events of chapter 1, or possibly the second year of his reign over Yehudah. Or it could mean that he had been having this recurring dream for two years. Breathing: or spirit. Labored: literally, beat upon; i.e., pronouncedly rhythmic (hyperventilating).
2. So the king gave the order to call the occult-writers, the conjurers, the sorcerers, and the astrologers to expound for the king his dreams, so they came and presented themselves before the king.
3. And the king told them, “I have had a dream, and my breath has been labored to find out the dream.”
4. So the astrologers spoke to the king [in] Aramaic: “O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will declare the interpretation!”
Astrologers: or Chaldeans, but used in the special sense of “super-wizards”, since they were known for their skill in reading the stars. (One of the reasons they requested Jewish youth to train was that they knew the Jews had paid attention to the stars as well, because of Genesis 1:14. As Avi Ben Mordechai and others have shown so well, the original zodiac, before it was corrupted into its present form, was a clear message from YHWH, paralleling the Torah, as David tells us poetically in Psalm 19. It was Zoroastrians or even Jewish astronomers who rightly interpreted the signs in the heavens that the Messiah had been born, based largely on Daniel’s own teachings in this regard, for Zoroaster was a student of Daniel’s.) Aramaic: related to Chaldean, since this is what Avram had spoken before moving to Aram, and thus very closely related to Hebrew, and even more similar to modern Arabic. The Assyrians developed the Aramean language much further than its original speakers had, and it became a lingua franca used as far away as Mongolia. But it was the official language of the court, and these officials probably used it rather than their native Chaldean so that others in the court would hear what they said and they hoped they would thus have some room to appeal should events turn out the way they indeed did. The text continues in Aramaic through the end of chapter 6.
5. But he told the astrologers, “The thing is gone from me! If you cannot make known the dream as well as its interpretation, you will be turned into [mere] body parts, and your houses made into piles of rubble [used as a latrine]!
6. “But if you do make known the dream and its interpretation known, you will receive from [what is] with me gifts, a reward, and great honor. Therefore, reveal to me the dream and its meaning!”
Honor: literally, evaluation.
7. But they answered the second time and said, “Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will declare the interpretation!”
They ask again for what he refused to give. It is improbable that the king had truly forgotten this vivid dream that he had had several times. It does make him nervous, because it has affected him more than anything ever has. He has an army that can crush any other, is a master at building beautiful cities, and stands in greater majesty than any king ever has, but he has not control over this whatsoever. He believes very deeply in unseen things and knows that they have deep significance, and that this one is very important. He does not fully understand what it means, though he, being the king of a nation of astrologers, he certainly has strong hypotheses. But he has come to suspect these supposed experts because of their hesitancy to answer.
8. The king replied and said, “Now I know for sure that you are buying time, all because you perceive that the thing is gone from me!
Gone: alt., assured.
9. “But if you cannot make the dream known to me, then there is [just] one law for you, and you have agreed in advance on lying and corrupt words to speak before me until the time-period be changed! Therefore tell me [what] the dream [was] so that I can be sure that you can explain to me its interpretation!”
I.e., “You make me suspect that everything you have ever told me has been the result of mere collaboration among yourselves rather than anything supernatural, because the real proof is in this type of question!” This is why his threat is so severe. They have been trying to get around this question for quite some time, and this is the straw that is about to break the camel’s back. If they can really read the stars, they should be able to tell what his dream was. It makes him upset that he cannot really be certain that it has not been a farce all along. Books listing formulae for dream interpretation have been found in Egypt, and they certainly had such reference manuals in Bavel. He cannot risk them being wrong about something so significant, because though everyone has dreams, when great people (like Yaaqov, Yoseyf, and Pharaoh) have dreams, their message will affect many people. A message given to Yoseyf ben David in a dream saved the Messiah’s life as a young child. Until the time-period be changed: from verse 21, this appears to be a euphemism for “until I die or am deposed”.
10. The astrologers brought an answer before the king and said, “There is not a man on earth who is able to make known the king’s matter; for this reason there is no king, chief, or ruler who demands such things of any occult-writer, conjurer, or astrologer!
11. “Also, the thing that the king requires is rare, and there is no one else who can reveal it before the king except the gods, whose dwelling-place is not with flesh.”
Rare: or difficult. Here they are making desperate excuses. They are saying, “If you kill us, you won’t find anybody better anywhere else, so why waste your wrath? You are holding us to too high a standard!”
12. On account of all of this, the king was enraged and became very furious, and commanded that all of the wise men of Bavel be destroyed.
He no longer believed in such things, so ordered that anyone who had anything to do with it be done away with.
13. So the decree went out that the wise men should be slain, and they were seeking Daniel and his companions in order to slay them.
The wording allows for the possibility that the killing had already begun.
14. But with counsel and discretion, Daniel gave a reply to Ariokh, the king’s chief executioner, who had come out to slay the wise men of Bavel.
Counsel: He got help and advice from his companions, though he was the primary spokesman. Discretion: or taste.
15. [That is] he answered and said to Ariokh, the king’s captain, “Why is the decree from before the king so urgent?” So Ariokh made the matter known to Daniel.
Captain: literally, one with authority or one who is domineering. Why: Daniel may have been taking advantage of being a “rookie”, asking a question that others might not have dared to ask the emperor due to some cultural hesitancy. Or, since he was still in his three-year training time, he was not among those already in the court, and may genuinely not have known what was occurring, at least in any detail.
16. But Daniel went in and requested from the king that he would give him time so he could declare the interpretation to the king.
Daniel knew far more about the universe simply due to being in a relationship with its Creator as part of Israel and through the Torah (the primary way anyone hears from YHWH), and anyone in Israel (whose very covenant is the promise to hear from YHWH) already has the upper hand if he uses what he has been given. Daniel was confident from his people’s history that YHWH could do this, because he knew He had done this for Yoseyf. Still, Daniel considered his circumstances and knew it might be dangerous to tell all he knew. He does not even offer a hint that he has such connections to this Gentile king, but keeps his mouth shut until his own life and the lives of his companions are threatened. As long as they were only killing astrologers who were already practicing, he could have reasoned that YHWH was merely rooting out the bad element, especially since he would have thus been in line for a very nice position if they were indeed killed off. But now that they had begun killing the students as well, he had no choice but to speak up.
17. Then Daniel went to his house and made the matter known to his companions, Hananyah, Misha’el, and Azaryah
18. so that they would plead for mercies from before the Elohim of Heaven concerning this secret, so that Daniel and his companions would not perish along with the rest of Bavel’s wise men.
19. Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night, so Daniel bowed the knee to the Elohim of Heaven.
Daniel saw exactly what the king had seen, but only after consulting with others in Israel. This is very instructive for us. The kosher laws (with which Daniel was very familiar, as we have seen) teach us to eat ruminant animals. They have four stomachs, and this is a picture of processing YHWH’s word from the different angles that each person in the community comes from, for no one of us has enough knowledge or insight to fully understand it alone. And here we actually have four young men to correspond with the four stomachs! They pooled their knowledge so that they would have all of the same insights. It is very likely that they discussed the story of Yoseyf and his dreams as well as the ones he interpreted. At this point, Daniel knew it was time to go to sleep so he could hear from YHWH in a dream.
20. Daniel responded by saying, “Blessed be the Elohim of Heaven from age even as far as age, because wisdom and mighty deeds belong to Him!
21. “He also [is the One who] changes the time-periods and seasons. He deposes kings and establishes kings, and gives skill to the wise and knowledge to those who are informed in [regard to] discriminating.
Deposes: literally, causes to pass away.
22. “He reveals the deep and hidden things. He knows what is in the darkness, and light begins with Him.
23. “I thank You and praise You, O Elohim of my ancestors, that You have given me wisdom and courage, and now have made known to me what we asked from You—that You have made known to me the matter of the king!”
We: Daniel realizes that without his companions he would not have even asked YHWH for the right things. Yoseyf had to do this alone, partly due to his situation, but being much closer to Avraham and having had direct instruction from Yaaqov, he may have been in a better position to be able to hear than Daniel was, well over a thousand years later. How much more do we, then, need community?
24. The Daniel went in to Ariokh, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise of Bavel, and when he went in, he spoke to him in this way: “Do not destroy the wise men! Bring me before the king, and I will inform the king of the interpretation.”
25. So Ariokh, [alarmed], brought Daniel hurriedly into the king’s presence, and said this to him: “I have discovered a man among the Jewish captives who will inform the king of the interpretation!”
26. So the king said to Daniel, whose name [had become] Belteshatzar, “Are you able to make known to me the dream which I beheld, as well as its interpretation?”
27. Daniel replied before the king and said, “The secret that the king has demanded, the wise men, the conjurers, the occult-writers, and the astrologers are not able to declare to the king.
28. “But there is an Elohim in the Heavens who reveals secrets, and has revealed to King Nevukhadnetzar what will come to pass in the latter days. Your dream and the visions of your head [that you had] upon your bed were this:
29. “As you, O king, were on your bed, your thoughts on your bed ascended to what should take place after this. And the Revealer of mysteries has made known to you what will come about.
Ascended: He was thinking beyond the immediate circumstances. Any king wants to know if his kingdom will continue long after he is gone. (YHWH knew that an eternal dynasty would be the greatest promise He could give to David.) If his name is kept alive, he continues on despite his own death. (The earth bears witness to this ancient mindset that one continues on through his seed.) He wanted to know if this was significant enough to last, or if it would all be a wasted effort. Apparently he was asking the right questions in YHWH’s opinion, for He answered him. Thoughts: The term includes the meaning of something that he had firmly grasped mentally. So he already, as a Chaldean, has a fair level of certainty that this dream has to do with kingdoms, and he only wants to know whether the terms in it are general or specific. He is looking for a second witness, and if something is from YHWH, He always sends that. Nevukhadnetzar may also have been hoping there was a way around what he thought the dream was saying, but he did not let on that he knew so that the test could be a genuine one for all of the astrologers.
30. “But as for me, it is not because of [any] wisdom that is within me more than anyone alive that this secret is revealed to me, but in order that the interpretation might be made known to the king, and that you might know the thoughts of your own heart.
Probably as a result of remembering what Yoseyf had told Pharaoh in the same circumstance, he made sure that credit was first given to YHWH, so the king would avoid the error that many who heard Paul (and Yahshua and Herod, for that matter) speak would make—that they would regard the messenger as a deity rather than the One who sent them. Thoughts of your own heart: so he could realize what he was really asking and whether he wanted to bite off more than he could chew, for as we will see, there was a major streak of pride in this emperor, which he probably thought was justified; this too needed to be put into perspective so he would be more realistic despite his true greatness.
31. “You, O king, came to see a vision, and lo and behold, there was a single great image. That masterful image, whose splendor was extraordinary, rose up in front of you, and its appearance was terrifying!
Image: i.e., statue. Masterful: Rashi renders this, “[having] a large base”.
32. “That image had a head of fine gold. Its chest and its arms were of silver. Its abdomen and its thighs were of bronze.
33. “Its lower legs were of iron, and its feet were partly of iron and partly of clay.
34. “You continued to watch until a building-stone was cut out, but not by hand, and it struck the image on its feet, which were of iron and clay, and shattered them to pieces.
This is, of course, reminiscent of the stones untouched by iron tools that were used to build the altar. (Deut. 27:5) Using the chisel on it is said to profane it. (Ex. 20:25) There is also a parallel with the Midyanite’s dream about the barley loaf which tumbled into the camp, representing Gid’on, and flattened a tent that it hit. (Judges 7:13) Gid’on had a small army, compared to his enemies, and YHWH made it even smaller to show His power—not that of human hands, which is the major theme of these four empires that carry on the ambition of the original Bavel. (See note on v. 44.)
35. “Then all at once the iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold were shattered and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors, and the wind carried them away, so that no place was found for them. But the stone that struck the image turn into a huge mountain that filled the whole earth.
Were shattered: or, crumbled together. No matter whether the inferior or superior metals, they all met the same end. Summer threshing floors would be very dry in the Middle East, allowing them to blow away even more easily. No place was found: i.e., they could not even be put in a museum or used for some other purpose. Rashi interprets it, “their original place was unknown, and it was unrecognizable that they were ever there.” I.e., no trace was found. When the Kingdom arrives in its fullness, it will be as if the kingdoms and world order that we see today had never even existed. Yahshua may have been alluding to this stone in Luke 20:18, when he said we have the choice only of whether to fall on it and be broken, or to have it fall on us and be crushed into dust.
36. “That was the dream; we will also relate its interpretation before the king.
37. “You, O king, are a king of kings, because the Elohim of the Heavens has given to you a kingdom, possession, power, and honor.
King of kings: an idiom for an emperor, who rules not only his city-state or nation, but many other nations. When Yahshua is called “king of kings”, we must bear in mind that this is what it is referring to, for YHWH told him that he deserves to be ruler over more than just Israel. (Yeshayahu 49:6) I.e., his kingdom will be an empire, and verse 35 tells us its scope. Alternate rendering: “[As for] you, O king, the King of kings—that is, the Elohim of the heavens—has given you…”
38. “And wherever the sons of men, the animals of the field, and the birds of the skies may dwell, He has given them into your hand, and allowed you to dominate them all; you are that head of gold.
The analogy is appropriate in many details. Gold is one of the most malleable metals, and works very well with alloys to create a variety of exotic colors, but has very little strength if not mixed with other metals, and does not hold its shape. Likewise, Bavel brought peoples from all over the world and used their strengths, adapting the best of other nations, including the ancient worship systems of Egypt, to make his kingdom stronger. Bavel ended up being the place with the most religious freedom in the ancient world, thriving on its mixture much like the cosmopolitan cultures of today. From Israel he took sons, which in Hebrew comes from the same root as “building stones”, which we should keep in mind as we identify the stone of v. 34.
39. “But in your place will arise another kingdom inferior to yours, then a third kingdom—a different one—[at the level] of bronze, which will dominate the earth.
Inferior: literally, more earthy or of the ground. History shows that the Medo-Persian Empire literally took the place of Bavel—for it did not destroy Bavel at all, but merely took it over with few more than the rulers killed. After that, the Greeks arose as a world empire. The Book of Maccabees begins at this point, when Alexander the Great defeated Daryawesh (Daryush) the Persian emperor.
40. “And the fourth kingdom will be as strong as iron, exactly as iron can shatter and subdue all things, and as iron can break all of these [metals], [so] it will shatter and break.
Subdue: or, flatten. The fourth kingdom must also be one that has been directly involved in Israel’s exile or defilement/destruction of the sanctuary as all of the other three have. Most therefore see it as Rome, and this is probably the case, unless Rome (really an extension of Greek culture) is included under the third, in which case we might look to Islam as another interpretation, as it is what is still keeping the Temple from being rebuilt today, and the Ottoman Empire did rule over the Land of Israel, though it did not affect the Jews as directly as Rome. There are two legs, so we may be able to look at it in terms of the two “prongs” of the sphere of Roman influence, which resolved into Christendom and Arab or Islamic culture, which both have overrun the Temple Mount.
41. “And as for what you saw—the feet and toes partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom will be divided. But there will be in it the strength of iron, just like the iron mixed with miry clay that you saw.
The iron shows that the final form of this “other man” still has some connection to Rome, yet never reaches its caliber. The Roman Empire, which conquered the Greek, has indeed been the site of the capitals of many empires since that time, and no other power has subdued huge parts of the whole world except European ones—if we count Ottoman Turkey as European, as they wish to be considered. It was definitely within the area comprised by the Roman Empire. In some cases, there were overt attempts to revive the Roman Empire—the “Holy Roman Empire”, for one. In other cases, it was not so obvious, but Napoleon, Hitler, etc. definitely had that goal in mind, and the European Union of today—the very idea of “Europe” as one entity at all, is a very Roman concept. But it extends far beyond the borders of Europe. The global economy and culture of today is really Europe’s idea, tempered, of course, by the Eastern concepts of people it affects, so that everyone feels they have a part in shaping it. Yet we are seeing how quickly things can fall apart when everything that goes on in one country affects every other country. And imagine how quickly everything could collapse now if (may heaven delay the day) the Internet were to somehow go offline. We’ve seen it fail regionally already a few times. What about when the paper trail is a thing of the past? It would be like when the Zealots burned all the records of debts shortly before Yerushalayim fell to Rome. It’s easy to see how it could all end in one day, as in this dream. This was the goal of the attack on the World Trade Center, and it succeeded to some extent.
42. “And as the toes and feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, likewise the kingdom will be partly strong and partly fragile.
Fragile: or brittle, breaking. This may refer to the democratic character of this succession, since while it is easier on the masses, it reflects far less strength than these authoritarian ones. In the Torah, when a clay vessel is defiled it is to be broken. (Lev. 11:33) One manifestation of this clay aspect of this final empire is Christianity, which is returning Israel gone sour, having been corrupted by the influence of pagan Rome. Another is America, which has become what it is largely by the mixing of the religion of Rome (which includes its Protestant daughters) with the things of the earth—whatever appears to offer security. Feet represent the festivals in Hebrew (Ex. 23:14), so it is the feasts of this kingdom which will be its downfall. The economy of the world now stands or falls on how sales fare at Christmastime.
43. “And as you saw the iron mixed with the miry clay, they will be mixed with the seed of men, but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron cannot mix with clay.
Mixed: or joined. Seed of men: This may refer to democracy, nobles mixing with “commoners”. This has a particular significance in the two houses of Britain’s parliament. Britain’s empire had the greatest worldwide influence of any since Rome. The United States, which is called the “melting pot of nations” which mixed together but never loved one another, thus embodying these toes in a vivid way, is really an extension of Britain, and so are the Arab nations of today, because its general, Lawrence of Arabia, was the one who pushed hardest for their independence; even the two largest nations on earth, China and India, were made unified political nations because of Britain’s colonization, so Britain could be seen as this “last Empire” if we must look at it in terms of a single empire, as they were the final power that kept the Jews from returning to the Land in large numbers since they administered the Land at that critical time.
44. “And in the days of these kings, the Elohim of the Heavens will set up a Kingdom which can never be destroyed, and the Kingdom will not be left to other people. It will shatter and bring to an end all of these kingdoms, and it will be established forever.
The only elements in the dream which can be used in their natural form are the clay and the stone; the rest must be tempered. Clay becomes useful with merely water—a symbol of the Torah—and recall that Paul said a potter could make some vessels for noble use from the same clay as he could make common items. (Rom. 9:21) So there may yet be some salvaging to the clay portion. A stone, like the clay, does not mix with any of the elements from which the statue is made. Israel and the Torah are not compatible with the priorities, thought processes, or religious systems of any of these kingdoms or their present manifestation. It is clearly separate from the rest, and therefore is considered the “virus” which, if we were to get it out of the “body”, would allow it to finally be healthy. (“We would all have peace,” they say, “if the Jews would just vacate the Arab land they occupy!”) Let us consider this imagery of the statue as a man in more detail. In Lev. 24:10, we have the strange account of a “son of an Israelite woman, being [also] the son of an Egyptian man” who fights against a wholly Israelite man. The Israelite woman who is called the “mother” of some of Yahweh’s people but goes after Gentile lovers shows up again in Yeshayahu/Isa. 50:1 and Hos. 2:2. Because of her sin and her children’s, they have to be “put away” from Yahweh for a while. This unnamed man had left Egypt along with the Israelites, but he still carried “Egypt” within himself. He ended up reviling YHWH's name, and was sentenced to be stoned to death. Nevukhadnetzar’s dream was another depiction of this “man” who is “stoned to death”. Babylon (the Greek name for “Bavel”) is the head. The Chaldean or “mystery Babylon” that shows up over and over in Scripture is indeed a continuation of this theme that began with Nimrod’s Tower of Bavel, when most of the human race decided to unite against Heaven and “make a name for themselves”. (Gen. 11:4) In contrast, Abraham is called out from that Babylonian culture and promised that YHWH would make a name for him. (Gen. 12) He says the same about Israel. (2 Shmu’el 7:23; Tz’fanyah 3:20) It, too, is a nation, so this stone is clearly Israel—not “spiritual Israel” or the small nation in its present form, but the kingdom united under the Messiah (the stone that the builders rejected but which became the chief cornerstone, Psalm 118:22, and foundation, Yeshayahu 28:16), made up of whomever will take up the Torah and walk in it. It was not made by mankind but by YHWH--a counter-history that will ultimately reclaim what Adam lost. Nevukhadnetzar’s image continues through the Persian, Greek, and Roman Empires. Finally Rome bleeds into the “feet of clay”--the weakness that allows the stone to topple it. Wherever there's a counterfeit there must be a “real thing”. Since the fall of Adam, Yahweh has been in the business of restoring the true “image of Elohim” in a “second Man” (1 Cor. 15:47), the “Last Adam” (15:45). In Isaiah 66:7-8, we see this poetically and mysteriously prophesied in the story of a man "child" is also a nation whose "mother" is Tzion. The Messiah Yahshua is born in a “daughter of Tzion” (Micah 4:8). He is the Head of that restored image. In Hebrew, “head” is related to “first”, because the head is the part of the body born first. With Yahshua’s resurrection on the feast of First Fruits, Yahweh made a down-payment guaranteeing that the rest of the “new Adam” would indeed be born. The “body” of this new man must “hold fast to the head” (Col. 2:19) in order to finish rebuilding the lost image of Elohim. Paul spoke of “labor[ing] in childbirth again until Messiah is formed in you...” (4:19) Rachel’s labor begins while Israel’s fruitfulness is still a ways off. (Gen. 35:16-17) The Messiah was the man-child brought forth long ago. But the birthpangs are coming only now. The apostles were already working to reunite the northern and southern kingdoms. But Constantine seduced the church into resuscitating the pagan empire by granting Gentile believers a legitimacy of their own, and the Kingdom was divided once again. To hide its true agenda, paganism adopted a veneer of Christian terminology, and forged an alliance that parallels the iron mixed with clay in the statue’s toes. Baal’s (a.k.a. Mithras’ or Saturn’s) birthday was now called “Christ’s”. The Babylonian Ishtar’s festival was linked with Yahshua’s resurrection just because they sometimes coincide. The Torah forbids such mixtures: A field is not to be sown with two kinds of seed (Lev. 19:19). The Northern Kingdom is depicted as “seeds sown” by Elohim (Hos. 1:4-11); it did mix with the nations (Hos. 8:8). In Yeshua’s parable (Matt. 13:28), an enemy comes along after the field is seeded. He adds darnel, a plant that can't be distinguished from wheat until both come to maturity. This is a picture of the hybrid church--part Hebraic/Israelite and part-pagan. As the time draws near for the two houses of Israel to reunite into “one new man” (Ephesians 2:15), the counterfeit is keeping pace. The Gospel has been co-opted by Babylon. Little by little the proclamation that there is amnesty for the Northern Kingdom, and that others may join Israel if they so desire, has been watered down to “God loves everyone, whether they obey Him or not.” The Roman church is one of the legacies of the fourth kingdom. Many who no longer know Scripture well enough to see any reason for the continued rift are now heeding Rome’s invitation to take advantage of her amnesty and rejoin the “mother church” as the calls go out throughout the general culture for “universal brotherhood”. Israel is not to be counted among the nations (Num. 23:9)--i.e., not part of this coalition. There is no reason to compromise with Mammon except to ensure our security. But Yahweh can provide manna as easily as He did before. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from Yahweh’s mouth.” Its true colors show up when Yahweh starts to apply pressure. It turns on the part of the "church" that prostitutes itself with it. (Rev. 17:16) Then it will so hem in the true Man that it appears that it has all been in vain: “The children have been brought to birth, but there is no strength to bring forth.” (Isaiah 37:3) This is the stage in a woman’s labor where she feels like it is impossible to go on. But Yahweh says, “Shall I bring to the birth and not bring forth?” (Isa. 66:9) We are called to walk by faith, though everything visible seems to say that the restoration of Israel, the "new Adam", is just a pipe dream. Revelation 12:1 depicts a woman clothed with the sun and a crown of 12 stars. Genesis 37:9-10 identifies the 12 stars as Jacob's 12 sons. So the mother is reconstituted Israel—after it is reunited. After her birthpangs, the dragon tries to destroy her child. Verse 17 says her seed are those who “keep the commandments of Elohim and have the testimony of Yeshua the Messiah.” So what is brought forth at the birthpangs is Messiah’s Body, though he, the firstfruits, was born earlier. “A woman in birthpangs has sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.” (Jn. 16:21) It is at this time when Israel is back in the wilderness that the throne will be established. (Isaiah 16:4-5) Both Houses of Israel together will have one shepherd, [the son of] David. (Ezek. 34:23; 37:24) The new man will be complete. But the birth pangs signal a transition for Babylon also: “They shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman who is giving birth.” But there is really no birth for Babylon. (Isa. 13:8) The “image of the Beast” is no "man" after all, only a projection of Nevukhadnetzar’s, and before him, haSatan’s wishful thinking. One Hebrew word for “idol” means “a mere image"--something with no relation to reality; it only seems real, taking a grain of truth that Yahweh has created, and sponging off it like a parasite. " This “different Yeshua”--the hybrid version "created" by mixing Biblical truth with pagan tradition--is also only a distortion of the true Yeshua, but will apparently finally be embodied in a personality diametrically opposed to Him. To deceive the many", Satan's counterfeit "man" will probably even say he is “Jesus Christ”. Ephraim and Menashe were the sons of Yoseyf and an Egyptian woman. Since their father was an Israelite, they could still inherit as Israelites; the same does not hold true if it goes the other way, as with the man in Leviticus 24. There are some of each in the church--some who have been exiled there, sown by Yahweh, and some infiltrators, planted there by the enemy. YHWH let the wheat and darnel grow together so the real crop was not damaged. But as we approach the end of the Age, the time to draw lines is here. One "man" will soon be all evil, the other all righteous. (Rev. 22:11) Anyone associated with Babylon at that point will be judged along with her. Our motives might be impeccable, but we will be found to be building the wrong house--the one built on sand. It's time to put away the “hybrid man”, and live as the pure Nation we were meant to be.
45. “Insofar as you saw that the mountain was cut out without hands, and that it shattered the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver--and the gold—the Great Elohim has made known to the king what will occur hereafter, and the dream is reliable, and its interpretation trustworthy.”
Since he says “the” mountain, this is a Hebrew idiom for both the Temple Mount and Sinai, from which the stone of the tablets of Torah (Ex. 24:12) was cut and written on by YHWH’s own finger. (Deut. 9:10) That they all perish together (v. 35) also shows that they all continue to exist until the end, at least through their continuing influence through the pagan religions or political tolerance that carry on their legacy. Great Elohim: since others beside YHWH are called elohim. It is rust that most effectively weakens even the strongest element here, iron, and it is made up of the wearing down by water and oxygen, or air—symbols of the Torah and the “spirit”. This correlates with it being done without hands: “Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit, says YHWH.” (Zkh. 4:6) The collapse of all the pagan empires will not be accomplished by military strategizing, but by being trained in and walking in the Torah. All the other peoples of the world will be in much better condition when these other ideas all fall away and Torah is established. Torah is written on our hearts only as we do it and it becomes a habit engrained in us. We thus “become” the stone as Torah becomes part of who we are.
46. Then King Nevukhadnetzar fell on his face and prostrated himself toward Daniel, and commanded that a grain offering and incense be offered to him.
Just what he was trying to avoid! (See verse 30.) The bowing was not a problem; that expressed his respect for Daniel and admission of his superiority. It was treating him as an elohim that went beyond propriety.
47. The king replied to Daniel and said, “Your Elohim is truly an Elohim of elohim and a Master of kings, and a Revealer of secrets, since you could reveal this secret.”
He was filled with hope again rather than despair.
48. Then the king promoted Daniel, and gave many gifts to him, and he made him ruler over the whole district of Babylonia, and chief of the prefects over all the wise men of Bavel.
This means that it was really Daniel who, like Yoseyf in Egypt, who made this empire golden, just as it is the presence of Menashe and Yehudah to such a great extent in America that has given it any greatness it has. Daniel was second only to Nevukhadnetzar, and essentially ran the kingdom for him. This may be what 1:21 means when it says Daniel continued until the time of Koresh—that his “reign” continue until that point. Gifts: as a Chaldean, his greatest giftings were his understanding of nature and astronomy.
49. And Daniel requested of the king, and he appointed Shadrakh, Meshakh, and Aved-nego over the affairs of the province of Babylonia, while Daniel sat in the king’s gate.
They were included since they had had a key role in Daniel’s receiving the interpretation of the dream. Gate: that is, his courtroom—to judge, the career that both his name and giftings suited him for. Daniel used the leverage given him by the king to get into the position where he knew he would be more useful than in an administrative role, and let his three friends do the day-to-day aspects of the kingdom, knowing that was where they did best.
CHAPTER 3
1. Nevukhadnetzar made an image of gold. Its height was 60 cubits and its width 6 cubits. He set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Bavel.
This would be between 90 and 95 feet (about 30 meters) high, depending on which type of cubit was being used. On the plain it would be visible for a much greater distance. It seems he got the idea for this from his dream. Was it an image of himself, claiming to be more than just the head but the whole? Dura appears to mean “circle” in the sense of gyrating or circular motion, suggesting that it is something to be viewed from many angles rather than having a face on one side, and the proportions here are not right for this to be the image of a man. That the dimensions are given in multiples of 6 strongly suggests a clock, for the 60-minute hour and the manner of envisioning the circle as 360 degrees is more ancient than this. The word for image also connotes an illusion—like today’s political promises that “change” will solve all of our problems. But it also means a shadow—something without real substance, but in this context it also adds to the probability that this is a large sundial, probably in the shape of an obelisk, which also had widespread use in Egyptian fertility cults. But here, where the king himself was an astrologer, it was more likely to be a solar/lunar calculator along the lines of Stonehenge. Its shadow would fall on marks that marked the various times of day. Astronomy and astrology (science and religion) would not have been separated into two categories in that day.
2. Then Nevkhadnetzar the king sent to gather the sadraps, the deputies, the governors, the judges, the magistrates, the treasurers, and all the officials of the provinces for the dedication of the image that Nevukhadnetzar the king had set up.
Sadraps: or satraps, were provincial governors in the Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian empires. Appointed by the king, they were usually of the royal family or nobility and held office indefinitely. They collected taxes, were the highest judicial authority, and were responsible for internal security and for raising and maintaining an army. Dedication: Heb. and Aramaic, hanukkah. Thus this is an initiation or training in the methods of worship he desired. Smaller copies of it were undoubtedly set up in every city, and these leaders were being shown what to teach those under them. He probably thought this actually was dedicated to the worship of Daniel’s Elohim (2:47), thinking he could in this way extend the blessing of YHWH to all peoples. It was thus a (possibly unwitting) counterfeit of the religion learned from Daniel. The one unique thing Nevukhadnetzar could learn about him from his spies was that he prayed three times a day. And trumpets and shofars were blown in YHWH’s Temple at the times of prayer, so he was probably trying to emulate and elaborate on this pattern as well. But the most dangerous things in the world are those that are almost right, not those that are obvious lies. They wanted to mix the existing ways of Bavel with elements of the Temple for the purpose of a kingdom that YHWH had already said would not endure. And how is this any different from when the Romans brought their own times and seasons into the worship of YHWH? They integrated something truly holy into their paganism, but the result of this kind of mixture is always that the holy things cease to be set-apart, and are profaned, rather than the other elements of the religion becoming sanctified thereby, though many think they are. Bavel was dedicated to the power of unity. Those who had built its tower had one language and one purpose, but YHWH put a stop to it, for He knew that people can empower was they pay enough attention to. It is really a repeat of the Tower of Bavel, which seems to have been dedicated to the worship of the heavenly bodies, but was certainly built as a way to get around YHWH’s judgment. Nevukhadnetzar may have thought that if his whole empire, and especially the most powerful people in it, were focused in worship in this way, he might be able to overcome the outcome Daniel predicted for his vision; his kingdom might be able to endure after all. So like the Tower, he was again trying to overcome the will of YHWH. The spirit of overcoming the heavens is engrained in Babylonia. The king seems to have thought that if his image was completely of gold, rather than having these inferior metals in it as well, his kingdom might last forever after all.
3. So the sadraps, the deputies, the governors, the judges, the magistrates, the treasurers, and all the officials of the provinces were gathered for the dedication of the image that Nevukhadnetzar the king had set up, and they stood to accept the image that Nevukhadnetzar had set up.
4. Then a herald called out forcefully, “You are ordered, O peoples, nations, and languages,
5. “that at the time you hear the sound of the horn, whistle, zither, lyre, psaltery, pipes, and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the golden image that Nevukhadnetzar the king has set up!
6. “And whoever does not fall down and worship at that time will be thrown into the middle of a furnace of fire that is lit!”
7. So at that time when all of the peoples heard the sound of the horn, whistle, zither, lyre, psaltery, pipes, and all kinds of music, all the peoples, nations, and languages fell down and worshipped worship the golden image that Nevukhadnetzar the king has set up.
The exact nature of some of these instruments is uncertain, but music is an international medium that does not require words. The music also suggests that this sundial was an “alarm clock” to remind people of when to pray, much like the muezzin-call of Muslims today.
8. All that being the case, certain Chaldeans came forward and slanderously accused the Judeans.
Accused: or, chewed the parts that could be eaten of…
9. They responded by saying to Nevukhadnetzar the king, “O King, live forever!
10. “You, O king, made a decree that every man who hears the sound of the horn, whistle, zither, lyre, psaltery, pipes, and all kinds of music must fall down and worship the golden image,
11. “and whoever does not fall down and worship at that time will be thrown into the middle of a furnace of fire that is stoked up.
12. “There are certain Judeans whom you have set over the administration of the province of Bavel—Shadrakh, Meyshakh, and Aved-nego. Those people have not taken you into account. They neither pay reverence to your elohim nor bow themselves to the golden image that you have set up!”
This begs the question, “Where is Daniel?” Aside from the fact that he might have been back at the palace managing the affairs in the king’s absence, he was also these men’s “boss”, and they would not dare attack him directly for fear of their lives, though he was probably the indirect target of men jealous for their position which he had been given. If his friends were toppled, it could be a precedent they could eventually use against him as well if the political tide turned radically enough. But if Daniel was faithful enough to stay away, what about his friends? The other three men were not even necessarily present at the Plain of Dura either, for this statue was not built in a day, and anyone so high up in government would certainly have been briefed on it earlier and not have been expected to be at this session. It was probably after they noticed a pattern of non-participation that they felt confident that it was a deliberate refusal to comply.
13. Then in great rage and hot displeasure, Nevukhadnetzar said to bring Shadrakh, Meyshakh, and Aved-nego, whereupon they brought these men before the king.
14. Then Nevukhadnetzar responded by saying to them, “Was this intentional, O Shadrakh, Meyshakh, and Aved-nego that you do not pay reverence to my elohim or prostrate yourselves to the image of gold that I have set up?
Intentional: or, is it true? Alt., is it meaningless? I.e., “are my decrees void and desolate and an empty thing in your eyes?” (Rashi)
15. “Now, if you are ready to, at the time you hear the sound of the horn, whistle, zither, lyre, psaltery, pipes, and all kinds of music, fall down and worship the golden image that I have made [then fine]… but if you will not worship [it], you will be thrown into the middle of a furnace of fire that is stoked up! And who is the Elohim who can free you from my hand?”
Ready: i.e., he is giving them the benefit of the doubt that they had been in a position of being unprepared on the previous occasion(s), as in verse 14. If they will just “throw him a crumb”, he will have an excuse to let them go. Notice that the other authorities did not kill these men themselves, but brought them to the king; anyone else would have been burned up already. He does not want to kill these men, for they hold great secrets that he wants for himself. He needs them; no one else could interpret his dreams. He had been master of Dura—the calendar of months—already, but they (with Daniel) had taught him about praying several times in one day. Now he realized that worship was not just for special festivals, but was for every day. He was now applying this concept to himself. He did not want this knowledge so he could know how to worship YHWH; he had his own deities, but he still wanted his name connected with the idea of the “most high”. So he copied them. He knew that if he could get people’s attention on him several times a day, he would be empowered further, for we empower things by repeated thoughts. The more we think of what could go wrong, the more discouraged we are, and the opposite is also true. He was in the process of unifying the world under a universal religion, as was seen in the Persian, Greek, and Roman Empires and is being attempted again today. His influence remains today in that the names most Jews use for the months are based on the names of Babylonian deities, and even the block letters of modern Hebrew are the Babylonian form rather than the original form used in the Land prior to this time. That I have made: Notice how often this is emphasized! The focus is not on the innate worthiness of the object or the truthfulness of what it stands for, but on the fact that he gets the credit for building it. Reality bears witness to itself, but this is all about him, so it must be forced on everyone. Who is the Elohim: Now he has issued a challenge, and thus set himself up to be put in his place.
16. Shadrakh, Meyshakh, and Aved-nego answered and said to the king, “O Nevukhadnetzar, we have no need to come back to you about this matter.
I.e., there is no need to give us a second try. Or, we do not care to answer you; i.e., “We do not care to take counsel on what to answer you, for the answer is ready and fluent in our mouths.” (Rashi) Simply being in the presence of such a powerful king who was angry would have instilled fear in most. If only one of them had faltered, the threefold cord would have begun to unravel. But they brought a unified answer.
17. “If it is [the case] that our Elohim is able to free us from the stoked furnace of fire, then He will deliver us from your hand, O king.
18. “But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we will not pay reverence to your elohim, nor will we prostrate ourselves to the golden image that you have set up.”
“The ball is back in his court” now. “If we die, we die”, they are saying, “but here is the truth. You must deal with it regardless.” Loyalty to YHWH took precedence even over whether He was able to deliver them! This is a concept that is little known I the modern age when so much scientific verification is demanded before one will make a commitment. They knew that YHWH was punishing Israel for disobedience, so they were not sure how much mercy to expect, but like the Maccabees, they are saying, “Whether or not YHWH delivers us, at least we will die honorably.” There are always risks when we take the highest road. But at this point only the nobles were being required to bow to this image; later they were expected to teach the rest of the people to do the same, so they thought it necessary to set an example from the start, hoping that YHWH might just use their precedent to nip this in the bud before any of the other Jewish exiles whose faith might not be as strong were asked to do the same.
19. Then Nevukhadnetzar was filled with hot [fury], and the appearance of his face was altered toward Shadrakh, Meyshakh, and Aved-nego, and he responded by telling [them] to heat the furnace seven [times] above what it was customary to heat it.
Knowing the significance of the number seven, they probably assumed no one could survive this heat. But when YHWH wants to show His power, He often puts His people in the apparent position of underdog to an extreme degree, making the situati9on humanly impossible to get out of. He paints a darker background so His light can shine more brightly. This is not because He needs His ego boosted, but because people who will one day bow to Him need to know who He is.
20. And he told men of great[est] capability who were in his army to tie up Shadrakh, Meyshakh, and Aved-nego and throw them into the furnace of fire that was stoked up.
21. Thereupon these men were tied up in their slippers, their tunics, their turbans, and their other clothing, and were thrown into the middle of the furnace of fire that was stoked up.
Slippers: an open-backed oriental style now called a babouche. They may have been a type only worn by the wealthy. This suggests that they did not remove their shoes in the king’s presence in this case, which would be another sign that they did not respect his demand. But their own clothes were not taken from them, so their tzitziyoth would have been there to remind them to obey YHWH no matter what. (Num. 15:38-39)
22. All [of that being] received, because the king’s word was so urgent, and the furnace so extremely hot, that the flame of the fire killed those men who had picked Shadrakh, Meyshakh, and Aved-nego up!
Flame: or possibly just the sparks (literally, offshoots, splinters, or fragments). A spark alone at this temperature may have been too much for them. These were the strongest men available (v. 20), probably men highly valued by the king, but he had a price to pay for his foolishness. Compare Psalm 140:1-10.
23. So these three men, Shadrakh, Meyshakh, and Aved-nego, fell down, bound, into the middle of the furnace of fire that was stoked up.
24. At that point, Nevukhadnetzar the king became alarmed, and stood up in a terrified hurry, and reacted by saying to his [court] officials, “Didn’t we throw three bound men into the middle of the fire?” And they answered by saying to the king, “Certainly, O king!”
25. He responded and said, “Look! I see four men, loose, walking around in the middle of the fire, and there is no injury on them! And the appearance of the fourth resembles a son of the elohim!
Loose: Nothing was burned except the restraints placed by man’s authority. Son of the elohim: This can be an idiom for a non-human, heavenly being, a plurality of which were present with YHWH at the creation of the world. (See Gen. 6:2; Iyov 1:6; 38:7) Most have taken it as an “angel”, and this may be the case. But there is another, simpler, possibility, which we will see below.
26. Then Nevukhadnetzar approached the gate of the stoked furnace of fire. He responded by saying, “Shadrakh, Meyshakh, and Aved-nego, servants of the Highest Elohim, come out and come here!” So Shadrakh, Meyshakh, and Aved-nego came out from the middle of the fire.
The ancient Babylonians used furnaces to make steel, and were considered the best at it. There was one section of sea coast that was set up with furnaces which would use the breeze off the sea to help fan the furnaces to hotter temperatures. Blacksmith Will McDonald reports that some ancient Babylonian coal furnaces were essentially caves with a narrow spot in them for the fire and a chimney dug into the top, the mouths of the caves faced out of a hill into the prevailing winds which blew pretty constantly around there. The wind was collected in the funnel-like mouths and it blew with incredible velocity into the narrow part of the cave where the fire was built and once the fire got big enough, it started adding its own draw to the gale. This in itself would make it so hot that the grates would often melt. In the city, the furnace was probably a man-made replica of such a cave. The fire would create a vacuum and draw air from the only available space which is from under the coals and a small amount at the access hole to the side. It was a natural bellows. The three men were thrown in by way of the chimney (v.23), where the heat would be concentrated, while this “door” was probably that access hole on the side, which could be approached more easily, as it was the intake side and not so hot.
27. When the sadraps, deputies, governors, and the king’s [court] officials gathered, they saw that the fire had no power over their body, nor was the hair of their head scorched. Their slippers were not altered, and the smell of the fire did not cling to them!
With so many witnesses, Nevukhadnetzar could hardly deny such a testimony to YHWH’s power. They had proven His superiority so that there was no room for anyone to question it.
28. Nevukhadnetzar responded by saying, “Blessed be the Elohim of Shadrakh, Meyshakh, and Aved-nego, who has sent His messenger and freed His servants, who trusted in Him, and frustrated the king’s word and surrendered their bodies so that they might not serve or worship any elohim except their own Elohim.
Blessed: literally, be the knee bent to [Him]; i.e., he was lowering himself before YHWH after all of his arrogance seen here. He understood worship well, and was impressed that, unlike everyone else he had conquered, these people were not willing to concede that his elohim had defeated theirs. His messenger: Yeshayahu the prophet had written, in particular regard to Yehudah and Israel in exile, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; when you walk through the fire, you will not be burned, nor will the flame kindle upon you.” (43:2) Of course, no one could see YHWH Himself, but this was a something or someone that was recognizable as His representative. Who but Daniel was known to the king as YHWH’s messenger? We will see later that Daniel is one who reminds YHWH in prayer of His own promises (9:2-19), so it may very well be that Daniel was praying the words of Yeshayahu on behalf of his three friends at this very time, and that he was “present” with them, not physically (for Nevukhadnetzar never called him to come out), but his spirit was completely bound up with his companions. Frustrated: or deviated from.
29. “So a decree is given by me that any people, nation, and language that says anything erroneous about the Elohim of Shadrakh, Meyshakh, and Aved-nego will be turned into [mere] body parts, and their houses made into piles of rubble [used as a latrine], because there is no other Elohim who is able to deliver like this!”
Those who teach erroneous doctrines about YHWH has indeed become disunified and incomplete, rather than being the unified Man that the statue in Nevukhadnetzar’s dream counterfeited.
30. Then the king promoted Shadrakh, Meyshakh, and Aved-nego in the District of Babylonia.
Now Daniel was not alone among the high officials who served YHWH. Compare Psalm 113:7-8. The knew it was YHWH’s will that they go into captivity, so they sought to serve the community in Bavel without serving their elohim, so they came to be highly respected.
CHAPTER 4
1. [3:31 in Hebrew] “Nevukhadnetzar the king, to all the peoples, nations, and languages who inhabit the entire earth: May your well-being increase.
YHWH had said that the well-being of the exiles was tied up in the well-being of Bavel. (Yirmeyahu 29:7) The well-wishing of its emperor would certainly have far-reaching effects for any nation affected by it. All nations had at one point gone forth from Bavel, so those who did not have a particular mission like Israel would have considered it “home base” to some extent. This was a blessing from what was once their root.
2. “It seemed appropriate to me to declare the miraculous signs and marvels that the Highest Elohim has worked with me.
3. “His miraculous signs—how surpassing [they are]! And his marvels—how mighty! His Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom, and His sovereignty [remains] from generation to generation!
He is not speaking in mere abstract terms; he shows why what he is claiming is true, and has a very intense personal testimonial, and his counts for a lot:
4. [verse 1 in Hebrew] “I, Nevukhadnetzar, was resting in my house, and flourishing in my palace.
Resting: or, at ease, quiet. Palace: The same word as used for the main sanctuary building in the Holy Temple complex in Yerushalayim. This shows us how we should regard the Temple—as YHWH’s palace.
5. “I beheld a dream, and it kept terrifying me, and the mental images [I saw while] on my bed and the visions of my head alarmed me,
6. “so by me was made a decree to bring all the wise [and skillful] men of Bavel before me, so that they might make known to me the meaning of the dream.
7. “So all of the writers of hidden knowledge, the conjurers, the sorcerers, and the determiners came in, and I recounted the dream in their presence, but they [could] not make its interpretation known to me.
He probably got many and conflicting stories, either because they were afraid to tell him the truth or because they simply did not know. Though he now knew he could expect this, he still called the others, probably just to confirm that the meaning was indeed extraordinary. And this time he knew whom to seek out:
8. “Then at last Daniel (whose name is Beltesha’atzar, according to the name of my elohim) entered on my behalf. Now the spirit of the set-apart Elohim is in him, and I recounted the dream in his presence, [saying],
Is he only giving lip-service to YHWH since he still uses Bel’s name for Daniel? No, he seems to truly believe Daniel’s Elohim is superior, though he still believes in other elohim.
9. “‘O Beltesha’atzar, greatest of the writers of hidden knowledge, since I know that the spirit of the set-apart Elohim is in you, and there is not any secret that baffles you, reveal to me the visions of my dream that I have seen, and its meaning!’
10. “Now [as to] the visions of my head [which came to me] upon my bed, I came to be witnessing, and there it was—a great tree in the middle of the land, and its height was tremendous!
11. “The tree grew and became strong, and its height extended to the skies, and was visible to the end of the whole earth.
We can immediately see the parallels with the Tower of Bavel. Bear this in mind.
12. “Its foliage was beautiful, and its fruit was abundant, and in it there was food for all. The living things of the field would find shade under it, and the small birds of the sky lived in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it.
Fruit: from the same word as “grape” in Hebrew, showing that this was considered the most basic and archetypical of fruits, much as the apple is in Western culture. The root of the word for “tree” in this chapter means “twisted”, suggesting that this “tree” is strong because it is made of many trunks—or vines—twisted together. Find shade: Babylon indeed had lots of food and lots of shelter, though it was right on the edge of a desert. Bavel was a place of great religious and personal freedom, in which anybody could become somebody, no matter where they were from. It was the breadbasket of the world, and any shortage here would have tremendous repercussions everywhere. With all nations finding such security from it, we cannot help but notice the parallels with America, so the warnings herein are self-evident. Birds lived in its branches: Yahshua describes the Kingdom in the same way, but he describes it as a mustard plant, normally a small bush, growing into a tree so big that birds could settle therein. (Luke 13:19) He may have simply been referring to how providential the Kingdom will be to the whole world, like this, but considering that it is Babylon to whom he is thus comparing it, and how abnormal it is for a mustard plant to grow so enormous, as well as the fact that the phrase “birds of the heavens” in Scripture usually refers to the birds of prey that feed upon death, he is probably alluding to the pagan aspects that would be absorbed into what then came to be called the church, rather than the final form of the Kingdom as it is intended to become.
13. “I continued watching in the visions of my head upon my bed, and suddenly an instigator—a holy one—descended from the heavens.
Instigator: or inciter, one who prods someone awake, one who causes to be watchful in the sense of opening his eyes. (We see the term used this way in Judges 5:12.) Nevukhadnetzar seemed to often grow numb toward what YHWH had done for him. He had destroyed YHWH’s Temple, yet YHWH continued prodding him and showing him mercy by teaching him deep lessons. The root word from which this term “awakener” stems means to uncover or be naked. This immediately brings to mind Adam, who was supposed to guard the Garden from such threats. He was meant to have his eyes wide open, but instead had them “opened” instead, and all it did was make him recognize his nakedness. There is a tie-in with Yahshua, who was thought to be the “Gardener” by those who saw him after his resurrection. With this backdrop, we can see what he meant when he said he was the “true vine” in Yochanan 15. He was not just saying that every physical vine is a picture of something greater; he was contrasting His Kingdom with this counterfeit vine of Bavel.) Adam, who since his death is outside of time again, sees this Kingdom of Bavel building a tree that opposes the one the earth is supposed to eat from. Instead, the whole world is eating from this thing that has come to be controlled by men, which therefore stands in opposition to the Tree of Life. Nevukhadnetzar has at least four great fountains of Torah knowledge in his court, yet he continues to look to other places for answers. Mixing—that is the way of Bavel.
14. “He called out loudly and spoke as follows: ‘Chop down the great tree, and cut off its branches! Shake off its leaves and scatter its fruit! Let the animals flee from under it, and the birds from its branches.
15. “‘Nevertheless, leave the stock of its roots in the ground, with a band of iron and brass in the grass of the field. Let it be wet with the dew of the skies, and let his share be with the animals, in the vegetation of the ground.
Band: or fetter. This would prevent it from rotting or splitting, thus preserving it to grow back one day. But new shoots do not spring out of the top of a stump, but the sides, so the iron band would prevent this from taking place until someone removed the band from the stock. Vegetation of the ground: possibly undergrowth—i.e., he was now at the “grass-roots” level. His: the reference is now shifting from allegory to what it pictures. The grape vine and the olive are among the few plants that can grow back from the root stock when cut or burned all the way to ground level. Is this indeed a giant grape vine? There are some who think the Tree of Knowledge of Right and Wrong in the Garden of Eden was indeed a grape vine, since such joy and such woe can both result from its fruit. Wine is a picture of joy in Scripture, but we are also warned that it can mock us. If this is a giant grape vine, then it is a picture of receiving joy from the wrong sources. Jewish mystics say that the trees in the Garden of Eden grow downward from above, and are only mirrored in the earth below. (We therefore have to ask whether this is what Nevukhadnetzar was trying to achieve again through his hanging gardens.) That tree was a distraction from the Tree of Life, which was already there to feed them. This tree is paralleled with both the Torah and wisdom, the winding staircase by which we can ascend back to Eden, overcoming time, the flaming sword that keeps us out through getting back in synchronization with the cycle of YHWH’s times. There would have come a time for us to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, but we were not yet ready for it; a relationship of trust had to be built with YHWH first. But Adam got it out of order, and caused so much trouble. There is meant to be a Kingdom that is a refuge in the earth, but like the builders of Bavel’s tower, they tried to accomplish this on their own, and Nevukhadnetzar is trying to do so again. The kingdoms of which his was the head (chapter 2) have all had this same goal. He is very religious, yet humanistic—and truly, humanism is a religion, though few recognize this. It is knowledge without the Torah. Knowledge is a wonderful tool, but here is has become an idol. Wisdom was worshipped by the Greek philosophers, and even the rabbinic writers were lured into crossing the line between knowledge and philosophy, and Paul seems to have gotten into it very heavily, making it easy for the Church to later become the servant of the Babylonian way. So it must be cut down so it no longer obscures the One who truly deserves worship. Like this “instigator”, the purpose of the Temple is to show us our iniquities (Y’hezq’el/Ezek. 43:10), and that is exactly what the Torah does, so the Temple is just the Torah fleshed out in a building just as it can be fleshed out in a man, as was said of Yahshua. (Yochanan 1:14) The Temple is therefore built at the place where heaven and earth meet (the rabbinic understanding of Psalm 122:3) so we can ascend back to Eden through what it teaches us about loving YHWH with all that we have and are, and loving our neighbors as ourselves. But as long as this other tree is feeding the entire earth, few will ever notice the right tree. So it must be cut down until it learns its proper place; then it can be restored to a limited greatness in the right context.
16. “‘Let his heart be changed from that of a man, and let the heart of a beast be given to him, and let seven time-periods pass over him.
Living outside of the Torah is in itself like being an animal. Clean animals, at least, have a “soul” (nefesh), because their life (nefesh) is said to be in their blood. But into man was breathed the breath of life (Gen. 2:7) by YHWH Himself when he became a living soul. This breath is called the neshama, seen as a higher soul or super-soul, which allows us to share in YHWH’s life in a way that no beast can. This is what seems to be taken away here, so that this great one is reduced to the level of a mere beast, acting strictly by his animal instinct.
17. “‘This matter is by the decree of the instigators, and the request by the command of the set-apart ones, to the purpose that those who are alive might know that the Highest exercises authority over the kingdoms of men, and He gives it to whomever He wishes, and sets over it [even] the lowliest of men.
The question in Nevukhadnetzar’s mind might have been, “How much can I get away with without the gods noticing or caring?” The spirit of Bavel is to get around the will of the elohim who are watching or “pull one over on them”. (This is the reason Babylonians did not speak the names of their deities: they wanted to avoid their notice, since they were capricious at best and cruel at worst. Even Bel is a euphemism for Merodach. The Jews adopted this custom upon return from Babylon, and, with a few exceptional seasons in which the Holy Name of YHWH was again commonly used, the practice has stuck to this day, but since it is one of the things that can be shaken, it must be, for YHWH wants His people to know His Name.) Even the lowliest of men: This may have been Yahshua’s authority to say, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth”, but the point Daniel is making is, “You, O Nevukhadnetzar, would be nothing apart from what YHWH has given you. YHWH is using you greatly, but if you let it go to your head and try to use this fact for your own purposes, you have declared war on Him, and who can win that war?” Here, “instigators” is plural, and including not just Adam, but Chawwah as well, and any who tend the Garden—that is, those who attain to the Kingdom and step outside of time and can therefore speak judgment on someone much earlier in time like Nevukhadnetzar when the lines are blurred in the realm of visions and dreams.
18. “‘This is the dream that I, King Nevukhadnetzar, have beheld; now you, O Beltesha’atzar, declare its meaning, all because none of the skilled men in my kingdom have been able to make the meaning known to me. But you are able, because the spirit of the set-apart Elohim is within you.”
19. “At this, Daniel (whose name was Beltesha’atzar) was stunned for one hour, and his cogitations brought him alarm. The king spoke and said, ‘Beltesha’atzar, don’t let the dream or its meaning alarm you.’ Beltesha’atzar answered and said, ‘My master, [I wish that] the dream [might] be for those who hate you, and its interpretation for your enemies!
Stunned: or horrified, appalled, as at the scene of same vast devastation. The word includes the sense of being dumbfounded, disappointed, amazed, astonished, and desolate. We could say he was in shock. Daniel knew what the imagery in the dream meant, but he was overwhelmed by the practical implications of it all. He was clearly also hesitant to voice the meaning to the king, since it was bad news, and he prefaces it with a blessing of sorts, to emphasize that this was not an idea that he thought up to the king’s detriment.
20. “‘The tree that you saw, which grew and became strong, and whose height extended to the skies, and was visible to the end of the whole earth,
Note his use of repetition of whole phrases. Though it is a bit tedious in written accounts, it is a key memory aid for the hearers of an epic tale who do not have access to the written text.
21. “‘whose foliage was beautiful, and whose fruit was abundant, in which there was food for all, under which the living things of the field settled, and in whose branches the small birds of the skies lived--
22. “‘it is you, O king, because you have grown great and strong, and your greatness has increased and extended to the skies, and your sovereignty to the end of the earth!
In Hebrew the word used here for tree can mean a strong man or chief as well, so this in itself gave Daniel a clue toward the meaning of the dream.
23. “‘And [insofar] as the king saw an instigator—a holy one—descending from the heavens and saying, “Chop down the tree and let it rot, only leave the stock of its roots in the ground, with a band of iron and brass in the grass of the field, and let it be wet with the dew of the skies, and let his share be with the animals of the field until seven time-periods pass over him--
Let it rot: Though it was large and had many uses, it is not to be used for other purposes, for the world must learn to do without it.
24. “‘this is the meaning, O king, and the decree of the Highest, which has extended onto my master, the king:
Extended onto: found or reached, with the idea of attaining to or catching up with.
25. “‘You will both be driven from [among] men, and your abode will come to be with the beasts of the field. You will be fed with grass like an ox, and you will be made wet with the dew of heaven and seven time-periods will pass over you, until you acknowledge that the Highest exercises authority over the kingdoms of men, and He gives it to whomever He wishes.
This would show that the world could get along without him after all—that he was not as important as he supposed. Seven time-periods: Rashi says that this was recompense for destroying the Temple, which had taken seven years to build. (1 Kings 6:38)
26. “‘And as they gave the command to let the tree’s root stock remain, [so] your reign will be re-established for you [and continue] from [the time] that you acknowledge that the Heavens rule.
Re-established: or endure, be set [back] up. The other side of the coin of irresponsibility is failing to give YHWH credit where it is due Him.
27. “’Therefore, O king, let my advice be accepted by you, and break off your errors by doing what is right, and your crookedness by showing favor to the lowly, if it turns out that your prosperity is prolonged.’
Repentance can even remove some of the evil decrees found later in Daniel’s book, if the book of Yonah is our precedent. All of this can remain only a dream and a warning if he heeds Daniel’s advice. Lowly: or poor, needy. This gives another key to what Nevukhadnetzar’s biggest sin was. Not only would he not admit that he, too, was only a man, but he seems to have ignored the plight of those he considered less worthy than himself. We know he did not want all of the “people of the land” in his own land, for he left the ordinary people there (2 Kings 25:12, 22ff) and wanted the cream of the crop in his city. The poor may have seemed odious to him because they did not cast his showcase city in as favorable a light as he would have liked. But YHWH has a special concern for those who have no one else to care for them. Daniel seems an avid student of the psalms, as was Yahshua, possibly to a large extent because they would always have been sung, and this is the best aid to memorization, even if they do not rhyme. Psalms was seen as the most prophetic of books, and Psalm 41 shows how, in contrast to Nevukhadnetzar, David formed the policies of his kingdom around consideration for the poor. He said YHWH would strengthen one who kept the poor in mind when he was on his sickbed. (And it was emphasized that Nevukhadnetzar’s vision was seen on his bed.) When criticizing the Prushim (Pharisees) for their inward attitudes not matching their outward actions, Yahshua told them that the solution for this problem was to give alms to the poor. (Luke 11:39-41) He gave these “pure ones” a way to change so they could be completely clean, and the lesson apparently got through at least by the time the second Temple was destroyed. Rabbinic Jews (the heirs to the Pharisaic sect) have used an emphasis on charity for the poor as a stand-in for many of the offerings that cannot be brought when there is no Temple, especially during festivals when they would otherwise be alone and uncared for. The Apostles also made sure that Paul was not forgetting the poor when giving him approval to proceed with his mission. (Galatians 2:9-10) And it was his gifts to the poor in Judea that got Cornelius’ prayers heard. (Acts 10:4) Yeshayahu 58:10-12 says that those who satisfy the hungry and afflicted will be like a watered garden (contrast note on v. 13) and become rebuilders of the ruined cities—the very thing not Nevukhadnetzar but the one who was to conquer Bavel (Koresh) would be.
28. “All of this came upon Nevukhadnetzar.
29. “At the end of twelve months, he was walking in the palace of the kingdom of Bavel.
Apparently the dream scared him enough and he took Daniel’s advice for one year, but then he let his eyes get the best of him, and took all of this as his own accomplishment:
30. “The king responded by saying, ‘Isn’t this Bavel the great, which I have built for the house of the kingdom by the prevailing of my strength and for the honor of my majesty?’
For the house of the kingdom: possibly meaning its seat, in the sense of the capital. One Jewish tradition says that he had squandered his revenue on building great buildings rather than storehouses for the poor, as Daniel had advised him to do. The honor of my majesty: Archaeologist Rawlinson wrote that nine-tenths of all the bricks amid the ruins of Babylon are stamped with his name.
31. “[While] the word was still in the king’s mouth, a voice came down from the heavens: ‘To you it is declared, O Nevukhadnetzar [the] king: The kingdom has been taken from you!
He should have known better! If he had remembered and heeded his dream, he might have avoided this. (v. 27) It is possible that the word had not even come out of his mouth yet. He might have again been trying to “pull one over on Heaven”, thinking that if he merely thought it and did not actually verbalize it, he might get away with this smug sense of pride. Or it could be taken as a thought that was given more weight when he finally did verbalize it, since it could now affect others as well. When Yahshua’s brother Yaaqov wrote to the tribes in exile (and now we know it is addressed specifically to us), he focused his message on being careful what we say. A word spoken out of season is what allows a root of bitterness to spring up.
32. “‘You will both be driven from [among] men, and your abode will come to be with the beasts of the field. You will be fed with grass like an ox, and seven time-periods will pass over you, until you acknowledge that the Highest exercises authority over the kingdoms of men, and He gives it to whomever He wishes.’
This is an exact quote from Daniel’s interpretation, except that one line of that is missing, showing that the source for both the interpretation and this decree were one and the same. And here there is no ambiguity about whom the message is for.
33. “At that very hour the word was fulfilled upon Nevukhadnetzar, and he was driven away from men, and ate grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew from the skies until his hairs had grown like eagles’ [feathers] and his fingernails like birds’ [claws].
Wet: Bavel is just inside Mesopotamia, the area much better-watered than the desert just a few miles west of the Ferath (Euphrates). Babylon’s mythology was known for its fusions between species (man, lion, eagle, etc.). It is as if Nevukhadnetzar had become such a creature—part ox, part eagle, and part man (compare 7:4), and the result was not pretty, for the fourth face, that of a kh’ruv, was missing (Y’hezq’el 1:10). In 1946 Harrison (Introduction to the Old Testament) encountered a man in a British mental institution who suffered from a disease called boanthropy, a form of hypochondriac disorder in which a man takes himself for a wolf, a dog, or some other kind of animal. This particular man was in excellent health but was very antisocial and spent the entire day outdoors, wandering the lawns and plucking up and eating handfuls of grass. He discriminated carefully between grass and weeds, eating nothing else and drinking nothing but water. The only physical abnormality evident was that something about his hair changed and his fingernails were coarse and thickened—the result of a diet of grass alone? Dr. Gary Zustiak notes that while this type of disease has been documented by medical writers at least since the fourth century, this is the only known case in which it was a direct judgment. Wanting to keep his condition as unknown as possible, the officials he had appointed who were loyal to him probably kept him in a secluded royal forest where he could have been monitored and guarded in hopes that this insanity would be temporary. They could have kept their subordinates operating according to their customary patterns without serious disruption in governmental rule since he had staffed his kingdom so wisely with servants like Daniel. This was actually YHWH’s mercy, a blessing in bad clothing, for it prevented him from getting to a point where he could not repent. It was a judgment but not a punishment, so that he would put himself in a position where this would not occur again. His great care for Nevukhadnetzar was mainly for the sake of Yehudah, which was exiled under him. He had told them to take a “time out” and stand in the corner, and He was making sure no one took advantage of them during their time of correction. It was Nevukhadnetzar’s job to take care of them, and the poor that he was told to consider probably included many of those from the second wave of captives.
34. “And at the end of the days, I, Nevukhadnetzar, lifted my eyes to the heavens and my reasoning returned to me, and I bowed the knee to the Highest, and gave praise and honor to the One Who lives forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and whose kingdom is with generation upon generation.
My reasoning returned: Neither the illness nor the interregnum which it must have caused, are recorded in Babylonian annals; however, there is a notable absence of any record of acts or decrees by the king during the seven years from 582-575 BC (around the middle period of his reign). There may be a confirmation of or parallel to this in the recent discovery of a bronze doorstep which bears an inscription stating that it was presented by Nevukhadnetzar to the great temple at Borsippa as a votive offering on account of his recovery from a terrible illness (though this temple was to Nabu). Among the Dead Sea Scrolls, an Aramaic fragment of a prayer was found, attributed to Nabunai (Nabonidus), king of Assyria and Bavel, indicating that he had suffered from an unpleasant skin disease for seven years, and that he was healed when he confessed his faults and a Jew told him to give honor to the name of the Most High. Some identify Nabonidus as the father of the Belsha’atzar in chapter 5, who was from a later dynasty and unrelated to Nevukhadnetzar. The word for “time-period” here is unspecified, but as in English the word can refer to a menstrual cycle, so if we must guess at which it was, it is more likely to have been seven months than seven years, simply considering how much could have changed in the political affairs of the kingdom in seven whole years. According to one Jewish tradition, through Daniel's prayers the seven years of punishment decreed for Nebuchadnezzar were changed to seven months; and after the king had lamented his sins for forty days, had lived in the caves for another period of forty days, and had herded for the same length of time with the beasts of the forest, YHWH took mercy upon him and allowed him to return to his throne. Upon his death, because the people believed that Nevukhadnetzar was not really dead—that he had simply disappeared as he had once before, and that they would be severely punished by him if at his return he found that they had invested another king. His body was therefore dragged through the city so the people could see it (Targ. Sheni, beginning; Jerome on Isa. xiv. 19; see also "The Chronicles of Jerahmeel," lxvi. 6; a shorter version is given in Seder 'Olam R. xxviii.).
35. “All the inhabitants of the earth are counted as nothing, and He does according to His wish among the army of the heavens and the dwellers on the earth, and there is no one able to hinder [the deeds of] His hand, or say to Him, ‘What are You doing?’
36. “At the time my reasoning returned to me, the honor of my kingship and my majesty and splendor returned to me, and my advisors and nobles came looking for me, and I was re-established in my reign, and extraordinary greatness was added to me.
Came looking for me: or, sought my favor. Added to me: note that he is no longer taking the credit.
37. “This time, I, Nevukhadnetzar, adore, extol, and honor the King of the Heavens, because all His actions are properly balanced, and His ways are just—and those who walk in arrogance He is able to bring low!”
CHAPTER 5
1. Belsha’atzar the king made a great feast for a thousand of his nobles, and drank wine in the presence of the thousand.
Belsha’atzar: alt. Balthazar (Akkadian Bel-sarra-usur, which means “May Bel protect the king”). He was the son of Nabonidus (Nabunai), who, after ruling only three years, went to the oasis of Tayma and devoted himself to the worship of the moon god, Sin (which was later worshipped by the Arabians under the name Al-Ilah, or Allah). He made Belsha’atzar co-regent in 553 B.C., leaving him in charge of Babylon's defense. Herodotus refers to the last king of Babylon as Labynetos and claims that this was also the name of his father, so this is likely to have been a title rather than a name as such. Labynetos is generally understood to be a garbled form of the name Nabonidus and the younger Labynetos is often identified with Belsha’atzar. Josephus says Belsha’atzar was known to the Babylonians by the name Naboandelus. The elder Nabonidus he calls "Nabonnedus" and relates an account of his capture by Koresh taken from Berossus. Initially Belsha’atzar’s name was thought to be absent from monuments, but since he would be the last king of Bavel, there may not have been time to make any memorials to him. In 1854 Sir Henry Rawlinson discovered a reference by Nabonidus (I) to his eldest son, and later receipts were found from contracts that refer to Belsha’atzar’s household. Koresh, the Persian general, had conquered much of Babylonia, but Bavel itself was considered impenetrable due to its very thick walls, so the king was celebrating the security of the city in the face of any attacker.
2. While tasting the wine, Belsha’atzar ordered that the golden and silver vessels that his father Nevukhadnetzar had brought from the Temple that was in Yerushalayim be brought so that the king, his nobles, his wives, and his concubines could drink from them.
Wine: The Aramaic root word means to bubble to the surface or ferment, or to boil over. This sounds more like the process of making beer than wine, and a deeper root means “a pile of fermenting matter”, a picture of the world at large (the “donkey” that Avraham left behind when taking Yitzhaq up Mt. Moryah shares the same root word in Hebrew). It was the world fro which they were drinking. Father: the statement can be reconciled with extra-Biblical sources by interpreting the term to mean forefather or predecessor. (The Hebrew word for father, av, is commonly used in the sense of forefather.) Golden and silver vessels: Ezra 1:7-10 gives an inventory of the items brought back from Bavel to the Temple, and listed among them are 1,000 silver dishes (possibly why he chose this number to invite) and 30 golden bowls. Yirmeyahu (51:7) describes Bavel itself as a gold cup in YHWH’s hand from which the nations drink wine and are raving fools.
3. So they brought the golden and silver vessels that had been taken from the House of Elohim which was in Yerushalayim, and the king, his nobles, his wives, and his concubines drank with them--
We see a very similar feast in chapter 1 of Hadassah (Esther), which took place a generation later, even down to the golden vessels. Apparently this was a common practice in this part of the world in this age when one wanted to show off his conquests. But in this case it was spitting on YHWH’s honor, as if to say his gods had defeated YHWH Himself. Nevukhadnetzar had never shown Him this degree of disrespect by profaning the items from His Temple.
4. [that is], they drank wine and brought adulation to the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.
These all correspond to items in Nevukhadnetzar’s dreams, the wood being the tree that was felled. Even the stone that toppled the image is included in their pantheon, but as only one of many—the very direction the world is taking again today.
5. At the same moment, out came the fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote in view of the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, and as the king watched, the hand that was writing disappeared!
6. Then the king’s color changed, and his thoughts alarmed him to the point that his hip joints buckled, and his knees knocked against one another.
I.e., he went pale. Buckled: or went loose, dissolved, shook. It could even be saying that he became incontinent, as often takes place when someone is extremely frightened. It could be that this was a miracle in that the hand only looked like a man’s and was actually that of a non-human messenger. But the fact that it says “man’s”, the Aramaic word emphasizing one’s mortality, we should not assume that first, but look for ways that it could have been YHWH working through ordinary people as He most often does. But if so, why would he be so terrified? This banquet hall has been located in the ruins of Bavel, and it measured 173 by 56 feet (about 58 by 19 meters). In the context of the vessels from the Temple, this lampstand is probably none other than the menorah taken from the Temple, which would consist of seven oil lamps, producing possibly 60 or 70 watts, which would hardly light up much of a room so large, especially if its walls were not gold-plated as the Temple’s inner walls were. The word for “plaster” in verse 5 is a cognate to the Hebrew word for chalk, so it would have been something porous and very non-reflective. If it was painted blue like so many other walls in Bavel were, it would be all the less reflective. If what they were burning in the lamps was not as pure as what YHWH required for the Temple, it may have produced much smoke and soot, giving the room a hazy look not unlike the “smoke and mirrors” by which much sleight of hand is accomplished. The king and all of his guests were probably already drunk, so they would not be seeing so clearly. The menorah would cast some interesting shadows, and if there was soot, it might have been easy to write in. Who would be likely to write such a message? Probably someone connected with the vessels of the Temple—a priest who would be concerned about overseeing their safety. One of Daniel’s companions, Hananyah, may have been a priest, as there is one by this name mentioned in Nekhemyah 12, and he would have most likely been invited to this feast, or would have had access to the hall due to his high position (3:30). Ezra the scribe also might be a candidate, being a priest as well, though this might have been before his time. But since he was using this feast to praise the gods, his first thought was probably, “Which one did I forget?” or “Oh, no, I’ve awakened one of them!” For Babylonians did not say the names of their elohim lest they pay them too much attention. (Bel is a generic euphemism substituted for Marduk.) The Jews returning from exile carried this practice with them in regard to YHWH. But in fact this did turn the tide for Yehudah’s return, because what the menorah was supposed to cast its light on was the Table of the Bread of the Faces, which is a picture of the twelve tribes of Israel in unity. When the menorah was lit after having been mothballed for so many years, it would be obvious to YHWH what was missing from this scene, and it made Him eager to have His people back in His Land again as soon as His prophecy of seventy years would allow, especially now that the vessels were being misused.
7. The king called out loudly to bring in the conjurers, the astrologers, and the determiners. The king responded by saying to the wise men of Bavel that any man who could read this writing and declare its interpretation would be clothed in purple, with a gold chain around his neck, and he would rule as third in the kingdom.
Purple: normally reserved for royalty, so this is the highest of honors for someone who is not. Third: because Belsha’atzar was already co-regent with his father.
8. Then all of the king’s wise men came in, but they were unable to read the writing, or make the meaning known to the king.
The simple reason the Babylonians, who used the script that Hebrew has used since the Babylonian captivity, were unable to read the writing was because it was in Paleo-Hebrew, the script also often known as Phoenician, used after the captivity mainly only for the Holy Name (i.e., it was seen as the most holy standard for written communications, but relegated only to that usage) until it has begun to be revived by returning Yoseyfites. (The script used in modern Hebrew is actually the same script the Babylonians used every day.) Some would certainly recognize it as Hebrew, and the words were Babylonian. If they knew to put both of these items into the equation, they could read the words, but the meaning was still what eluded them. (v. 15) When we see all the double meanings it involved, it is easy to see why it would confuse them.
9. At this point King Belsha’atzar was greatly alarmed, and a change of face started coming over him, and his nobles were becoming baffled.
Face: or brightness, splendor.
10. Because of the words of the king and his nobles, the queen came to the banqueting-house, and the queen responded by saying, “O king, live forever! Don’t let your thoughts alarm you or let your face be changed!
“Queen” is never the king’s wife in a Hebrew context, as it would be in Persia as seen in the book of Esther. And we see that Belsha’atzar already had his wives present; this was someone else. Typically the one called queen was the king’s mother, the widow of the former king who still had a very high degree of clout. Herodotus says that the mother of the younger Labynetos (Nabonidus) was the queen Nitocris, whom he portrays as the dominant ruler. She is commonly thought to have been the daughter of Nevukhadnetzar and the widow of Nergal-sharezer. Josephus says the queen at the time was actually Belsha’atzar’s grandmother.
11. “There is a great man in your kingdom, in whom [there is] a spirit of the set-apart Elohim, and in the days of your ancestor, light and insight and wisdom like the wisdom of the elohim was found in him. Your ancestor, King Nevukhadnetzar, appointed him chief of the writers of hidden knowledge, conjurers, astrologers, and determiners—your ancestor, the king--
12. “all because a surpassing spirit and knowledge and insight and interpreting of dreams and solving of riddles, and the untying of knots were found in this Daniel, whose name the king called Beltesha’atzar. So therefore, let Daniel be called, and he will explain the meaning!”
She has complete confidence that it will be easy for him. Note the similarity of Daniel’s Babylonian name with the king’s own name. This too may have added some weight to her argument in his eyes. But he then reverts to calling him by his Hebrew name, unlike Nevukhadnetzar, who gave him the other name. Why? Because in the context of using vessels that he would have seen as belonging to the Jews (they actually were YHWH’s), and probably vaguely recognizing the writing as being Hebrew, he emphasized Daniel’s Jewishness. Also, Daniel would have called himself by his proper name all along, and so someone who knew him, as the queen did, would chiefly know him by that name.
13. So Daniel was ushered in before the king, and the king responded by saying to Daniel, “Are you that Daniel who was among the sons of the exile from Yehudah, whom my father the king brought out from Yehudah?
Ushered: or thrust. They hurried to get him there as quickly as possible.
14. “I have heard in regard to you that the spirit of the elohim is in you, and that light, insight, and extraordinary wisdom are [to be] found in you!
He had just heard this! Why had he not heard of Daniel before, when he was the chief of the magi? Only the queen, who saw him active in the former administration, remembers him. It is because Daniel typically kept a very low profile, in stark contrast to these Babylonian kings with their pomp and pride. (See note on 3:12.) He had his own students to teach, and they included Zoroaster. He taught them astronomy and mysteries, but also Torah. Like Moshe, Eliyahu, and Yahshua, he stayed out of the limelight and concentrated on training them,as do the greatest rabbis of today. (Yahshua even told people not to reveal who had healed them, for his prominence belonged not so much to his own day as to the days that are still to come.) Daniel only speaks to public matters, especially in this Gentile context, when he is called upon to do so. This is a way to test the genuineness of someone who purports to be YHWH’s spokesman. The hawkers usually end up involved in scandals, especially involving the donations they often solicit. But YHWH’s messengers have a treasure to guard, and when it becomes too well-known, there are always those who are eager to steal it. (Hizqiyahu had made the mistake of casting his pearls before swine when he showed off the Temple treasures to visitors from the then-obscure Babylon, and this event is the culmination of what resulted.) The Kingdom belongs to the lowly, the grounded, who are not trying to be well-known.
15. “And now the wise men and conjurers have been ushered in before me so that they could read this writing and make its interpretation known to me, but they were not able to declare to me the meaning of the message.
This sounds very familiar by now.
16. “But I have heard in regard to you that you are able to interpret meanings and solve problems. Now if you are able to read the writing and reveal its meaning to me, you will be clothed with purple, the golden chain will be around your neck, and you will rule as third in the kingdom!”
Solve problems: or, loosen knots--the same phrase as “his joints buckled” in verse 6. He had just experienced such a “loosening”, so he knew it could be done! Third in the kingdom: Belsha’atzar was left in charge in Babylon while his father, the eccentric Nabonidus, went off to Ur and Haran to worship the moon-god, which he considered to be the supreme deity. The Biblical Archaeological Society reports that a stele found in Assyria that had the same account in both Assyrian and Aramaic, translated the Assyrian word for “governor” as king in Aramaic. So the same terminology may be being used here. Also, while most people swore by their elohim and the king, in this case alone have records been found of people swearing by both the king and his son. So this “king” held special status.
17. But Daniel responded by saying in front of the king, “Let your gifts remain your own, and give your rewards to someone else. Nevertheless, I will read the writing to the king and I will make the meaning known to him.
Note that he speaks of the king in the honorific third person. He gave respect where it was due, but learned from Avram not to take anything from wealthy kings who wanted to reward him, knowing that he would thereby be obligated to him in some additional way; the golden chain would be like a collar with a leash, and he would have to serve the king’s purposes beyond that which YHWH required. Elisha was also his role model in this respect. (2 Kings 5:16)
18. “O king, the highest Elohim gave your ancestor Nevukhadnetzar a kingdom, as well as majesty, esteem, and honor.
19. “And because of the majesty He gave him, all of the peoples of the nations came to tremble and were becoming terrified before him. Whomever he felt inclined [to kill], he killed; whomever he wished, he let live. Whomever he desired [to], he would raise up; whomever he wanted [to], he lowered.
20. “But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit began to grow firm to act presumptuously, he was deposed from the throne of his kingdom, and his honor was taken away from him
Firm: like a “stiff-necked Israelite”. The major theme of this part of Daniel seems to be the fine line between walking in appreciation for and fruitful utilization of the dignity YHWH has given and going overboard by letting it go to one’s head. He is hinting at something more ominous for Belsha’atzar, who had crossed a line in the same way by presuming to use holy vessels for his own pleasure—the very thing Yom Kippur was created to atone for. (Lev. 22, 23) He was being used by YHWH to discipline His people, but He had placed these vessels in the hands of Bavel for safe-keeping, not to be used for their own purposes. Nevukhadnetzar had never dared to go this far.
21. “and he was driven from among the sons of men, and his heart was set on a level with [that of] the animals, and his abode was with the wild donkeys. He was feeding on grass like oxen, and his body was wet from the dew of the skies, until he recognized that the Highest Elohim exercises authority in the kingdoms of men, and He appoints over it whomever He wishes.
Driven: or banished. Abode: The Aramaic root word mans “to pile up”, so it seems to describe something more like a beaver-dam or bird’s nest than a house. Wild donkeys indeed live in thickets overgrown with trees where they can find shelter, but they do not build these themselves—a perfect judgment upon the man who bragged that he had built Babylon by himself! The Aramaic word for wild donkey (arad), which has a cognate in Hebrew, means “to sequester onself, to go off alone”—the very thing YHWH said was not perfect about His creation, man. (Gen. 2:18)
22. “And you, his son, O Belsha’atzar, have not subdued your own heart, although you were aware of all this.
Subdued: or, oppressed, brought low, bowed; literally, made it fall down. Daniel was not telling the king anything he should not have already known, but he was using the facts to bring the inherent judgment to light, as his own name suggests. When he set this “plumb-line” beside the “wall” Belsha’atzar was building, the truth of what must now take place was self-evident—except that since Belsha’atzar had been given more of an advance warning than Nevukhadnetzar had, he was all the more responsible, and was therefore given less of a margin of grace.
23. “Rather, you have raised yourself up above the Elohim of the Heavens when they brought the vessels of His House before you, and you and your nobles and wives and concubines drank wine from them, and you have brought adulation to the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which can neither see nor hear, nor do they have [any kind of] awareness, and you have not honored the Elohim in whose hand is your [very] breath and all the courses of your life!”
I.e., “You’ve got the wrong ones, and missed the most important!” Wine: a symbol of joy. Indeed, as we will see below, this took place during the time of Sukkoth, “the season of our joy”, but this king was deriving his joy from the wrong source and misappropriating YHWH’s possessions.
24. Then the part of the hand was sent away from before him. And this inscription was written:
25. “Mene, mene, theqel, ufarsin”. [Daniel explained,] “This is the inscription that was written
26. “and this is the meaning of the message: ‘Mene’: Elohim has calculated [the value of] your kingdom, and brought it to an end.
Mene is the equivalent of the Hebrew word mina, and is a 50-sheqel weight used specifically for the purpose of trade. It is related to the name Meni, the elohim of numbers (often translated “fate” or “destiny”, both pagan concepts). It refers to whatever we have counted out. People still talk about “playing the numbers”, and not surprisingly, Meni is associated with luck or fortune, the meaning of the name of its companion, Gad (from which we got the term “God”), mentioned along with it in Yeshayahu 65:11. Words derived from meni show up in many languages; we even have one in English: money, the love of which Yahshua said was the root of all kinds of evils. It is the same spirit that allures us into the desire to accumulate wealth. He was showing off the wealth he had conquered, and so wrote his own judgment.
27. ‘Theqel’: You are weighed in the balancing-scales and found [to be] deficient.
Theqel is the Aramaic equivalent of the Hebrew sheqel, which is a unit of weight used to measure the comparative value of something being bought or sold. (Compare Psalm 62:9.) Found deficient: If there is anything we should fear and dread, it is a judgment like this from YHWH. He had no time to even make amends, and it was final.
28. ‘P’res’: Your kingdom is being divided and turned over to Madai and Persia.”
P’res is the singular root of the word farsin. (The prefacing “u” means “and”.) P’res has a triple meaning and so it is a play on words. It means half a mina (mene, or 25 sheqels), so this whole sentence is a mathematical equation: 50 sheqels, 50 sheqels, 1 sheqel, 25 sheqels—or 126 in total. The first phrase in Scripture which has the numerical value of 126 is “in Eden”. But p’res’ root, paras, means “to divide”, hence the next phrase, and Paras is also the exact Aramaic form for the name of the nation of Persia. Madai: or, the Medes, the kingdom that was federated with Persia (present-day Iran). But the last two words, translated together, would read “half a sheqel”. For the tax charged of all men of military age, no one, no matter how rich or poor, could give either more or less than half a sheqel. (Ex. 30:15) It therefore teaches us that none of us is worth so much that we do not need someone else in Israel to complete us. We are given 40 days prior to Yom Kippur to especially weigh ourselves to make sure we do not think either too highly or too little of ourselves. (See note on v. 20.) Belsha’atzar had been brought up to think he could do anything, conquer whatever he wanted, but he had no idea that he was only “half a sheqel.” He has clearly learned nothing from his grandfather. His mother even had to tell him who he was! He did not know his own history, just as we, for so many years, were not aware of what our ancestors had “signed us up for”. On the other hand, there was someone authorized to use these holy vessels (but not to drink wine from them), who was a “whole sheqel” because YHWH said that when he went into the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur, there was “no man” there. (Lev. 16:17) For that moment, the high priest was more than a man. He did not go to war, so he did not have to pay the half-sheqel tax, being a “son of the Kingdom” (Mat. 17:25-26). He could therefore be elevated to this level one day a year. This is who YHWH authorized to use His implements, and since Belsha’atzar presumed to make use of them, he was held to the same standard, and there was no way he could measure up to that. He fell short of what would allow him enough favor to keep reigning. Being divided: Babylon was a square (a counterfeit of the New Jerusalem, complete with hanging gardens to replicate the Garden of Eden). It extended 14 miles in each direction. Its 56-mile long wall was 300 feet high and 25 feet thick, with towers 450 feet high and a wide moat. It extended 35 feet below the ground. There was another wall 75 feet behind it just for backup, and there were enough food reserves to last twenty years, so a siege would be pointless. Yet as Daniel spoke, the Medo-Persian army was performing the unthinkable: it was broaching the “invincible” walls of Babylon, not by direct attack or an attempt to destroy, for they wanted to preserve it intact for their own use. What they did was redirect the Ferath (Euphrates) River further upstream, so that the water stopped flowing through the city, and the riverbed, which was normally flooded well above the bottom of the river-gate, which did not extend all the way to the bottom. (Who would have thought it needed to?) It became a clear pathway by which to enter beneath the walls. The ancient historians Herodotus, Berosus and Xenophon corroborate this: "Cyrus then dug a trench and diverted the flow of the Euphrates River into the new channel which led to an existing swamp. The river then dropped to such a level that it became like a stream. His army was then able to take the city by marching through the shallow waters . . . The Babylonians at the time were celebrating intensely at a feast to one of their gods and they were taken totally by surprise." There is another interesting related phrase that can result from words in Scripture with the same numerical value as these words: “The Elohim he refuses; he shall be fined to pay it back.”
29. So Belsha’atzar gave the order, and they clothed Daniel [with] purple [and put] the chain of gold around his neck, and they made a proclamation in regard to him that he was to become the third in command in the kingdom.
The king proved rash, offering a position which undoubtedly already belonged to someone else in his family to a stranger who had done no more than read four words—hardly worthy of such a reward even if he had a monopoly on this ability. He had reigned only 2 years, so was probably quite young and clearly very spoiled. Daniel was already highly-ranked, but he accepted this dubious honor because YHWH had said to submit.
30. That [very] night Belsha’atzar the king of the Khasdim was slain,
31. [6:1 in Hebrew] and Daryawesh the Mede received the kingdom, as a sixty-two-year-old.
In the year 540 B.C. Nabonidus returned from Tayma (note on verse 1), hoping to defend his kingdom from the Persians who were planning to advance on Babylon. In 539 B.C. Belsha’atzar was positioned in the city of Babylon to hold the capital, while Nabonidus, marched his troops north to meet Koresh (Cyrus). Nabonidus surrendered and fled from Koresh. Two days later, the Persian armies overthrew the city of Babylon. But they did so under cover of darkness, entering through a tunnel after diverting the river that flowed through it, and thus succeeded in a nearly-bloodless takeover, killing only the king and a few officials. Daniel, being so much in the background of politics, was not a target. Most citizens of Bavel woke up the next morning under a new authority, having experienced no disturbance whatsoever. Daryawesh (or Daryush/Darius)… the "Babylonian Chronicles" tell us the exact date which Babylon fell: October 13, 539 B.C.E. when a man named Gubaru, a Mede, was appointed by King Koresh (Cyrus) to be ruler in Babylon. Gubaru was born in 601 B.C., which would make him 62 years old when he invaded Babylon--exactly the age by which Daniel describes him. The Babylonian record of Daryawesh’s conquest of Babylon states, "In the month of Tashritu [Tishrei], at the time when Koresh battled the forces of Akkad at Opis on the Tigris River, the citizens of Akkad revolted against him, but Nabonidus scattered his opposition with a great slaughter. On the 14th day, Sippar was taken without a fight. Nabonidus then fled for his life. On the 16th day, Gubaru (Daryawesh) the leader of Gutium along with the army of Koresh entered Babylon without any opposition.” (This was just after Yom Kippur, the day of judgment.) “Later they arrested Nabonidus when he returned to Babylon.” William Shea notes that this was at a full moon, when the moon-god worshipped by Babylon would have been expected to be most able to come to that nation’s aid. But on the third day of the month of Arahshamnu (Markheshwan), Koresh marched into Babylon, and they laid down green branches in front of him. The city was no longer at war... Koresh then sent his best wishes to the residents living there. His governor, Gubaru, then installed leaders to govern all of Babylonia.” Daryawesh was the uncle of Koresh. Xenophon says that Koresh, after he took Babylon, set out for Persia, and took Media on his way; and, saluting Cyaxares (apparently Daryawesh), said there was a choice house and court for him in Babylon, where he might go and live as in his own, which he did, but only for two years. (Daryawesh is not a proper name; there were at least two other rulers of Medo-Persia who were called Daryawesh, which clears up some ambiguities. It is title of honor, apparently meaning "Holder of the Scepter”; Herodotus says it means "the restrainer".) Koresh, who, being about 23 years younger than Daryawesh, though co-regent, preferred to be in the battlefield. Koresh refers to Belsha’atzar (who some identify with Ewil-Merodakh) in his own writings: "A coward was put in charge as the king of this country . . . With evil intents he did away with the regular offerings to the gods . . . and desecrated the worship of the king of his gods, Marduk." Mede: a descendant of the Yafethite Madai of Gen. 10:2. Many from the Northern Kingdom of Israel had also been taken to the cities of the Medes by the Assyrians. (2 Kings 17:6) Since Bavel, though largely made up of Semitic people, was founded by Nimrod, a Khamite, a preliminary fulfillment of Gen. 9:27 was converging here as the Jews came under the rule of the Medes who overcame Bavel. There is another significance to Daryawesh being 62 years old. We know that Nevukadnetzar’s second conquest of Yerushalayim, when he destroyed the Temple, was seven years after his initial attack. The Jewish book Seder Olam (“Order of the Age”) says that Daryawesh was born this very eighth year of Nevukhadnetzar’s reign, so that at the very time he was destroying and plundering YHWH’s House, the one who would defeat his kingdom was born! We can see hints of this very event in the prophecy of Yirmeyahu 51: Bavel’s rulers would become drunken at a feast, lulled into a sleep from which they would never awake. (verses 39, 57) Yet much of the rest of the prophecy has not yet been fulfilled: Babylon was never destroyed; it merely fell into ruins. But its spirit remained, and much of it has been rebuilt. Verses 49-50 clearly set the timing of its final destruction in the days of the return of Israel from far off. United States troops have occupied the very building where this feast took place, so prophetically the U.S. has inherited Babylon’s seat and mantle. Was this the real intent behind its excuses to invade Iraq? It opened the door for the rest of this prophecy to fall on it. Who cannot see hints of 9/11/2001 in verse 53 of the same chapter, especially in conjunction with Revelation 18? Yet this, too, is only a foreshadowing of what will come upon all who worship what its trade affords—unless, like Nin’veh, they repent. (Yonah 3:10) The son of Nabopolassar, Nevukhadnetzar became king of Babylon in 604 B.C. as Assyria was on the decline; he died in 561 after ruling for 43 years. His name, either in this spelling or in the more correct form, Nebukhadretzar (from the original, "Nabu-kudurri-uṣur" = "Nebo, defend my boundary"), is found more than ninety times in the Scripture. Jewish tradition says Nebukhadnezzar, called the "wicked one" ("ha-rasha'"; Meg. 11a; Ḥag. 13b; Pes. 118a), was a son—or descendant?—of the Queen of Sheba by her marriage with Solomon ("Alphabet Ben Sira," ed. Venice, 21b; comp. Brüll's "Jahrb." ix. 9), and a son-in-law of Sennacherib (Targ. to Isa. x. 32; Lam. R., Introduction, 23, says "a grandson"), with whom he took part in the expedition of the Assyrians against Hezekiah, being one of the few who were not destroyed by the angels before Jerusalem (Sanh. 95b). This may be why YHWH was so concerned that he acknowledge Him. It seems that Nevukhadnetzar tried to build the statue that he saw in his dream! The “image of the Beast” that all mankind is coerced into worshipping is no "man" after all. It is only a projection of haSatan’s wishful thinking. One Hebrew word for “idol” means “a mere image"--something with no relation to reality; it only seems real, taking a grain of truth that Yahweh has created, and sponging off it like a parasite. "To deceive the many", Satan's counterfeit "man" will probably even say he is “Jesus Christ”.
CHAPTER 6
1. [2 in Hebrew] It seemed appropriate before Daryawesh to set over the kingdom 120 governors who would be over the whole kingdom,
Lieutenants: sadraps or satraps; Aramaic, akhashdarpania. The Babylonian Chronicles also say that Darius the Mede installed sub-governors in Babylon. The Persian Empire stretched all the way from Turkey and Egypt to western India. Persians describe themselves as Aryans, of the eastern Indo-European group of languages. “Two lines developed from an early leader, Teispes, who conquered Elam in the time of the decline of the Assyrian Empire: one line in Anzan, the other in Persia. Cyrus II [Koresh], king of Anzan, united the nation, and conquered Media, Lydia, and Babylonia. His son, Cambyses, took Egypt, which was later ruled by Darius [Daryawesh], the son of Hystaspes. Persepolis was an ancient city of Persia that served as a ceremonial capital for Darius and his successors.” (Farsinet)
2. and over them three overseers, of whom Daniel was one, so that these governors would give account to them, and the king would suffer no injury.
I.e., so he would suffer no damage or loss due to embezzlement, etc. So Daniel crossed over to become an official in a second kingdom after several administrations in Bavel. He had been captured in the third year of the reign of Y’hoyaqim, 11 years before the Temple was destroyed and the 70-year captivity began. The latter date was at least 62 years before this, and thus if Daniel was already old enough to distinguish himself 73 years prior to this (though he was still called a “boy”), he had to be at least 80 years old by now. Did the Persians identify him as someone so important because of the purple robe he was wearing when they entered the city? Like Babylon, they seem to have wanted to make use of the best and brightest of nations they conquered.
3. From that time on this [man] Daniel was distinguishing himself above the overseers and the governors —all [of them]—because a disposition to excellence was in him, and the king planned to appoint him over the whole kingdom.
Excellence: from a term meaning “shining and visible from afar” as well as being a paragon of truthfulness. Like Yoseyf, it was obvious to the king that this man could be trusted with anything. But like Yoseyf, there were many who envied him. If he became prime minister, they could no longer get away with taking any bribes, or cutting corners anywhere, as they may have been accustomed to do! Therefore they thought they had to find a way to prevent such an appointment:
4. After that the overseers and governors started trying to find an occasion against Daniel beside the kingdom, but they were not able to find any occasion or fault, all because he was trustworthy, and there was neither negligence nor corruptness found in him.
“There is nothing new under the sun.” Today’s vetting process often turns into such an effort to find “skeletons in the closet”, but we would be very hard-pressed to find anyone with as clean a record as his in high places. He is an outstanding example for all who represent YHWH in the earth, whether in the limelight or not. But this is “the tail wagging the dog”—they had to create a problem so that they could “solve” it!
5. Then these men said, “We [certainly] won’t find any pretext against Daniel unless we find [something] against him in [some] regulation of his Elohim.”
Pretext: literally, coming-up. Regulation: i.e., “We’ll get him by finding something in his religion that interferes with the agenda of the king or Babylonian culture.” Compare Haman’s attack on all the Jews in order to target Mordekhai in the book of Hadassah (Esther), where he also ensured that the law he put forward could not be changed.
6. So these overseers and governors assembled [in conspiracy] around the king, and this is what they said to him: “O King Daryawesh, live forever!
Assembled: The term includes the nuance of being in an uproar, i.e., in a rush to get a law passed much as we see in congressional proceedings today.
7. “The overseers and lieutenants and governors, the counselors and the deputies, have all consulted together to establish a royal decree and a binding restriction that whoever should make a request from elohim or men for thirty days, except from you, O king, will be thrown into a pit of lions!
As William Versteeg summarizes, “If there was one way to make sure that everybody was truly loyal to him, what better way then to have them demonstrate it by appealing to him for absolutely everything? Besides, if he did not like it, after 30 days, it would be discontinued.” (Those who came up with the law did not really want to prolong its enforcement either--just long enough to do away with Daniel! A religion that endures for only thirty days!) How flattering it may have sounded to the king! Yet how odd. Shouldn’t he have suspected that there was something behind this? Yet we know from the Pharaohs that in the ancient world kings were often seen as at least sons of their elohim (and this is how we must understand such titles for Yahshua), if not actually their elohim incarnate. (This he is not). So this was not such a strange idea to him. In fact, the first man who exalted himself to the status of demanding worship was Nimrod, who built his tower right near here. This spirit may have been especially tied to this region, and may be one reason Israel was not originally given an official king as such.
8. “Now, O king, put the prohibition in place, and sign the document [of decree] so that it cannot be altered, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be revoked!”
“Sign it quickly!” Would he not have been suspicious? Something so permanent and unchangeable should be undertaken only with much forethought, but he seems to have been nearly as rash as the one he deposed.
9. On account of all of this, King Daryawesh signed the document and [enacted] the prohibition.
10. Now when Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went up to his house, where the windows in his rooftop chamber were open facing Yerushalayim, and three times a day he knelt on his knees and bowed down and gave thanks before his Elohim, just as he had done before that.
He knew what he was doing. He did not even hide, possibly because he was held up by the other Jews as an example (as evidenced by his contemporary Y’hezq’el in 14:14 of his book). It seemed rebellious against men’s laws, but this is who he was; he did not change his habits according to the changing standards around him. Facing Yerushalayim: because king Shlomo had pronounced a special blessing on all who would pray toward the Temple, especially those who are in exile as Daniel was (1 Kings 8:48), even though it was now in ruins—as we do, too, though it is again in ruins today. 2 Chronicles 7:12ff links the idea with our examining our hearts. Even Yonah prayed toward the Temple when he was in rebellion! This was not a Torah command, but apparently it was so commonly done among the Jews in exile that those among whom they lived thought it must have been an actual law. Praying three times a day is based not on a command, but on the example of the three patriarchs Avraham, who prayed early in the morning (Gen. 19:27), Yitzhaq, who is recorded as having prayed as the sun began to set (Gen. 24:63), and Yaaqov, who prayed at night. (Gen. 28) They are considered to have instituted these prayer times for their descendants. (Talmud, Brakhoth 26b) By David’s day it was already an established tradition to face the sanctuary when worshipping (Psalm 5:7) and to pray, in Hebraic order, evening, morning, and noon (Psalm 55:17). In the Temple, incense was burned at these times. We also see examples in the Renewed Covenant of times of prayer at noon (Acts 10:9) and the ninth hour, or mid-afternoon (Acts 3:1). It was also their expectations in regard to the traditions, rather than what was clearly Torah, in which the Prushim and Tzadoqim tried to ensnare Yahshua. Since he had done nothing wrong, they had to try to catch him in his words, and their prohibition of the use of the sacred Name was the clinching factor. Christianity also quotes the Torah out of context in order to try to show how “deadly” it is, though YHWH said it was our life. And the world uses Yehudah’s traditions as the pretext to persecute the Jews. You know you have a true enemy when it is your Torah-observance they try to use to trap you. We do not fit their mold, so they use Renewed Covenant quotes about Judaizers or the “synagogue of Satan” to try to prove no one should follow Hebraic traditions today. But while some traditions actually threaten true Torah-observance, most are “remembrances” designed to carry on our awareness of Torah commands which cannot be completely fulfilled in exile or while the Temple is not yet rebuilt. Daniel must have learned this tradition in the Land before he was brought to Bavel. But what is most amazing and praiseworthy is that Daniel regarded even something that was designed as a reminder of the Temple—something based not on commands but on the examples of his forebears--to be even more important than a law of the Gentiles, even though YHWH had told Yehudah to submit to their captivity. There are parallels in modern times with Jews in concentration camps who would risk their lives to light two matches at the beginning of the Sabbath, though this is commanded nowhere in the Torah. Daniel left his windows open because, no matter what doors men shut, the windows of heaven are open in a special way at these times. What an awesome statement of who he was! He knew from his friends’ experience years before that YHWH is the one who controlled whether he survived or not. He sets a table for us “in the presence of our enemies”. (Psalm 23)
11. Then those men conspired and caught Daniel praying and asking for favor before his Elohim.
12. So they approached and spoke before the king concerning the king’s prohibition, [saying], “Didn’t you sign a prohibition [stating] that ‘Whoever makes a request from any elohim or men for thirty days, except from you, O king, will be thrown into a pit of lions’?” The king answered and said, “The matter is certain, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be revoked.”
If these laws cannot be revoked, how did Persia (Iran) become such a stronghold of Islam? The loosening of the grip of these laws actually came when Alexander the Great conquered the Persians; all bets were off at that point.
13. Then they responded by saying before the king, “Daniel, who is from among the sons of exile from Yehudah, has not paid attention to you or to the prohibition that you have signed, but three times a day he makes his prayer rise.”
He is not identified as one of the top three officials, but only as one of the captives! Such spin they place on their report! “By the way, he is just one of those ignominious Jews!” They use whatever slant they can to put him in a negative light. In an otherwise tolerant culture, their prejudice is clearly just beneath the surface.
14. Then the king, when he heard the message, became very disgusted with himself, and became obsessed with [how] to restore Daniel, and he was struggling intensely to rescue him until the sun went down.
Disgusted with: or odious to, a stench to. I.e., he was “kicking himself” for having made such an ill-advised snap decision. What a different response from Nevukhadnetzar’s when Daniel’s friends crossed his will! He realized he had been “scammed”, duped into losing his most valuable asset. So he tried whatever way he could to find a loophole. He might have prayed to his own elohim, sought the advice of other wise men, checked the annals for a precedent, or tried to find the wording that could at least counter this law as Akhashwerosh was able to do in Hadassah’s day. Once it was obvious to him that they had forced this outcome on him, he may have even been lobbying some of the 120 to allow him to nullify the decree:
15. But those men assembled around the king, and told the king, “Be aware, O king, that the law of the Medes and the Persians is that any prohibition or decree that the king establishes cannot be changed.”
Assembled: the term includes the sense of being tumultuous—in an uproar. As they had tried to get him to sign the law into effect quickly so he would have no time to realize what they were actually doing, not that he ad seen through their motives, they were trying to get him to stop working so hard to save Daniel. “Just in case you forgot...” This king had not established that principle, for while he was the first Median king over Bavel, he was not the first king of the Medes and Persians.
16. So the king gave the command, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the pit of lions. But the king responded by saying to Daniel, “May your Elohim, whom you serve [so] constantly, rescue you!”
Lions rest twenty hours a day, but their activity peaks just after dusk—exactly when Daniel was fed to them. There are six Hebrew words for “lion”, describing them when young, when old, when crouching, when roaring—clear evidence that they were important in Hebrew culture. After all, we were a shepherding people, and the lion is the shepherd’s worst nightmare. Wolves and even bears can be fought off, but lions are strong, fast, vicious, and have sharp teeth. They even attack in the presence of shepherds. It is easy to see why there had to be words describing their position very precisely. Interestingly, when U.S. troops captured the mansion of Saddam Hussein’s son Uday in Baghdad, they found a personal zoo stocked with lions and cheetahs. Pits were often used to trap animals. (Note the allusion to the nations trapping the king of Israel in one in Y’hezq’el 19:4-8.) This “lions’ den” was much like a cave, but the root of the word used here means to dig into the earth, so it was clearly man-made. Pits like this have been discovered by archaeologists. Keil notes that they had two interconnected chambers that were both accessed by a hole in the top through which the lions could not escape, and hence could not hunt for themselves. They would be very hungry whenever they were fed, just like lions in a modern zoo. (King Shlomoh was known to have had such a large collection of animals for study, and his House of the Forest of Levanon may well have been an attempt to recreate a natural habitat for them. He saw spiritual truths in them as reflected in the proverbs.) They would be enticed into one chamber with meat so the other could be cleaned. Lions had been a symbol of Babylon. But why did they have a pit of lions here? One reason may have been to hold for hunting purposes; a seal has been found depicting this very Daryawesh on a lion hunt. This could have taken place in a controlled environment much like the later Roman colosseum—a large arena in which he killed them with a pear while riding a chariot. But the number of wild lions in this region at that time makes this appear to be unlikely as a sole reason for keeping them. There were wild lions in this part of the world then, as in Israel, and lions were found as far east as Delhi as late as 1850. The Asiatic Lion (Panthera leo persica), which looks nearly identical to the better-known African lion, is a subspecies which survives today only in India, numbering only about 300 in the wild, and these are found only in the Forest of Gir in the state of Gujarat. They once ranged from the Mediterranean to India, covering most of Southwest Asia, and hence it is also known as the Persian lion. So was it for this express purpose of having an extreme form of execution as a deterrent to wrongdoing—to intimidate the diverse peoples of his empire into obeying? Wilmington’s Guide to the Bible notes that “archaeology has determined that this was a common method of state execution…in the Assyrian and Babylonian empires.” Archaeologist Diculafoy found an inscription on one such pit, after having fallen into it, that identified it as “the place of execution, where men who angered the king died, torn by wild animals.” The Assyrian king Asshurbanipal records having rebels thrown to bulls and lions, as his grandfather Sennakheriv had also done. But this was not typically done throughout the rest of the Persian empire. This strongly suggests that Daniel was still in Bavel, and that his accusers were also Babylonian rather than Medo-Persian. (Yirmeyahu 50:17-18 describes Bavel and Assyria as lions going after the flock of Israel.) 120 lions decorated the Ishtar Gate to Bavel, which was pieced back together in Germany and a replica of which Saddam Hussein rebuilt on the original site. There is much other documentation that the lion was a symbol of the goddess Ishtar herself. A basalt lion was found directly in front of her gate. She was called “the lioness of battle”. (She is known throughout Scripture as Asherah or Ashtoreth, and the Greeks later adopted her as Diana and the Romans as Venus. The term Easter stems from her name. She was called the goddess of the dawn, hence the practice of Easter sunrise services, and was the goddess of fertility, sometimes depicted with 39 multi-colored breasts—the original of Easter eggs—and was associated with the hare, hence the “Easter bunny”. She was even called Yahweh’s consort by some ancient syncretists, so her worship even spread into Israel. She was a later name for Semiramis, the wife of Nimrod and mother of his supposed reincarnation, Tammuz, whom she descended to the underworld to seek, and these pits could easily have been seen as entrances to that realm.) These Babylonians could not fathom Daryawesh having conquered their kingdom unless Ishtar was with him. Since conquering nations often adopted parts of the religions of those they conquered into their pantheons, but Ishtar was not as important to the Medes as to the Babylonians. They knew the king would never sign legislation to repeat the use of the fiery furnace for execution, for the chief deity of Persia—Ahura-Mazda—was associated with fire, which was seen as a life-giving source, not death-dealing. (The name Daryawesh itself means “fire-worshipper”!) So they asked him for a law that would not offend his sensitivities, but would also actually serve as an offering to their own deity. There is probably no coincidence that there were 120 rulers of the empire and 120 lions on Ishtar’s gate. They were indirectly pushing to get their religion back into a place of primacy though they had been conquered.
17. And a stone was brought and set over the mouth of the pit, and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and the signet ring of his nobles, so that the thing he desired might not be altered concerning Daniel.
He forced himself to obey the laws of his land, though it was not what he wanted to do. He showed that he was still being coerced by them. The seals would have been affixed on wax or mud used to cement the stone in place. By putting the seals of all the other rulers there with his own, he would preclude the accusation that he came and rescued Daniel and then replaced his own seal. Large stones were a rarity in Babylon, for nearly everything there is made of bricks, unlike Israel, which is full of large stones. It is telling that although Daniel was one of the most widely-read books in Yehudah in Yahshua’s time, the high priest and his cronies had apparently missed its point, for they used the very same method to try to prevent Yahshua’s “escape”, even down to the seal! (Mat. 27:58ff) It could be that it was only those who wanted righteous change in the Land were the ones reading it, for the high priest at that time was certainly not one of those. He bought his position from the Romans, who sold it to the highest bidder, and it was often kept in the same family by master-politicians. They may have been descendants of Levi, but were not in the right line from Aharon that YHWH had designated to keep their position for life. (It was this corruption among the priests, not the Temple itself, that the writers of the epistle to the Hebrews and the Dead Sea Scrolls were opposing.)
18. Then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting: no diversions were brought before him, and his sleep fled from upon him.
Diversions: the term includes both musical instrumentation and dancing girls! But that it was noteworthy to mention that he refused entertainment that night shows that even then it was the usual pattern of those who could afford it to spend their evenings in such mindless relaxation after working hard at the affairs of state. There is nothing new under the sun.
19. Then at the earliest light of dawn, the king got up and hurried off to the pit of lions.
At dawn: In the Aramaic text, the word (sh’parpara’) has the first “p” much smaller than the rest of the letters, and the second one much larger than the other letters.
20. And when he got close to the pit, he cried out to Daniel with a pained voice, and the king responded by saying to Daniel, “Daniel, servant of the Elohim of life, is your Elohim, whom you serve [so] constantly, able to free you from the pit of lions?”
Elohim of life: Since he was used to elohim having a division of labor, but the most salient help Daniel needed right now was to survive, in his view.
21. Then Daniel spoke with the king: “O king, live forever!
This must have been the time those words sounded better to him than on any other occasion!
22. “My Elohim sent His messenger and shut the lions’ mouths, and they have not harmed me, all because I was found innocent before Him—and before you, O king, I have also done no harm.”
By tradition, this took place at the same time of year as the Passover. This fits; it is a season when YHWH has delivered His people many times—from Egypt, from the flood in Noakh’s time, from Haman in Hadassah’s time, and from the curse on our scattered ancestors in Yahshua’s time. Wild animals often sense the fear in humans, and Daniel seems to have gone quietly to his punishment. He knew that YHWH could easily have stopped this whole process earlier on if He wanted to, and thus must have deduced that He was setting up a darker background against which to show His power to deliver all the more vividly. But cats of all sizes are known to shun vegetables, and Daniel not only did not eat meat with blood in it; he was a vegetarian because he could not be sure any of the meat he encountered in the palaces was properly killed (or that it was not offered to idols). So he did not smell like an animal. Could this have been one reason for the lions’ aversion to eating him? Man-eating lions have been found to suffer from more tooth decay than other lions; could they have been distracted by toothaches and not wanted to eat? And before you: Could he even be hinting that somehow the king himself was this messenger, who somehow, before the pit was sealed, sneaked in some food for the lions so that they would be sated enough for one night, knowing that once lions are full, they are not hungry again for three to five days? While YHWH was clearly the one who provided the deliverance, He most often works through ordinary though well-timed means. Though He certainly does miracles, and this may have been one, we should not look for “magic” explanations before natural ones.
23. Then the king was overjoyed in regard to him, and for Daniel, he gave the order to bring him up from the pit, so Daniel was brought up out of the pit, and no harm of any kind was found on him, because he had been confident about his Elohim.
Overjoyed: Aramaic, twice glad. His confidence consisted of his continuing to pray to YHWH despite the interdict, reasoning that He was able to handle any problem this might cause. It is difficult to imagine a better way to make the king appreciate what he had in Daniel!
24. Then the king gave the order, and they brought those men who had denounced Daniel and threw them into the pit of lions—them, their children, and their wives—and they did not even reach the bottom of the pit before the lions overpowered them and crushed all of their bones.
The law never said Daniel had to be executed; it only said he would be thrown to the lions. So the sentence was fully carried out, and one reason for the seals on the stone may have been that one of the counter-legislations the king was working on included a clause allowing for this judgment upon his accusers should he somehow survive, since the king saw through their veiled power-struggle. Once he realized they were not really after his best interests, he did the wise thing and killed all who were related to them. Denounced: the phrase actually says, “chewed to bits”—an idiom in Aramaic for such accusation, but their reward for doing so was that they were literally chewed to bits! That they did not even reach the bottom might have been known because they were lowered into the pit with ropes. We might be tempted to say this made it obvious that the reason the lions did not eat Daniel was not that they were not hungry, but undoubtedly it took several days to gather all of these families, and they probably did not feed them all to the lions on the same day, for this could easily have been upwards of 600 people! There may also have been more than one lions’ den in the city. At any rate, a clear message was sent to the whole world that one should not “mess with” this king!
25. Then King Daryawesh wrote to all the peoples, nations, and language-groups who inhabited the whole earth: “May your well-being be doubled!
26. “From my presence, a decree is being issued that in every dominion of my kingdom, [all] will come to tremble and shrink back in fear from before the Elohim of Daniel, for He is the Elohim of life and endures forever, and His Kingdom is the one which will not be destroyed, and His dominion [will last] until the end.
The one which will not be destroyed: An allusion back to Nevukhadnetzar’s dream, which apparently Daryawesh knew more about than Nevukhadnetzar’s own grandson had! A king wise enough to pull off a nearly bloodless capture of the world’s best-fortified city would certainly be familiar with the history of the areas that concerned him. While he did not worship YHWH exclusively, nor even mandate that anyone else actually worship Him, he did tell them to at least stay clear of bothering any of His people! (Compare the decree of Koresh in Ezra 6:3-12. Koresh also recognized YHWH as the Elohim of Heaven in Ezra 1:2.)
27. “He restores and extricates, and He works signs and wonders in the skies and on land, who has delivered Daniel from the paw of the lions.”
28. And this [same] Daniel was made successful during the reign of Daryawesh and during the reign of Koresh the Persian.
Successful: or prosperous. Historybooks place Koresh’s reign from 559-530 B.C.E., so that this verse would seem to be only 56 years into the exile, but from chapter 9 we know that Daniel was still alive when the 70th year was approaching. (See Yirm. 25:11-12; 29:10) Koresh was the one who would allow the Jews to rebuild the Temple. But while YHWH greatly praised those who went back to the Land well before the decreed 70 years was up, showing their zeal and the priority they placed on the restoration of YHWH’s glory through the rebuilding of the Temple, Ezra 4:5 tells us that the people living in the Land of Israel caused much trouble for those who Koresh had allowed to return, all the way through the reign of Artaxerxes, until Daryawesh II took the throne. The prophets encouraged the people to restart work, and when the authorities asked them what right they had to do so, they appealed to Koresh’s decree. A search was made and the document found in the archives of Ecbatana, and Daryawesh II reaffirmed it. The Temple was therefore not completed until 516 B.C.E., exactly 70 years after the second and complete exile took place in 586 B.C.E., in which many were taken who had been left behind in the first wave when Daniel was taken. The 70-year desolation of Jerusalem was counted form the second deportation, so Daniel’s career may have lasted at least 81 years from the time he was taken to Bavel. This “first year of Koresh” might be the first year of his sole reign, which lasted only seven years (starting from 538 B.C.E., when the brother of Koresh’s father Cambyses, who is also called Cyaxares, as the first 22 years were of co-regency in Media with Cyaxares, rather than Koresh’s son-on-law Daryawesh. This would make the chronology less problematic, but still would not place the year of Koresh’s accession to the throne 70 years after 1:1, but only 60, though some chronologies would set the beginning of Nebukhadnetzar’s reign some seven years earlier. In this case, what Daniel “continued” in until year 1 of Koresh (1:21) was probably only the same position he had held, rather than meaning his life ended at that point. Since Daniel recognized (11:1) that the exile was nearly over in the first year of Daryawesh the Mede, it appears that Daniel’s career was indeed long enough to span the lives of both Daryawesh I and II, for the Daryawesh that preceded Koresh came too early for the end of the exile. Yet a third Daryawesh (Codomanus) was conquered by Alexander the Great over 200 years after Koresh took the throne. (See note on 2:39.)
CHAPTER 7
1. In the first year of Bel’shatzar, king of Bavel, Daniel had a dream and saw visions of his head upon his bed. Then he wrote down the dream, relating the main aspects.
This verse is the transition from the historical to apocalyptic genre which characterizes the rest of the book. The Hebrew root word underlying “dream” means “to restore to health” or “bind firmly”. The word for “visions” connotes gazing at and contemplating, suggesting that Daniel was in a semi-conscious state, paying close attention to and even actively analyzing his dream as it came. Yaaqov recognized that Yosef carried the gifting in his generation because of his dreams. Like him, prior to this Daniel has been the interpreter of dreams; now he is the one having dreams. This one bears strong parallels to Nevukhadnetzar’s dream (which YHWH may have shown to Daniel as a dream as well.) It comes from a very different angle, but adds details to the message Nevukhadnetzar received. He wrote it down while it was fresh in his memory, but did not give us every detail, but only the salient ones.
2. Daniel responded by saying, “As I was watching in my vision during the night, lo and behold, the four winds of the heavens burst forth, stirring up the Great Sea.
Great Sea: The Hebrew and Aramaic name for the Mediterranean. It is the Land of Israel’s western boundary. But it is also a picture throughout Scripture of the Gentile nations (e.g., Y’hezq’El 26:3), specifically when they are in a state of unrest (Yeshayahu 57:20) as here, so we do not need to fret about how Babylon or Persia can be construed to be Mediterranean nations; for the latter two, the connection is very clear. With this motif we can also say that Israel is the “boundary for the sea, that the waters should not overflow their banks”. (Prov. 8:29) Winds and sea are often referred to together in Scripture. But the word for “wind” in Hebrew also means spirit, which can be related to drive, motivation, prevailing attitude (known in German as zeitgeist—spirit of the times). It is not coincidental that there are four winds and four beats here. Thus each of the four kingdoms operates in a different spirit—with different priorities. “Spirit” often also refers to the unseen realm. So behind each of the four kingdoms making up Nevukhadnetzar’s statue is a different spirit which is attached to it. Thus, Nevukhadnetzar’s dream revealed that, on the literal level, there would be four kingdoms of men. After Nevukhadnetzar, they would decline in greatness. But Daniel’s dream shows another side of this progression: not a great man falling, but behind men’s politics where spirits as wild as these terrible beasts lie, and the result of all this is more positive. To men, these are great empires—often called classical, the forerunners of modern culture and thought. And this they are. But from the perspective of Hebrew people in exile, they must ultimately be conquered, or at least taken under authority. The intrigues and vicissitudes of human empires is also the playing out of YHWH’s enemies destroying one another.
3. “Then four powerful animals came up out of the sea, each being different from the other[s].
Every one of these beasts will prove to have some connection to Israel’s exile, symbolized by the “night” in which Daniel dreamed. (v. 2) Jewish commentators have traditionally taken the view that Shlomoh’s statement that “what has been is what will be” (Qoheleth/Eccles. 1:9) as a rule for interpreting prophecy, making this very relevant to us today.
4. “The one out front was like a lion, and it had arched wings like an eagle. I kept watching until its wings were plucked off and it was lifted up from the earth and stood up on two feet like a man, and a man’s heart was given to it.
One out front: first, foremost, or earliest. It was the equivalent of the statue’s head in Nevukhadnetzar’s dream. Arched: or, elevating. Undoubtedly Daniel recognized this as Bavel, specifically as represented by Nevukhadnetzar, because he had had claws and hair like eagles’ feathers. He was then given a man’s heart—that is, concern for the poor whom he had previously mistreated. The winged lion was also a common symbol of that land. Yirmeyahu also uses both the lion and the eagle to describe that nation (4:7; 48:40), and YHWH had said back in Deut. 28:49 that if Israel turned away from YHWH, He would send a nation as swift as an eagle to take us into exile. Though he would be told (v. 17) that each beast represented a king(dom), since this vision came to Daniel before the events of chapter 5 (see verse 1 of the present chapter), he would still not yet have known the identity of the nation that would follow Bavel:
5. “Then, lo and behold, [there was] another animal—a second—comparable to a bear, and its raised itself up on one side, and there were three ribs in its mouth, between its teeth, and they gave such a command to it: ‘Rise up and devour much flesh!’
The second represents Persia, which conquered Bavel. The root word for the word for “bear” in Hebrew is “to move slowly”. It is not normally the way of a bear to be vicious except when starving or when derived of her cubs. It rarely devours flesh other than fish, being vegetarian otherwise. Persia indeed conquered with very little blood shed. Much flesh was not to be devoured until Haman came along, but the flesh he expected to be devoured and that which was actually devoured were not the same. (See the book of Hadassah/Esther.) Rashi notes that, in verse 5, the word for “bear” (dov) is spelled without a “vav,” and therefore could be a form of diva’, the Aramaic equivalent of ze’ev (wolf), for the kingdom of Persia was also called a wolf, as it is said: (Jer. 5:6): “Therefore a lion smote them, a wolf of the deserts spoils them.” Within Israel, the tribe associated with a wolf is Binyamin, from which Mordekhai and Hadassah descended; thus the wolf was overcome by another wolf! As for the “three ribs inside its mouth between its teeth”, Jewish Sages explained that three provinces were constantly rebelling against it [i.e., Persia] and making peace with it; sometimes it would swallow them and sometimes spit them out. That is the meaning of “in its mouth between its teeth,” sometimes outside its teeth, sometimes inside (Kid. 72a). The ribs protect the heart, and, interestingly, Hoshea 13:8 speaks of YHWH meeting the disobedient not in Yehudah (as here), but Efrayim, like a bear attacking like a lion and ripping open the enclosure of the heart. But Hebraically, prophecies need not be limited to a single fulfillment. Often there are repeated fulfillments of the same pattern, which is one reason the specifics are often left ambiguous. In modern times, it is Britain that is regarded as the lion, and the U.S. as the eagle, and where but on the very soil of ancient Babylon is there an alliance between the two? And now there is talk of its wings being plucked—U.S. troops being withdrawn, leaving the lion there alone because of too much “bad blood” between Iraq and the Americans. Being stood up on two feet could certainly refer to the new government being established there which is often being told, “You are going to have to stand up on your own”, and what is the nature of this government? Democracy—the “heart of a man”, which always wants to be independent and go its own way. It is eroding the Land of Israel by allowing civil marriages (so that it does not matter who one marries), removing restrictions on the sale of pork, and allowing shops to be open on the Sabbath. It is interesting that the “bear” --Russia—is also trying to take a stronger hand in middle eastern politics again as its “cubs”, former Soviet republics which are also Islamic, are being used as pawns for the interests of both superpowers and terrorists.
6. “In the tracks of this, as I was watching, there came another—like a leopard, but with four bird-like wings on its back, and the animal also had four heads, and sovereignty was granted to it.
The leopard was Greece, beginning with Alexander the Great, who conquered Daryawesh III per 1 Maccabees 1:1. Spots are what stands out about a leopard. (Yirmeyahu 13:23) In fact, the Hebrew word for leopard comes from a root meaning to spot or stain as if by dripping. Rashi says it is called a leopard “because it issued decrees upon Israel [which were] spotted and varied one from the other”. (Antiochus’ policies were very different from those of his predecessors, especially Alexander, who treated the Jews with great respect). Ron Johnston and W. Slattery note that “as a predator a leopard has to be very smart to survive. It is fast, stealthy, and sneaks up on its prey and then suddenly pounces on it. Sometimes it will hide in a tree and wait for unsuspecting prey to come by underneath, and it will drop down upon it and kill it. It uses its claws to hold the prey under control and subdue it and then grasps the throat of its victim with its sharp teeth to suffocate it... After the prey is dead, it will tear it to shreds and consume it. This is comparable to Alexander the Great, who was a very smart general and possessed all of these characteristics.” The leopard is the scrappiest of the big cats, and has brazen intelligence. (Most of the classical philosophers were Greek.) Wings: signifying rapid conquest. Alexander did all of his conquering within a span of only 12 years, dying very young, despite a proclamation by an oracle in Egypt that he was the son of Zeus. The four heads are the four generals to whom Alexander, having no clear heir, bequeathed his empire: Cassander, Lysimakhus, Ptolemy, and Seleukus. They ended up having four “sub-kingdoms”, though the first lasted only 19 years until Cassander was killed by Lysimakhus, who in turn was killed by Seleukus. The latter three were conquered by the Romans one by one over a period of 138 years. Out of Seleukus’ kingdom sprang the Antiokhus dynasty, which was a thorn in Yehudah’s side, precipitating the events now commemorated at the feast of Hanukkah. Sovereignty was granted: Most nations, and even some of the Jews (as 1 Maccabees tells us), accepted Hellenistic reforms as a welcome innovation, and did not oppose this takeover. It formed the foundation for many modern governments, for it spawned democracy—itself a “spotted” pattern since it is practiced in many places yet without a common head. It was never as far-reaching in Greece or Rome as it is today; commoners rarely had a say in government, and the Senate still did what it wanted despite the public’s wishes. But it has spread and nearly taken over the world now. The Chinese counter-revolution gave credit for its victory to the “goddess of democracy”. Even many Arab countries are experimenting with this style of government, though most Muslims recognize even better than much of Yehudah that this form of government is not fully compatible with their holy books or ours.
7. “In its tracks, as I watched in the visions of the night, here came a fourth beast, [that made me] shrink back in fear; it was terrifying and extraordinarily mighty. It had powerful teeth of iron. It devoured and pulverized, and whatever remained it trampled with its feet. And it was different from all the animals that had come ahead of it, and it had ten horns.
Terrifying: from a word equivalent to the Hebrew word for hips or loins, hinting at the connotation of making one incontinent by the extremity of the terror. It is not compared to any animal known to man like those that came before it, even though those were not exact definitions of what these others were, but only resembled them to a degree, with the noted differences. The word for horns could also mean tusks; could he have been seeing an elephant? They were used by the Greeks in battle, and at some point the Persians used them as well, since their empire also stretched to India, but possibly not as early in the empire as Daniel lived. Of could Daniel have been seeing a Roman war machine, which combined a battering ram, archers’ tower, and catapult into one and was covered with animal hides, therefore looking like a nondescript beast? History tells us that the Greeks were conquered by Rome, which nonetheless adopted many Greek ways, not the least of which was leaving the Greek language as the lingua franca. Different from all: This beast would be different from anything the Middle East had seen. Though Rome took on the Greek language, pantheon, and form of government, it did not adopt its military techniques. Alexander the Great took on the dress, demeanor, diet, and some customs of the people he conquered, and even made offerings to their deities; it almost seemed they had conquered him, and that was probably part of his strategy. Rome was vicious and overpowered those it conquered, letting them know that they were in charge and everyone simply had to get used to it. Its teeth of iron represent its iron chariots and great strength. While YHWH had said He would send a lion, a wolf, and a leopard against His people (Yirmeyahu 5:6), this beast was not included; this one, in a way different from all others, was invited by Yehudah itself. Yehudah (under the Hasmonean dynasty) solicited an alliance from Rome to help it overcome the Greco-Syrian Seleukids. The Book of 1 Maccabees shows how Rome considered anyone who requested a favor from it to be eternally in its debt and its subject. By 63 B.C.E., the same year Rome conquered the Ptolemaic kingdom, Rome also annexed Judea and the Hasmonean dynasty ended, the government being turned over to Herod. In Hoshea 13, where YHWH reiterates the three animals with which He would come against us, but when He mentions the wild beast, He says Israel has done this to itself. The Northern Kingdom, in a less obvious way than Yehudah, did bring itself under the subjection of Rome as well. Yet Hoshea 13 links this with the birthpangs, traditionally a description of the Messianic kingdom.
8. “And while I was contemplating the horns, lo and behold, another horn—a little one—came up between them, and three of the earlier horns were uprooted from before it, and lo and behold, on this horn there were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth saying masterly things.
Rome was a pure republic—still riding on the wave of Greek democracy—until Julius Caesar came to power, so we can see why Rashi would consider the rise of Caesar to be the place to begin identifying the ten kings. He counts Titus, who destroyed the Temple, as the eleventh Caesar “about whom the Rabbis, of blessed memory, said (Gittin 56b) that he blasphemed and berated and entered the Heykhal with brazenness” (v. 8). (One of the Triumvirate, Octavian/Augustus, did become sole emperor thereafter, which may be why Rashi does not count it separately.) The caesars that followed would have less of a direct relation to Israel (Yehudah) as a nation. Holding, counting the Triumvirate as one, counts Vespasian as the eleventh, for three Caesars (Galba, Otho, and Vitellius) died in rapid succession just before he rose to power, though he does not seem to be the cause of their demise, but only benefited from it. It must be remembered that Titus destroyed the Temple of YHWH while Vespasian still reigned, then became emperor himself later. While earlier emperors of Rome had been hesitant to come down on Yehudah, Titus hated the Jews, because their zealots killed the governors Vespasian had appointed right one the streets, and after that there was large-scale rebellion. Like the eyes of a man: as opposed to a “god”. Vespasian (Titus’ father) should never have been emperor by the precedents set by his predecessors, who were all descendants of the founders of Rome. He was not from this upper caste. Masterly: or haughty, arrogant. Or it may simply mean he is a great orator. The Roman Empire bled into a world dominated by the Roman Catholic Church--again a “beast unlike the others” for it had worldwide political power while not being a nation at all. It maintained the same spirit of devouring the whole earth through its missionary efforts, and if its daughter Protestantism is really as different as it claims, why does it continue to observe the holy days that Rome imposed rather than YHWH’s appointed times, and why has it not done away with all of Rome’s pagan doctrines, such as the trinity? While Rome literally destroyed the Temple, Christianity has perpetuated its demise by its doctrine that the Torah, which mandated this sanctuary, is outdated and has been annulled. It tramples with its feet: In the first fulfillment, this may parallel YHWH’s promise to Israel that “wherever you set your foot, I will give it to you.” I.e., it is conquering all this territory. But feet are an idiom for YHWH’s pilgrimage festivals (Ex. 23:14), and it was through pasting a Christian face on pagan festivals that Constantine was able to unite the Roman Empire and subvert the called-out community of the Messiah from its original form. Is the latter-day version of this beast, then, simply Christianity in all its forms? If we look at a map of the world barely over a century ago, it was Christian nations that controlled the whole world economically and politically. And like Rome, it was Hellenism (this time among the Jews) from which Christianity developed. Or would the Chinese dragon, whose production of iron is more than twice that of its next two competitors combined and which has staggering military potential? Some reason that it is Islam, in that it differs from all other peoples and uses terror as its greatest weapon. Who else in today’s world can stomach beheadings—much less broadcast them? It is too big a player on the world scene now to ignore this possibility. But unlike the other nations mentioned here, Islam did not come against Israel as a conqueror but to rescue sites holy to both itself and Yehudah from such abuses by the pagan Crusaders as turning the Temple Mount into a garbage dump. We must remember that Christianity often forced conversions at swordpoint as well. Until England broke away, the Church had a standing army, and still does, though today it is mainly ceremonial. And of course the Jesuits remain as a covert army. Missionaries did not precede the armies, but followed them; priests were brought in to leep the people in line after conversion. Islam’s opposition to Israel is a very recent phenomenon and has to do more with land and Israel’s political alliances with the West than with major religious or cultural differences. Islam was traditionally much more hospitable to the Jews than anyone else until modern times. Some Muslim countries might play into a larger political alliance; the top ten nations economically and militarily now include Pakistan. (The others are the U.S.A., Russia, China, France, Britain, Japan, India, Germany, and Brazil.) That is still the only one of these ten that does not have a Christian majority and tradition (or at least have Christianity as its fastest-growing faith like China and Japan), and all are now democratic. Democracy has replaced the Gospel as what it now spreads. Could it be an alliance of these ten nations? We also cannot rule out the possibility that the political nation of Israel might soon be in one of those top positions since it is strong militarily and economically despite its size. Or, as some have suggested, a dividing of the whole world into ten economic regions such as we see in the European Community and the North American Free Trade Agreement? It may be that this beast was like the “wolf in sheep’s clothing” that Yahshua alluded to. Torah-observant Israel appears from prophecy to ultimately be the only holdout against whatever this alliance is, since joining it will in some way mean violating YHWH’s commands. Daniel was probably not withholding information about this extremely foreign beast; he probably genuinely did not understand what it was. He says the vision is sealed until the time to which it pertains (12:9), but these are some of the elements by which we may be able to identify Rome’s successor which, like the toes of iron mingled with clay, is partly still Roman in some way.
9. “And I kept watching until thrones were set in place, and down sat the Ancient of Days, whose clothing was as white as snow, and the hair of his head was like pure wool. His throne was like a flame of fire, and its wheels like burning lamps.
Set in place: These multiple thrones may be the multiple horns of the fourth beast, which elevates itself to the place of judgment. An alternate reading is that they will be “thrown down”. This may fit the context better. Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 43:13 identifies YHWH as this Ancient of Days. White as snow…pure wool: There is no hint of defilement in Him—not even a “shadow due to turning”! Wheels like burning lamps: It seems strange for a throne to be on wheels, but this links us to the chariot of fire that took Eliyahu. It was seeing Eliyahu depart in this chariot that allowed Elisha to receive the double portion of Eliyahu’s spirit. The imagery of the vision in Y’hezq’El (Ezekiel) chapter 1 makes it clear that these wheels are the calendar that governs the life of the four-faceted camp of Israel, which is YHWH’s “vehicle” to operate in this world. As the wheels come around to the right times, we access everything ancient by “riding” on this calendar in the cycles prescribed by YHWH. He is enthroned on these patterns. So His title is “Ancient of Days” because of the days He established for us, and in them we find the ancient and eternal path and become the people we are meant to be. On this chariot we can ride to our Home I the Kingdom.
10. “A stream of fire issued and was flowing out from in front of him. A thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand [times] ten thousand stood up in his presence. The court was seated, and books were opened up.
Thousands: Another view of the camp of Israel gathered in YHWH’s presence. Court: This may be where the other thrones fit in. In the Messianic king’s “replica” of this on earth, it is streams of water that issue from in front of the throne room. (Y’hezq’El 47; compare Deut. 9:21.) So water is an earthly picture of heavenly fire. Both are symbols of the Torah which “goes forth” from Yerushalayim. Court: or possibly simply “the Judge”. Books: This is clearly occurring on Yom Kippur, the day of final judgment, when the King returns from being in the field and again takes His throne, and the books of the righteous, wicked, and sinners (those whose place in one of the other two books has not yet been determined) are opened. It is clear which book this beast was in! The tide starts to turn for Israel on that day, because we are seeking repentance, looking for YHWH on His wheeled throne to deal with the wrong directions we have been taking and put us on the right path. On this particular Yom Kippur, we may truly fulfill the Torah’s commands in the restored sanctuary—whether the Tent of Appointment or the Temple building—for Yom Kippur is largely about receiving forgiveness in regard to the holy things that we have misused. (Lev. 5:15) How can we repent for defiling them if we do not actually have them? Many have already been built, and the Tent does still exist, hidden in a cave. When this takes place depends on the preparations we make. This fourth beast got YHWH’s attention in a way that none of the other three did, for it elicited a strong response from Him. (Verse 21 gives us another clue as to why.) It had no intention of repentance. In it the spirit of Bavel, of unity without YHWH, has come to its fullness. They are realizing that the only way to unite mankind is to lay aside all our differences, and the largest factor in that is religion. Remember John Lennon’s song “Imagine”, in which he envisions a world without religion. The politicians are already, in so many words, saying, “Stop putting your faith in your holy books, and put your faith in one another.” They have finally nearly reached the heavenlies, and are again in YHWH’s face, standing against all that YHWH has said is true. At this giddy time in which men have made mice immortal simply by intervening in regard to diseases. They are but a step away from claiming to pack eternal life in a mere shot in the arm. Yet YHWH created all of this, and they do not acknowledge Him! The cup is full, so finally He has to make a ruling. Since the Tower of Bavel itself, nothing outside of Israel has caught His attention to such an extent. He simply needs to hold it up before the proper calendar on which his throne rests, and the verdict of “weighed and found wanting” is again self-evident. It is interesting that the European Union is shamelessly modeling its new headquarters in Strasbourg, France, after the Tower of Bavel, and shamelessly uses the imagery of a loose woman riding a beast as its symbol. And do not imagine that any collaborators from Yehudah or Israel who remain aligned with it rather than with YHWH will survive when it falls.
11. “From that time on I was watching by reason of the sound of the great words that the horn was saying. I kept watching until the beast was slain and his body destroyed and committed to the burning fire.
Daniel is transfixed by this strange beast’s arrogance—this big talk from a little horn whose mouth just keeps running--for its words bring judgment against Israel, Torah, and the prophets. Its words are what make it worthless. A salient precedent is Marcion, who more overtly than most Christians wrote off all that did not agree with his interpretation of Paul, excising not only the Torah and the prophets, but even the Gospels and especially Yaaqov (James). But the New Testament taken out of its true context, the Torah and the prophets, could easily be used to justify the world order envisioned by this fourth beast. It would be a very unifying thing to do away with the “Old Testament” and have only the “peace, love, and understanding” that they think will come with removing all those “rules, judgment, and bondage”. But in fact this is nothing but lawlessness, and nothing kindles YHWH’s fire more quickly. Committed: or, provided, given, fed. Undoubtedly the execution is on account of its arrogant words. Some call this little horn “the beast”, but notice that it is just part of a much larger beast. This appears to be the same picture as the entire statue turning to dust and blowing away. This fourth beast is the equivalent of the part that was struck directly by the stone cut out without hands.
12. “As for the rest of the animals, their dominance was deposed, but their lives were allowed to continue [for] a period until a set time.
The rest: The first three kingdoms (Bavel, Persia, and Greece) which, in the words of James Patrick Holding, were “given extra time to live, though stripped of their authority. This is seen as fulfilled, under any paradigm, in that these kingdoms continued to exist, albeit absorbed, by the power that conquered them.” All four have kept ruling all along in a way. The first three empires outlast “Rome” in its final form, but are humbled and subdued. They seem to have more merit worthy of living on, but Edom will be dedicated to destruction. Period…time: Or, until a season and a year. This refers to a particular appointment. Yeshayahu 34:5-8 links “the DAY of YHWH’s vengeance and the YEAR of recompenses” with the destruction of Edom. Ovadyah 18 says there will be no survivors of the house of Esau; Israel will dispossess the remnant of Edom, per Amos 9:12. Why are the others allowed to live on? This brings back to mind YHWH’s promise to dispossess the inhabitants of our Land little by little lest wild beasts take over again. (Deut. 7:22) There is profit in leaving them alive because to fully take the Land there must be time for Israel to catch up on its learning. As after Purim in the book of Hadassah/Esther, there will be a great influx of foreigners who join the lost sheep, many of whom themselves will only then be discovering that they are Israel. While the Church as an entity will be destroyed, there will be many aspects of Christianity which did accomplish beneficial things, not the least of which was putting at least a translation of the Hebrew Scriptures in nearly every home. Once the Church is gone, these valid aspects of Christian experience can be brought back into their proper context. The Christians who are left must be trained out of their Babylonian, Persian, or Greek ways and learn to be Hebrews. Certain conditions which are not ideal will need to be left intact for a time so the kid is not boiled in its mother’s “milk”. We will need at least one full cycle of festivals experienced by all of united Israel as a whole, so she can be mature enough to send the instruction out from Yerushalayim to all nations. (Mikha 4:2) Contrary to popular belief, it is not the lion and lamb that lie down together in the Kingdom, but the wolf and the lamb, as well as the leopard and the goat-kid; the young lion will be with the fattened calf, and the cow with the bear. (Yeshayahu 11:6, 7) So all of the animals in the early part of this chapter are mentioned again here—this time both the wolf and bear, which may give a clue as to what the fourth beast is. Aside from the literal sense in which the animals stop their predation, this also seems to symbolize YHWH’s people having peace with what remains of these nations, who will by then have been subdued by the Messiah as the Torah goes forth from Yerushalayim. They become mild peoples without their former tendencies (v. 12), as the child plays over the snake’s den, hinting that the “serpent” is indeed gone. (Rev. 20:2)
13. “As I watched in the visions of the night, lo and behold, with the clouds of the skies, [one] like the son of a man was coming. And he came all the way up to the Ancient of Days, and they allowed him to approach His presence.
Clouds: Some see these as great multitudes of people; Scripturally we can also see clouds as a sign of impending judgment associated with the Day of YHWH. (Y’hezq’el 30:1-3; Yo’el 2:1-2; Tz’fanyah 1:14-15) Son of a man: This has always been interpreted as being the King Messiah. Yahshua indeed often used this term “son of man” for himself. (Mat. 8:20; 9:6; 11:19; 12:8, 32, 40; 13:37, etc., and most directly in 16:13.) He uses the term often in regard to end-time prophecy. (Mat. 10:23; 16:27-28; 19:28; 24:27-44; 25:13, 31; 26:64, etc.) The Aramaic term here is “bar enash” (emphasizing mortality) rather than the more common Hebrew, Ben Adam”. This reminds us that while Messiah is called “son of Elohim” to indicate his kingship, he is not himself an elohim, but is the son of a mortal man, David, and was himself mortal. In the first prophetic dream, the four kingdoms are depicted as a man, and what destroys it is something that is not part of him—a stone. In the second vision, they are depicted as beasts, and to again show the contrast between these kingdoms and the one that displaces them, it is a man who defeats them. The foundation stone for the kingdom is therefore identified not with a magic angel or some mystical concept; it is not a comet from the sky that brings the demise of these kingdoms, but ordinary people. Allowed him to approach: or, summoned him to come near. Notice that he did not have authority to do so otherwise. His right to approach, as with Queen Esther, is conferred on him by one higher than he.
14. “And sovereignty, honor, and kingly authority were given to him, so that all the peoples, nations, and languages would serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away, and his kingdom [is one] which will not become corrupt!
The following sequence of Scriptures may form one seamless narrative: Acts 1:6-9 (Yeshua is received by clouds), verse 13 here (he comes with the clouds), Z’kharyah 3:1-8 (Y’shua the high priest appears before the Ancient of Days and is given a clean turban by YHWH’s messenger and is told that if he guards what is entrusted to him, he will rule all of YHWH’s house and be given access among those attending His throne), then this verse, where he is given dominion. All the peoples, etc.: This is phrased much like the proclamation regarding Nevukhadnetzar’s sundial image (chapter 3), at which time he, however, took that level of authority upon himself, going beyond what he was given. All of these other empires that had ruled many nations were replaced by this one through the authority conferred by an unearthly court. Note the clear distinction between Yeshua and the One who gives him his kingdom. Languages: In 3:4 and 4:1, when Nevukhadnetzar addressed those “of all languages”, was the edict issued in 70 languages? Probably not; in ancient times, only kings had the capital to sponsor great building projects, and whatever other wealth there might have been, they could tax. So the kings set the rules. Chaldean was the language of the throne, and any who wanted to deal with this king on any meaningful level were expected to understand it. Greek was the lingua franca in Yeshua’s day, though Rome already ruled, and later it was Latin; today it is English. But having dominion over languages connotes not treating them all as equals, but the authority to impose his own language on any who wish to trade or converse with him. In the days of the Kingdom, the language of the throne will be Hebrew, as borne out by Tz’fanyah 3:8-9, which says YHWH will gather the nations and give them a pure language (the original one). Verse 8 is the only verse in Scripture that includes every Hebrew letter, even the final forms. Peoples on the periphery may still speak their native languages at home, but for anything of global significance, they will need to speak the king’s language. This is the only Kingdom ever which will escape the corruption of power, yet will have absolute power nonetheless—the one big exception to the norms and patterns that men recognize. This is what all who have served despots have longed for throughout all of human history. This coronation ceremony begs the question: who is the authority being transferred from? Verses 11 and 12 provide the context. It is these other beasts from whom it is taken. So we must conclude that the same One who took away their power is also the One who gave it to them in the first place. Why would He give them dominion, seeing how evil they became? In order to bring correction to Israel, and to show them what not to be. (Compare Yeshua’s words in Luke 22:5ff.) Dare we ask how YHWH had a “right” to give them power when He had already promised Avraham that all nations would be blessed through his seed? It is because of Israel’s disobedience that any of these nations were allowed to have predominance. And King Hizqiyahu opened a door for the conquest by showing off his wealth to envoys from Babylon, which was then still a backwater that hardly seemed a threat. YHWH did not give it away; we were the ones who gave the power to the other nations because of the way we failed to care for the widow, orphan, and stranger. We abused the authority we were given, and lost the dominion. But the dominion given to others was only meant to last until one in Israel who was worthy of the throne should again appear on the scene. It belonged to Israel anyway, and all of this was for the sake of Israel. So He is really just taking it back for the royal line of David.
15. “Now I, Daniel, was distressed in my spirit—in the midst of its sheath—and the visions of my head alarmed me.
Sheath: The sheath of the spirit is the body. This was not an “out-of-body experience”. He may have also been saying he had shortness of breath. He was disturbed because he was unsure of whether to believe this could actually come about:
16. “I approached one of those who was standing [by], and inquired of him [about] the reliability of all of this. And he spoke to me, and began to make known to me the meaning of the utterances:
Reliability: or certainty, truthfulness. All of the previous visions were strange and bizarre. Unlike most, Daniel was well-equipped to be trusted with the mystical side, for he did not lose touch with reality while responding to visions and dreams; that most cannot is why there are so few prophets among the millions even in Israel. But this last part of the vision, in contrast with the rest, looks, well, rather ordinary. Just a man receiving a kingdom. It almost seems too real to be true. Can he really trust this? Can he count on something so plain and simple? It is the world, though, that complicates matters; YHWH never intended it to become that way. The end of the story is simply His people under His rule, loving one another and spreading the Torah to the whole world. But to whom does he go for reassurance? Those standing by: The “standing men” were a category of witnesses chosen from among the rulers of Israel to accompany the priests at the Temple for two-week stints each year by turn. So this puts us in a Temple context. Compare Zkh. 3:7; 4:14, where those described are typically thought to be angelic beings, but this is not likely to be accurate, because these are associated with Y’shua the high priest being permitted to walk among them. It speaks there of judging YHWH’s house, which immediately reminds us of another who became the ruler of a house—Pharaoh’s. (Gen. 41:40) And this man could interpret dreams and visions as well as Daniel. Apparently it is Yosef to whom he is going for clarification; who else would be his master in his own field? And today the House of Yosef is being given the same responsibility of being able to interpret these mysteries as the end of the age draws near. But as the time approaches, the interpretation becomes more simple, just like this one did for Daniel. YHWH does not burden us with things He does not equip us to understand.
17. “‘These masterly beasts, of which there are four, are four kings; they will arise out of the earth.
This premise has been assumed in our commentary on the earlier part of the chapter. Now it is stated overtly.
18. “But the ones set apart [to] the Highest will receive the sovereignty, and possess the kingdom into perpetuity—until the age of ages!’
The ones set apart to the Highest: or simply, the highest holy ones. Into perpetuity: i.e., forever.
19. “Then I wanted to know the truth about the fourth beast, which was different from all [the rest] of them—extremely terrifying, its teeth of iron and its claws of bronze, [which] devoured and pulverized, and whatever remained it trampled with its feet,
Iron: a very hard metal, which rarely breaks. Bronze has some advantages over iron in that it corrodes only on the surface and is less brittle. Though archaeologists speak of an iron age and a bronze age, they have found arrowheads made of both contemporaneously at the same locations, for each had its advantages. The claws of bronze are not mentioned in the previous account. The word for “claws” seems to be rooted in a word that means “to return”, hinting at the Roman Empire’s revival after its seeming decline and fall. Bronze, especially as seen in the Tabernacle and Temple, is symbolic of judgment (something that can stand the fire), but in contrast to the gold and silver components, the bronze is inferior and earthy, as seen in the part of the Tabernacle that touched the earth being also made of bronze. (Ex. 27:10) Feet are often a picture of religious holidays (Ex. 23:14), and the world did indeed fall for Rome’s pagan feasts, most of which were actually carry-overs from the previous three empires, and Rome only intensified the debauchery, drunkenness, and infant sacrifice. Its new year was when their daughters would lose their virginity in its temples. There was nothing eternal about any of these; they were all focused on base desires and getting their “kicks”. Again, they were concerned with the things of earth, and very appealing to the masses. This is why it felt compelled to perpetuate these days with a Christianized veneer, for only those with a maturity spawned by a vision of the Kingdom would be willing to give them up.
20. “and about the ten horns that were on its head, and the other that came up, and from before which three fell—that is, the same horn that had eyes and a mouth that said masterly things, and whose appearance was stronger than its fellows.
21. “As I watched, that horn waged war with the set-apart ones, and prevailed against them
YHWH permitted it to prevail for a set time. Compare Yirmeyahu’s teaching about “Yaaqov’s trouble” (30:7) and Yahshua’s message about the “beginning of the birth pangs”. (Mat. 24:8ff) We have seen countless “tremors” in the history of Rome’s attacks on both Jews and Protestants who had started on their way back to the Torah in one way or another. During the Roman Empire before Constantine, when we read of her attacks on “Christianity”, we must remember that at that time the followers of Yahshua were more Torah-based and conscious of being the scattered tribes of Israel. The Catholics killed many more Protestants than Jews, so all of Israel (those who were aware of being Israel and those who merely wanted to get back to a more Scripturally-based religion) has shared in this persecution. Anyone who broke from the Beast’s influence has felt her wrath. (The Puritans were Sabbath-keepers and penalized anyone under their jurisdiction who celebrated Christmas. The New World was settled more for the purpose of freedom from Rome’s authority than for economic reasons, at first.) We have to walk into the “Reed Sea” until we are up to our necks before the waters part. Again He sets things up for maximal credit to go to the only One who can get us out of such a mess. All our bridges burned, at the point at which Israel actually starts losing to the system, and despairs of being able either to continue to fulfill our calling or simply survive, YHWH intervenes:
22. “until the Ancient of Days arrived, and judgment was given for the set-apart ones [belonging to] the Highest, and the season was reached that the set-apart ones took possession of the kingdom.
Judgment: Rashi interprets it as “revenge”. The best way to understand it may be “justice”. As in the days of Haman, the injustice appears first as a setup to form a more stark backdrop for the light when it comes. Exodus 19:6 and Psalm 34:9 clearly identify these set-apart ones as Israel. It becomes the new world empire (as detailed in v. 27). No matter when this was written, it was long after David and Shlomoh, so this kingdom is yet to come. After the Greek Empire, the Hasmoneans under Yochanan Hiyrcanus took much the same territory as David, but this was only the tribe of Yehudah, not all Israel. Here and in verse 18, the kingdom is given to them; in v. 14 it is given to one man. This is not a contradiction; we all need the Messianic king in order to receive a kingdom, but this is also probably the source for Paul’s concept of many people forming “one new man”. (Ephesians 2:15) While the Messiah is the head, he needs a body in order to carry out his work. What Daniel sees as one man, “Yosef” interprets as a group—or possibly one man with his army. What does it mean that the Ancient of Days “arrived” (or “came”)? This is not talking about an incarnation such as Christianity espouses, for the Messiah is clearly separate from and under the authority of this Ancient of Days. (vv. 13-14) It is not speaking of the Messiah’s return, but of the Sh’kinah, a visible manifestation of YHWH’s special presence, such as was seen at the dedication of the Tabernacle (Lev. 9:24) and the Temple (2 Chron. 7:1-3). The Babylonians or Romans could not have destroyed either Temple if YHWH had not “departed” from it first. The true temple had already been destroyed as His people became more and more fragmented, less unified, and less holy. YHWH simply grew tired of the contradiction inherent in self-centered worship and the abuse of His House, so He let it be dismantled. We must return to Him before He will return to us. (Mal. 3:7) Until His people are set apart, He will not come down to a context which would still be unclean. He may pay us great attention, but we do not by any means have His full presence as we once did. He showed up previously at Sukkoth when all of Israel was present and in unity. King Shlomoh realized he could not kid anyone into thinking YHWH could truly fit in one temple, no matter how large or grand. (1 Kings 8:27) And if we rebuild not just the physical structure but the real Building He wants to inhabit, He can again show up in our midst in such a vivid way, which will also send our oppressors fleeing.
23. “This is what he said: ‘The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that will come about upon the earth, which will be different from all [other] kingdoms, and will devour the whole earth and trample it and shatter it.
This is the response of the one Daniel asked about the fourth kingdom. Rome has a mythical history about being founded by twins, one of whom killed the other. Jewish tradition says Rome came from Edom, or Esau, who was a twin who wanted to kill his brother. While the connection sounds far-fetched due to the distances involved, as James Long points out, the Romans have only legends about their own origins, not knowing the details. They were not written down until 300 years after the fact. But there are detailed stories in such documents as the Book of Yasher (apparently of later origin than the one mentioned in Y’hoshua, unless simply annotated) that show how this migration took place. It speaks of Tsefo, Esau’s grandson, who had such enmity with Yaaqov’s sons that he wanted to attack them with an army while they were in Egypt. When his king, Angeas (probably the Aeneas of Rome’s “Iliad”, the Aeneid) declined because of a conjured prophecy by the then 15-year-old Bilaam, he emigrated to Kittim (which many consider Cyprus or one of the other Greek islands, but Yasher 10:16 tells us, “The children of Kittim are the Romin who dwell in the valley of Canopia by the river Tiberu." The similarity to Tiber is obvious; Targums Onqelos and Yerushalmi concur.) There he became a war-hero, and was made king there the 61st year after Yaaqov came to Egypt (c. 1699 B.C.E.). The second king after him was names Latinus. (One with this name figures in the Aeneid as well.) Just after Israel entered the Promised Land, Kittim took over the rest of Edom, making the identification literally complete as well. No wonder, then, that Herod the Great, an Idumean (Edomite), took to Rome and vice versa. The Dead Sea Scrolls also often refer cryptically to Rome as Kittim. Linguistically, both in pronunciation and in the Hebrew script used by that day, there is only a very small difference between “-Dom” and “Rom”. Warder Cresson wrote in 1852, “History informs us that ‘Edom was conquered by Albianus, King of Chittim, and Edom became under the children of Chittim from that day;’ and this is the reason the Prophet Isaiah speaks, in his 23rd chapter, connectively of Edom and Chittim as one and the same place and people. (See verses 1st, 12th and 13th, and compare these with Jer. 2:10.)” Edom is said to have kept his wrath against his brother (Israel) perpetually. (Amos 1:11; Y’hezq’El 35:5) This must therefore have a larger meaning than merely the southern part of the land of Jordan, which is currently at peace with Israel. Psalm 137:7-8 credits Edom with destroying Yerushalayim. This did not literally occur, unless we look at Edom in this later form, to which its crown passed. The Jewish sage Abarbanel wrote, "From this you may learn that the prophet (Ovadyah) did not prophesy only against the land of Edom, which is in the neighborhood of the land of Israel, but also against the people which branches off from thence, and is spread through the whole world, and is the people of the Christians in this our day, for they are the children of Edom." So when we think Rome, we also have to think of everything that applies to Esau in Scripture, as one especially close to and yet diametrically opposed to Yaaqov. The Roman church claims it is successor to Israel—heir to its temple, altars, priests. This may be one reason this kingdom is different from the others; it is now a strictly religious authority rather than political as such. It ceases to be the empire of a particular nation, so it becomes difficult to define. Even the Roman army hired so many mercenaries that there ended up being very few true Romans in it. Its name, “catholic”, means “universal” or “all-encompassing”. Its churches had three doors and three aisles so that people from different (pagan and Christian) backgrounds could enter separately, but they all led to the same place inside. Everyone had a little something for themselves in it, but not for YHWH. Its cardinals wear red—the meaning of “Edom”--and as the Edomites lived in the caves made habitable by the Chorites they dispossessed, so cave-like “grottoes” have been very important in Roman Catholicism. The popes claim to have received the scepter from the Jew Peter (Kefa). Long before the Holocaust, the church had its pogroms, killing hundreds of thousands at a time in single countries. Martin Luther loved the Jews one day and hated them the next—like a schizophrenic! Just like Edom, which fought alongside Israel at times and against it at others, vacillating between reconciliation and enmity, and always trying to avoid having to choose sides. Why so much hatred for such a tiny group that, when it did not mind its own business, was doing so much to creatively benefit society at large? The problem was that they taught their children that they had covenant and birthright, and they could prove it even from a Christian Bible. They knew too much in comparison to the Christians who could not study the Bible on their own because it was kept from the masses. Jewish children could easily out-argue aged Christians, because how can one argue against the Torah from the Torah? Yet the church still said it was Israel. (It is only so in the sense that it still holds much of Israel captive.) The simplest way to understand “mystery Babylon” is not in the modern sense of an unsolved puzzle, but in the older sense of what we would call “spiritual Babylon” today. I.e., Rome claims to be the “spiritual Israel”, while having no physical or genealogical claims, so it must create a perceived connection instead. Twins indeed. And the point of contention is the same: the birthright. Islam is now also doing the same, for it claims the birthright of Avraham, saying Ishmael was the son he offered to YHWH. The issue on both fronts is “Who inherits the spiritual crown?” Esau inherited the spirit of Nimrod the hunter (Gen. 10:8). The first spirit connected with the establishment of Bavel worked eventually in Esau—the same pride as in Nevukhadnetzar, who told Yaaqov, “I already have much; I do not need what is yours.” He did not give credit to YHWH, but considered himself already rich with the birthright. By tradition, Esau killed Nimrod and took from him the cloak of Adam. Did he receive a double portion of that spirit like Elisha with Eliyahu? Yaaqov was born hanging onto Esau’s heel, but he must let it go if he is to live as Israel in freedom. Another way in which this kingdom differs from all the others is the final impact. The other empires brought prosperity to their victims, but this one is self-serving, using up all the resources of the lands it conquers, preventing them from being proper stewards of YHWH’s creation. It tramples the world with its feet, which represent religious festivals: many nations today embrace Christmas, its holiday, only for the purpose of capitalism. (The Romans invented shopping malls.)
24. “‘And the ten horns [that come] from this kingdom are ten kings [that] will arise, and another will rise up after them, and he will be different from the previous ones, and he will humble three kings.
As we have seen, at least on one level, this eleventh “horn” represents Titus, who, before he was emperor, destroyed the Temple of YHWH. Skeptics say this was not prophecy at all, but was written during Titus’ own day. The New Testament quotes Daniel, but it was not compiled until well after Titus either. But there were many other apocalyptic writings in Yahshua’s day that also referred to this book, because of the calculations it gives later for when the Messiah would come, thus precipitating much messianic fervor as they saw that time approaching. The Dead Sea scrolls, which included Daniel, were in clay jars dated to some 50 years before Titus, and pottery styles have thus far been the most accurate methods of dating archaeological artifacts. Others see, at least on a prophetic level, a latter-day continuation of Rome, correlating with the feet of iron and clay in Nevukhadnetzar’s dream. If so, there may be a very personal meaning for us very soon:
25. “‘And he will speak words against the Highest, and will wear out the set-apart ones of the Highest, and intends to change the times and laws, and they will be given into his hand until a time, a pair of times, and half a time.
Wear out: or wear down, as Pharaoh did, using up their energy on its own priorities, forcing them to find roundabout ways to fulfill the Torah rather than being able to do things the straightforward, open way, thus creating much emotional and thus physical drain, and/or keeping them constantly on the move as nomads to evade the enforcement of its laws. It may also include decimating their numbers. Intends to change: Rashi interprets this very directly as “He will plan in his heart to cause them [i.e., Israel/Yehudah] to transgress all their appointed times and their laws.” Changing the (times is YHWH’s prerogative alone (2:21); even the pope is not permitted to do so, though he claimed that the only reason he “changed” the Sabbath to Sunday was to prove he had the authority to do so. At first the celebration of Yahshua’s resurrection was tied directly to Passover and the Firstfruits of the Barley Harvest, as it should be, but a church council which excluded all Jewish believers in Messiah deliberately changed the calculation to one based on the vernal equinox and restored the direct connection to that Babylonian festival named for its goddess Ishtar (Easter), thus cutting off many true followers of Yahshua from the feasts He kept. Anything not part of the “universal” is now considered foreign, and to be such a “heretic” (holding any different opinion) often determined who would be killed when the numbers needed to be thinned out. In the 1500s, Pope Gregory also officially changed the calendar to what most of the world uses today. Laws: not the word “Torah”, but one meaning “royal decrees”; i.e., that which a king allows or does not allow. In other words, he tries to take away the priestly prerogative to determine what one may or may not touch, and what is considered right and wrong. Constantine decided that no one would be permitted to work on the day of the sun. Such “blue laws” remain in effect in many places today, continuing to frustrate keepers of the true Sabbath who need to be able to make purchases on Sunday because stores are all closed by the time they get off work on weekdays. Esau is called a “man of the field”, and Yahshua said the field represents the world. Notice the strong emphasis on the world that has come into Christianity through a reading of the “great commission” that does not take into account the fact that Yahshua also told his disciples to target only the lost sheep of the House of Israel, screening carefully those even with whom they ate. In 1865 Pope Leo XII minted a coin with his emblem on one side and a woman with a cup of wine on the reverse, stating in Latin, “The World is her seat.” (Compare Yirmeyahu 51:7.) Edom had little arable land and thus made most of its wealth through trade, and the “indulgences” of Luther’s day were another example of how Edom cum Rome continued to gain its wealth. 2Thess 2:4 tells us that he “sits as Elohim and boasts himself to be Elohim.” The Geneva Study Bible states, “For this name of blasphemy both the Roman Emperors did then challenge to themselves, as Suetonius and Dion do report of Caligula and Domitian: and after them the popes of Rome professed the same of themselves, when they challenged to themselves sovereignty in holy things of which kind of sayings the sixth book of the Decretals, the Clementines, and the Extravagants, are very full. For these men were not content with that which Anglicus wrote in his Poetria (the beginning of which is Papa stupor mundi –‘The pope is the wonder of the world’), Nec Deus es, nec homo, sed neuter es inter utrungue. “Thou art not god, nor art thou man, but neuter mixed of both… But they were bold to take to themselves the very name of [deity], and to accept it given of other: according as… there was made for Sixtus the fourth, when he should first enter into Rome in his papal dignity, a Pageant of triumph, and cunningly fixed upon the gate of the city he should enter at, having written upon it this blasphemous verse: Oraclo vocis mundi moderaris habenas, Et merito in terrs crederis esse Deus. That is, ‘By oracle of thine own voice, the world thou governest all, And worthily a god on earth men think and do thee call.’ These and six hundred the like who can impute to that modesty by which [righteous] men of old would have themselves called the servants of the servants of [Elohim]? Verily either this is a name of blasphemy, or there is none at all.” Time, two times, and half (or a dividing of) a time: often considered three and a half years, or 1,260 days (by the most ancient pattern of 360-day years), as compared with the 1,290 and 1,335 in 12:11, 12. Some note that in symbolic prophecy “each day [stands] for a year", according to Ezekiel 4:5, 6. Rav Saadia Gaon thought that “the times are 480 [years], which is the time from the Exodus from Egypt until the Temple was built, and 410 [years], [which are] the days of the First Temple, totaling 890, and another half of this time, 445, totaling 1,335. [See 12:12] Figure these from the time the daily sacrifice was discontinued until the daily sacrifice will be restored to its place; it was discontinued six years prior to the destruction.” A more modern interpretation, published by the Davenport Seventh Day Adventists, sees the 1,260 years as extending from “538 C.E., when Belisarius, one of Justinian's generals, routed the Ostrogoths, the last of the Arian powers, from the city of Rome.” (Emperor Justinian had proclaimed the Bishop of Rome the head of all churches in 533, but because of the Arian domination of Rome, the pope could not yet actually exercise his civilly recognized power.) “By the military intervention of the Eastern Empire the pope was freed from the dominating influence of states that restrained his activities in the civil sphere.” The list of ten horns leading up to that point posits the three horns that fall as the Heruls, Ostrogoths, and Vandals, (The Catholic emperor Zeno (474 - 491) arranged a treaty with the Ostrogoths in 487 which resulted in the eradication of the kingdom of the Arian Heruls in 493. The Catholic emperor Justinian (527 - 564) exterminated the Arian Vandals in 534 and significantly broke the power of the Arian Ostrogoths in 538.) The account continues, “Exactly 1260 years later, in 1798, the French general Berthier entered Rome, declared a republic, and after taking the pope prisoner, proclaimed the political rule of the Papacy to be at an end... The little horn represents a system, a church-state combination, a religious power that would grasp civil power to enforce certain beliefs and practices.” So it stands to reason that if, on this level, the set-apart ones are no longer “given into his hand”, we should no longer walk in the times and seasons he has set, but fully use our liberty to return to the ones YHWH gave. The captivity to that system may have been part of the curse of our exile, but for YHWH’s sake, now that He has retracted that curse, do not live under any part of it any longer! The beauty of Hebraic perspective is that we do not need to take an “either-or” approach to interpretation. The pattern is established here in deliberately ambiguous terms, to be understood when it needs to be and by those who need to, but it can be fulfilled in all of these, and possibly more, ways, since YHWH has built this pattern into the history of how the powers of the world interact with His people. It can fit on many different occasions, with the outcome the same in all. Many expect that there is another latter-day fulfillment yet to come, in which there would be a literal three and a half years of persecution as this wounded beast, knowing it is in its death throes, bares its claws in a last-ditch effort to rid the earth of its true heirs as haSatan did with Adam and Chawwah so that by default the rule could go back to Lucifer. Since Passover and Sukkoth begin exactly six months apart, the time might begin on one of them and end on the other. There is another possibility, which we hope might prove true: The word for “time” means “period” and, though inherently unspecified, it is sometimes used, as in English, of the woman’s menstrual time, and so this time of wrath might be a much shorter one—only three and a half months—at which point YHWH’s anger is sufficiently piqued that He chooses to cut it off very swiftly.
26. “‘But the court will be seated, and they will take away his power to devastate and to destroy until the end.
In their own minds, the rulers of this inherited empire are not hostile or devious villains with malicious motives, but honestly think they are doing what is right for the world. Of the counterfeit Messiah who will come to the forefront as the counterfeit image’s figurehead, Daniel says, “By peace he will destroy many”. (8:25) And indeed, everywhere we hear cries for "peace" and global unity at the expense of truth or property lines as YHWH has drawn them. There is now a world court, in which Israel is already persona non grata. But now we see that there is a court this one who thinks he has absolute authority, and he will be judged by it, like the Nazis at the Nuremberg trials. How will this court gain this authority on earth? Those who are faithful to Torah have no political clout. The key is in the word “seated”. It is the Aramaic cognate of yashav, from which the word yeshiva (a Torah study center) is derived. The term also refers to settling down, and until Israel settles together and becomes learned in Torah, true judgment is impossible. But there are encouraging signs of Yehudah and the House of Yosef sitting down to meaningful dialogue and discussion of their differences and similarities. Unlike the world’s dialogue, where all absolutes are discarded to the wind, this sitting down can be fruitful and make real waves in the spirit world. There are caveats, for neither blind unity nor shying away from any judgment will work, and these are the two most common manifestations among those who are leaving the church behind and recognizing that they are really Israel. For Israel to come to order, there must be leaders whose fruit proves that they are truly leaders, but that means there must be followers as well, who recognize authority. Until we put away all rebelliousness against the leaders YHWH has approved and establish judgment within the House of Israel, there can be no judgment of these worldly powers.
27. “‘Then the kingdom, the sovereignty, and majesty of the kingdoms that are under all the skies will be given to the people [of] the set-apart ones of the Highest, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will serve and show themselves obedient to Him.
Justice at last! Those who have long been aligned with the Maker of the earth are finally permitted to make the decisions that define its course. Serve: or pay homage/reverence to. Show themselves obedient: at least keeping any dissent from being overt. (Compare Psalm 18:45.) This Kingdom will not consist of playing harps on clouds! Those who are meek (keep their power under control and submit to the true authority) now will inherit the earth, but it will not be a retirement party; they will be working hard. Ruling the world may sound easy, but why do mere presidents of nations always seems to go gray within their first term of office? People in office now may be called civil servants, but in Yahshua’s kingdom, the term will be an accurate one. (Luke 22:25ff) It is a great responsibility to take up our Father’s “family business”. We must know His Torah now like a lover reading a letter from his beloved, or we will make too many mistakes then.
28. “‘Thus far, this is the conclusion of the matter.’ [As for] me, Daniel, my thoughts alarmed me greatly, and the brightness of my face changed on me, but I kept the matter in my heart.”
Compare 8:27. How could he go on living a “normal” life after such revelations that encompassed such far-reaching themes? And with the knowledge of some of the things that would later befall his people? Daniel must have seemed rather “out of touch” to the people around him, who were only focused on their immediate surroundings, but does this verse suggest that he never told them why? We do know that he wrote it down at the proper time so the raw materials would be there when the time came to understand it. (12:4) But the term “alarmed”, though it can mean “terrified”, can also mean just what an alarm clock does: to hasten or hurry him up. He was still in exile in Babylon, and many around him were probably resigned to a likelihood that they would die in Babylon, but Daniel had just seen a vision of Israelites ruling the world, so there was something yet ahead for them. He had “read the last page” and found out that we win! As soon as all of this history played out, the Kingdom could come, so he was now wide awake, spurred on to get it done so the world could get to that point. Something could be done about Israel’s condition, and get the ball rolling he did. Verse 1 tells us that this vision came in Belsha’atzar’s first year. At the most, Belsha’atzar reigned as co-regent for only 14 years, and then the second kingdom in both Daniel’s and Nevukhadnetzar’s visions was already up and running. That suggests that Daniel did indeed let this serve as an impetus to ready the people to return from captivity. That he kept the matter in his heart does not necessarily mean (as in English) that he never spoke openly about it, but rather that he kept it in mind constantly, and let this motivate all his decisions. He recognized that he could not have such knowledge and not pass it on to worthy students. He devoted his life to ensuring that by the time this fourth kingdom came to an end, there would still be Torah scholars who knew how to rule and reign. We do know that Daniel became a teacher of at least a few highly-influential students, one of them being Zoroaster. We see evidence of the continuation of his school over 500 years later when magi from the east (by that time, a kingdom called Parthia) came seeking the Messiah because of a sign in the heaven. The Magi were a caste of astronomers who determined who would rule kingdoms based on their findings, and Daniel was indeed called Rab Mag (a term used also in Yirm./Jer. 39:3, 13)—the head of the Magi. He had a part to play, and so do we, however small it might be. Study the Torah and get in line with its cycles, even if that does not seem like something that will influence the world on a grand scale. Start in a small place and when the time is ripe, YHWH will flips the scales and you will be in the largest place. Servants will rule and rulers will serve. Thus far: Interestingly, after this point, the text resumes in Hebrew rather than Aramaic—another picture of the Gentile rule of the world coming to an end.
CHAPTER 8
[c. year 3449 from Creation/551 B.C.E.]
1. In year three of the reign of Belsha’atzar the king, a vision appeared to me—Daniel myself—after the one that had appeared to me the initial [time].
This is two years after the previous vision, and some 46 years after Daniel was deported to Babylon as a lad. Myself: emphasized in Hebrew where it reads more like: “to me—me Daniel.” Since the text is now in Hebrew rather than Aramaic, it could be that the foregoing was written by a Babylonian scribe, and the remainder of the book in Daniel’s own hand. Another reason for the change in language may be similar to what Yahshua said to his students, to paraphrase Mark 4:11: “To the crowds I speak in allegories, but to you I give the deeper meaning.” The dream of Nevukhadnetzar was meant for his consumption and that of his successors, to remind them to acknowledge Heaven in all of their exploits; but the further details of this prophecy (for it is indeed a continuation of the same theme) are only intended for a Hebrew-speaking audience, who would be familiar with the Torah and YHWH’s intent for mankind. And after seeing the “pure in heart inherit the earth” in the last chapter, it only makes sense that the record would return to the “pure language” (Tz’fanyah 3:9). Daniel’s last recollection of his homeland would have been of siege and conquest, and living in royal circles, he would have often heard firsthand accounts of the destruction of Yerushalayim, so psychologically, despite his access to luxury and the respect he was accorded due to his position, he was still part of a defeated people and therefore could hardly feel like more than a well-cared-for slave. These visions gave him hope again, and just as in the last century Hebrew was revived again after being in near total disuse for two millennia, he knew it would one day be the best medium through which to speak of the deepest things of YHWH, so why not employ the best now that it was again available?
2. So I paid attention to the vision, and what took place as I watched [was that] I was in Shushan, the Citadel that is in the province of Elam. As I kept watching in the vision, I was on the Ulai Canal.
Shushan is where the events of the book of Hadassah/Esther took place, years after this. The book of Nekhemyah also begins here. It was the capital city of Elam and the winter home of the Persian kings. It later became one of three capitals of the Medo-Persian Empire, along with Ecbatana and Persepolis. At this time, it may have still been only an outpost rather than a thriving city. It is situated to the east of the Tigris River, about 150 miles north of the Persian Gulf and 230 miles east of Babylon. It is now called Shush, on the Kharkheh River in Khuzestan, Iran. What is thought to be Daniel’s own tomb is located right at the riverside in this city. The man-made canal was said to be 900 feet wide, and ran past the city on the northeast, probably connecting the Kharkheh to the Ulai River (today called the Karun), about 50 miles to the east. Ulai is a Persian word meaning “my leaders”, but in Hebrew it means “maybe”, suggesting that the prophecy might be contingent on something else. The waters of the Ulai were a possession treasured by the kings, probably for their mineral content. It is not certain whether Daniel was physically in Shushan at this time, but the fact that he recognized it indicates that he had probably been there on the king’s business (as suggested by verse 27). Why was the location significant? Possibly because, unlike Persepolis, which was built of cut stone, Shushan was built of mud-bricks, just like Babylon (Gen. 11:3). Daryawesh even wrote that it was the Babylonians who built the citadel (fortified city) of Shushan, so it may be this connection that Daniel is highlighting—the fact that this city was about to take up the “mantle” of Babylon and inherit its spirit as illustrated in the foregoing chapters. Soon Babylon would fall to it without a fight, and Medo-Persia would be seen as liberator by those disgruntled with the policies of Nevukhadnetzar’s inferior successors, and this probably included most of the captive Jews.
3. When I lifted up my eyes and looked, lo and behold, a single ram was standing in front of the canal, and it had a pair of horns. And the two horns were lofty, but the one was higher than the second, and the higher came up last.
One was higher: As we could guess from the foregoing dreams and visions, later in the chapter it will be confirmed that these animals and their characteristics are again speaking of kingdoms and their leaders. Initially the Medes (Madai) dominated Persia, but later Persia became the much stronger of the two, to the point that eventually the empire came to be known only as Persian.
4. I saw the ram making thrusts toward the west, toward the north, and toward the south, so that none of the animals could stand before him, and there was none who could deliver from his hand, so he did as he wished, and accomplished great [things].
Making thrusts: pushing, butting, goring. The west: In particular, the Medo-Persians conquered all of Lydia (which then occupied much of present-day Turkey). The north would include Assyria and Babylonia itself, and, idiomatically, in those days Egypt was called “the south”. (11:5ff) Why did the ram not thrust not toward the east? Daniel’s vantage point was already the furthest to the east of any of the empires already discussed. It was actually known as “the east” itself. Even at the time of Yeshua’s birth, this region was called “the east” when the Magi came to see the king whose birth was harbingered by an astronomical event, for they were from Persia’s successor kingdom, Parthia. Not until Alexander the Great would any of these empires go past the Indus River, which was usually the eastern border of the Persian Empire.
5. And as I was considering [this], lo and behold, [one] of the young goats came from the west, over the whole surface of the earth, but it was not touching the ground, and [this] young [one] had a conspicuous horn between its eyes.
Considering: literally, making a distinction. I.e., he was still trying to make sense of the first part of the vision when the second part began. Young: the term seems to connote masculinity as well. Conspicuous: or noteworthy, noticeable. Not touching the ground: suggest moving so quickly that it appeared to be flying, and indeed Persia’s conqueror, Greece, conquered much territory very quickly. It began with Philip of Makedon, then continued under his much-better-known son, Alexander the Great, who began his career as a soldier at 21, and remained on the world stage for only 12 more years. But after his first few victories, most of those he challenged would simply surrender peacefully, so he was not trampling down kingdoms like the fourth beast in the previous chapter. Though horns always symbolized power in the ancient world (just try getting hit by one and you will know why), this single horn also signifies the unity he brought to his kingdom. Apparently a one-horned goat was also the symbol of the emperors themselves, for long before Alexander, in 413 B.C.E., a coin was minted by Arkhelius, then ruler of Makedon, with his picture on the obverse and a one-horned goat on the reverse.
6. And he came upon the ram with the pair of horns which I had seen standing in front of the canal, and he ran to it with [all] the fury of his forcefulness.
A gem in the Florentine collection (Italy) had carved into it a ram with two horns and a goat with one. It was probably carved after Alexander’s conquest of Persia, but this suggests that these may have been the existing symbols of both lands at this time, making it easy for his contemporary audience to understand. Aries the ram was also conceived of as Persia’s guardian spirit, and Capricorn the goat, was the zodiac symbol associated with Greece.
7. And I saw him reach the proximity of the ram, and he became bitter with rage toward him, and he struck the ram and broke both of its horns, and there was not strength in the ram to remain standing before him, and he threw him to the ground and trampled him, and there was none that could rescue the ram from his hand.
Struck: or attacked. Hand: an idiom for power, but a goat does not have a hand, so this adds witness to the fact that this is a picture of someone human. While more agile, the goat is seen Scripturally as less noble than the ram. Both sheep and goats are clean animals Hebraically, but the sheep come out far better when it comes time for judgment. (Mat. 25:32ff) Though Alexander himself was very beneficent to the Jews, his successors were not so much so. The Greeks conquered Persia’s stronghold on its own territory after a very long war which had begun with Qoresh. (Alexander’s defeat of Daryawesh III (c. 331 B.C.E.) was some 220 years after Daniel saw this vision.) The Persians had made many unsuccessful attempts to conquer all of Greece, but they came away with only Thrace and Makedonia, but like an injured animal, it thrashed out violently at its would-be conqueror when it gained the upper hand.
8. Then the younger of the goats became larger and larger, and while he was becoming mightier, the big horn was broken, and up came four conspicuous horns in its place, toward the four winds of the heavens.
In its place: or, beneath it. Both turn out to be true, for Alexander had no royal children, so before his death he divided his kingdom between his four generals: Seleukus, Ptolemy, Lysimachus, and Cassander. If he had not died in his prime, these four would probably not have survived at all, but still each wanted the whole of his kingdom, and ended up fighting each other for generations to come.
9. And out of the one of them came a single horn—an insignificant one—but he became abundantly large toward the south and toward the sunrise and toward the bountiful [land].
This single horn is Antiokhus IV, one of the Seleukids (Syrian Greeks) who rose to power after not being normally eligible for the throne. Insignificant: He was not royalty. (11:21) When his brother, Seleukus IV, was assassinated by his tax collector Heliodorus (see 11:20ff and 2 Maccabees 3:7), Antiokhus went to Antiokh and was somehow given the throne, aided by the murder by Andronicus of the actual infant heir to the throne, whose name was also Antiokhus. Bountiful: from a word for “swelling up”, but with the connotation of being decorated with beauty and honor; the word also refers to a gazelle. Of course this refers to Israel (at that time, like today, it was only the land of Yehudah). It is indeed bountiful toward its own people and toward even those just passing through, when the Torah’s commands are carried out. Daniel would certainly have a special nostalgia for it when writing from exile, as we do today as well. The term also includes the meaning of amassing an army, and that is also what would take place after these initial events.
10. And it began to be magnified as far as the army of the heavens, and it made some of the army and some of the stars fall to the ground, and trampled on them.
Army of the heavens: often an idiom for the sun, moon, and stars (Deut. 4:19; 17:3; Yeshayahu 34:4), especially when treated as objects of worship (2 Kings 17:16; 21:3; Yirmeyahu 8:2; Tz’fanyah 1:5, etc.) But here they are clearly not literally stars, but something accessible to him that parallels them. Sometimes the term also seems to refer to angelic beings (1 Kings 22:19), but again, this is not something a ram (or the earthly king it represents) would be able to actually attack. So we have to look for another meaning that fits the context. People are sometimes described as stars trying to ascend as far as Heaven itself. (Yeshayahu 14) ould it be referring to Avraham’s descendants in general (per Gen. 15:5)? Or all of Yaaqov’s family (Gen. 37:9ff)? Verse 11 gives us a strong hint that narrows it down much further:
11. He even caused to be magnified as far as the leader of the army, and from him the daily [offering] was taken up, and the establishment of his sanctuary was hurled down.
Taken up: or abolished, removed. Because the term “daily” is mentioned, which is a proper name for the normal, everyday offerings in the Temple that have nothing to do with the Sabbath or a feast day in particular, in this case this “leader” seems to refer directly to a high priest, the commander-in-chief of Heaven’s “special forces” in this case. The Levites are commanded not to go out to battle along with the rest of Israel (Num. 1:47), but they are charged with guarding the sanctuary (1:51-53), and are thus an armed force nonetheless, but in the defensive posture, not the offensive as Levi himself had been, much to Yaaqov’s displeasure. Pin’has (Num. 25:7-11) exemplified this. So the “armies of heaven” in this case is referring to Temple officials or officiators in general, i.e., any priests and Levites who are on duty. The high priest was also in charge of the armies of Israel as a whole in that he reserved the right to tell Israel when to and when not to go into battle, for it must be done only at the right time. This was not a decision to be taken lightly, so YHWH did not even entrust this message to His prophets, but communicated through the Urim and Thummim, of which only the high priest had possession. The war priest would then also ask the questions that culled more men out of the army. (Deut. 20:1-9) The priest also receives the half sheqel from men eligible for military service, to serve as an atonement for their souls, since even in a war context, killing another man does violence to one’s conscience, and this payment lays that to rest. The “establishment”, then, is not a physical foundation in this case, but it was eroded nonetheless as the Greeks defiled the altar (always the first part of the sanctuary that was operative, and thus its foundational component) and “proudly” robbed (but did not yet destroy) the sanctuary (1 Maccabees 1:19-24) prior to the revolt spoken of in the next verse:
12. And an army was employed in regard to the daily [offering] in a revolt, and it caused truth to be hurled down to the ground, and it was acting [effectively] and advanced.
Employed: or, given over. This may refer to the Greek army brought in to quell a revolt by those who had been deposed from their duties given by YHWH because the Temple service was disrupted, or it may refer to the army provided to the Greeks through the Jews who willingly surrendered to their way of life, much like the Judenrat in Nazi Germany, the Jewish traitors who were then given authority to decide which of their fellows would be sent to the gas chambers first. Both of these took place in the time of Antiokhus. Many Jews even had an operation that made them again appear uncircumcised! There was even an “army” given by YHWH as well: the Hasidim, with whom the Maccabees later became allied. They made raids on the Jews who had become Hellenized, just as the father of Yehudah the Maccabee killed a compromising Jew before ever killing a Greek (1 Maccabees 2:23-25), for “judgment begins in the household of YHWH.” We must pause to think of what level of honor should be accorded to those whom YHWH’s prophet calls the Armies of the Heavens and likens to the sun, moon, and stars for importance. Even before being called this, he was in a position even higher than that of the king in Israel. Then think of how much more than earth-shattering it would be if they were deposed! They have again been missing for so long that we have somehow come to think of things as normal without them, but we are actually without such a large piece of the order laid out in Torah that compromises have come to be thought of as necessary, and the world has therefore been unable to be fully repaired, only maintained. This prophecy is a foretelling of the Maccabean revolt (commemorated at Hanukkah) that began because of the slaughter of a pig on the altar in Yerushalayim, as well as on altars built in each town by the Greeks, further undermining the “establishment” of worship throughout Israel. They forbade circumcision and forced the Jews to eat unclean meat. Eventually they abolished not only the practice, but even the study of the Torah—which is the real foundation of all liturgical establishment in Israel. Think of the immense and sobering repercussions of someone succeeding in having truth itself cast to the ground. They appeared to be prospering, as many Jews did become Hellenized and many remained that way. This would definitely “wear out the set-apart ones”. At that time it involved the defenders of the Torah living in caves just to avoid detection by such wicked dictators, and much suffering as they fought to remain faithful to YHWH and to fight back against these usurpers. The priesthood was especially persecuted under persecuted Antiokhus. Contrast his arrogance (v. 11) with the attitude of Alexander the Great himself, who hardly even considered the Jews his vassals, and had a respect for the Temple and priesthood due to a dream he had that came true. He never interfered with the worship of the Jews as he did with the temples of other peoples he conquered.
13. Then I heard a single holy one speak, then a certain holy one said to the distinguished one who was speaking, “How long is the vision, the daily [offering], and the appalling trespass [offering] to allow both the sanctuary and the army to be trampled [underfoot]?”
Holy one: There is not even a hint of this person being an “angel” this time. How long: literally, until when?
14. And he said to me, “Until 2,300 evenings and mornings; then the sanctuary will be set right.”
To me: Was that “certain” holy one in verse 14, then, Daniel himself? He had seen another vision already that told him the outcome, so he knew this detail had to depict only a temporary situation. (YHWH provided the cure before the “poison”.) An evening and a morning constitutes one day. (Gen. 1:5 et al) 2,300 days is, by the most ancient 360-day-per-year count, 6 years, 4 months, and 20 days. There are two ways to interpret this historically. One counts the days from (in Roman terms) August 5, 171 B.C.E., when, according to Prideaux, the first hostilities arose between the high priest (on whom the office was wrongly conferred by the Greeks) and Antiokhus over the failure to pay tribute (ultimately leading to the invasion of the Temple for plunder) and December 25 of 165 B.C.E., when the Temple service was reinstated. (This was undoubtedly an insult to the pagan deities worshipped on the latter date long before anyone ever heard of “Christmas”!) Another way of reading it is by counting the evenings and mornings as evening and morning oblations, of which there was one of each every day, in which case this would be half as long, or 1,150 days, or 3 years, 2 months, and 10 days. I.e., it was “2,300 evening and morning [oblations]” that were missed while the sanctuary was shut down. This also works out mathematically, as we are told in 1 Maccabees 1:54 that the altar was defiled on the 15th day of the 9th month of the 145th year of the Greek empire, and in 1 Maccabees 4:52-53 that its use was reinstated on the 25th day of the 9th month of the 148th year. This seems like only three years and ten days, but we must remember that there are many years in which the barley has not yet reached the stage of ripeness by which it is ready to be harvested within two weeks, and therefore the firstfruit offering (Lev. 23:11) cannot yet be held that month, so an extra month is added. Two of these three years must have had such intercalary months. Or could it be that this fulfilled half of the prophecy, leaving the rest to be fulfilled at a later time? Jews have traditionally taken Shlomoh’s dictum in Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes) that “What has been is what will be” to be a rule for interpreting prophecy, and this has often been the case. Yahshua, nearly 200 years after the Maccabean revolt, still spoke of an “abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel”, being “set up” where it had no right to be (Mat. 13:14) as an event that was yet to come. We may pray that the Roman destruction of the Temple was an adequate fulfillment, but this depends on the degree of repentance among the people of the Land today. (Compare Yonah 3:10.) Is there another fulfillment? One thing we know for sure is that we should not use these to try to predict exact dates. Many otherwise-valuable teachers have been discredited by trying to do so. Not only does Yahshua warn us that it is not for us to know such times (Mat. 13:32; 25:13; Acts 1:6); the Torah itself likens such illegal knowledge to necromancy which men employ to try to know the “future”. (Deut. 18:10-12) We can study the details of history, which may be repeated, and we can note the signs of the times in general, but the mysteries in Scripture are meant to be opened only at the time when we need to know them—when a particular action is required on our part. If we knew the rest in advance, we would try to effect it in our own way, or it would prevent us from going through some things we need in order to grow so that we can be ready for such times should they come again. It might even have nothing directly to do with a particular time; the numerical value of all the words in Leviticus 9:4 adds up to 2,300, and it speaks of bringing the right offerings so YHWH can fulfill His intention to meet with us on schedule. That is the main point of all prophecy anyway.
15. And what took place [was that] when I, Daniel, had seen the vision, I then requested clarification. Then, lo and behold, opposite me there stood what appeared to be a warrior.
Clarification: or understanding, discernment, “the meaning”. Warrior: or, heroic/strong man.
16. And I began to hear a human voice between [the banks of the] Ulai, and it called out and said, “Gavriel, make this one [yonder] understand what appeared.”
This one: Rashi says this is a title of esteem, meaning that he is one who has desirable qualities. A human giving orders to an angel? Possibly. If so, what human? The Hebrew simply says, “Adam’s” or “the voice of humanity”. Is it the ancient voice of our ancestors? Daniel would be buried here. Is it his own voice coming back from “the other side”? Water often symbolizes the Torah, and the local region was called Elam, which means “eternity” or “an age”. So is this river symbolic of the great gulf of which Yahshua speaks in Luke 16:26? Gavriel (whose name comes from the same root as the word “warrior” in v. 15) is considered an archangel in Judaism, Christianity, Islam,, and, not surprisingly, Zoroastrianism (as Zoroaster was Daniel’s student). In post-biblical Judaism and Kabbalah, archangels are considered the top three of the highest seven angels, and Gavriel is one, along with Mikhael and Rafael. The being that appeared to Muhammad either claimed to be Gavriel (“Jibril”) or truly was, and his message became garbled much like Christianity’s. (Some claim that Muhammad’s own father’s faith was closew to that of the original apostles, rather than idolatrous like his countrymen.) He is mentioned in Talmud Sanhedrin 95b as the destroyer of Sennakheriv’s army, and appears elsewhere in the Talmud as well. But all of this is speculation; Scripture itself tells us nothing about him except what is here. We are not even told that he was not just another human messenger; in fact, from this we cannot even tell that he is an actual person, for this is a vision. So we should not assume that all of the stories that grew up about him are necessarily true. Gabriel’s very name reminds us not to give him more honor than is due him, for it means “Elohim is my strength” (or “my hero”).
17. So he came beside where I stood, and when he arrived, I was overtaken by sudden terror, and I fell down on my face. But he said to me, “Discern, O son of Adam, that the vision belongs to the time of the end.”
He: that is, Gavriel, apparently of very terrifying appearance, as everyone else who ever saw him also had to be told, “Do not be afraid.” (In Luke 1 he is said to appear to Z’kharyah and to Miryam.) Apparently Daniel was not told this because he was assumed to be more accustomed to seeing such unearthly personages after all his visions! Son of Adam: A description used especially of prophets, like Y’hezq’El (1:28-2:2, also in a similar vision) and Yahshua. End: literally, extremity or cutting-off point. This narrows the scope of his interpretation and ours. But which end? The end of the Greek empire? But while the next few verses seem to speak of the times of Alexander the Great and Antiochus, this suggests that there may be a yet-unfulfilled latter-day aspect to it as well, and maybe chiefly so. Is it a time when everything is at the outer boundaries? Whatever it is has gone as far as it is going to go, possibly immediately preceding the Kingdom. Other possibilities will be discussed below.
18. And while he was speaking with me, I [lay] on my face in a deep stupor, on the ground. But he touched me, and had me stand on my place,
He was “put in his place”, but in a positive way this time!
19. and said, “Look, I will show you what will take place at the very end of the Indignation, because for the appointed time [there is] a cutoff.
The Indignation: YHWH’s indignation in regard to the Northern Kingdom was said to be in Assyria’s hand (Yeshayahu 10:5), and YHWH said it would not be long until this would come to an end. (10:25) Yet YHWH’s people (unspecified, so apparently the whole of Israel) are again invited to hide in their inner chambers until the Indignation is over. (Yesh. 26:20) This seems to be a time when YHWH must judge the nations, and Israel is hidden away, shielded by His presence from the destruction that must take place nearby. (Compare Psalm 91.) This may be what is alluded to here, or it may be a time closer to Daniel’s own. The term for indignation indicates foaming at the mouth. When an animal foams at the mouth, if not rabid, it indicates that it is angry. This might refer to the indignation of Israel’s enemies, or of YHWH’s wrath (compare Y’hezq’el 21:31; 22:21), bringing an end to the persecutors. Appointed time: possibly this period of indignation, or possibly a reference to the cessation of the festival pilgrimages to Yerushalayim. It may also end on a festival, and the one that marks YHWH’s deliverance most clearly is Passover, the time Yitzhaq, who never left the Land of Israel, was born, so again the return of YHWH’s people to the Land may be at that festival time. A cutoff: the term relates to the harvest, and Passover also begins the harvest season with the firstfruits of the barley harvest following hard on its heels. There is a cutoff—a limit--placed on even YHWH’s wrath; otherwise, “who indeed could stand?” (Psalm 130) So our being cut off from the full observance of the festivals will one day come to an end as well, when the more hope-engendering vision of chapter 7 is fulfilled.
20. “The ram that you saw, the owner of the pair of horns—[these are] the kings of Madai and Faras,
Here he comes right out and tells us what history made us suspect. Madai is “the Medes”; Faras is Persia.
21. “and the young shaggy goat is the king of Yawan, and the big horn that is between its eyes is the first king.
Its appearance is better described here. Yawan is Greece. The first (more in eminence than chronology) emperor of united Greece was Alexander the Great. The book of Yosifon says the Persian emperor Daryawesh, whom he conquered and killed, was the son of Esther.
22. “And the broken one in whose place four remained are four kingdoms that will rise up from [that] nation, but not with his forcefulness.
Broken one: Rashi says, “the one you saw being broken.” His kingdom was broken up or divided among generals who did not have the same degree of power that Alexander did.
23. “And during the last [part] of their kingdom, when the rebels have been finished off, a king with a fierce face and skilled at double-dealing will stand up.
When the rebels have been finished off: or, when the transgressors have come to fullness. Skilled at double-dealing: or, understanding perplexing riddles. At least in the first fulfillment, this again describes Antiokhus IV. But verse 19 suggests that there will be another appearance of the same configuration of Israel’s enemies. Rashi has, “And at the end of their kingdom, when the transgressors have been destroyed, there will arise a brazen-faced king who understands riddles”, and identifies this instead as Titus. There are many parallels between the two events. Just after Yeshua walked the earth and sent his students out to gather the lost sheep of the House of Israel, everything turned a corner when the Romans destroyed the Temple and a generation later cut all Jews off from Yerushalayim. Rome even co-opted Yeshua’s agenda, and, with no Jews left in the holy city to which the lost sheep were to be gathered, effectively ended that gathering because the context was removed. The descriptive term for the goat in verse 21 (“shaggy”; Heb., seir), which is more detail than that given in verse 5, does link us with Edom, and thus Rome, for Mt. Seir was the land deeded to Esau. (Deut. 2:5) Kittim, with which Edom was allied to become Rome was the descendant of Yawan, so the double meaning does seem legitimately applicable. Like Nevukhadnetzar, he would bring an end to the offerings that represent intimacy with YHWH, because truly the intimacy was already missing. He allowed this because we did not repent, so it really does not matter which face is on the attacker. We kept returning to our crime, so our Father no longer bails us out, but allows us to experience the consequences.
24. “And his strength will be mighty, but not by his own power, and he will ruin beyond [words], and he will advance and act [effectively], and will destroy countless, as well as the nation of holy ones.
Not by his own power: v. 9 says he was insignificant. (See note on that verse.) He started out with many problems, having to deal with opposition from both Egypt and Rome. After his striking defeat of Egypt, he was irritated that the Jews were not actively supporting him, so he turned his attention to them. He found the holy covenant particularly objectionable (11:28), which he desecrated in extreme ways, leading to the Maccabean revolt celebrated at Hanukkah. But Yahshua spoke of another time something similar would occur. (Mat. 13:14) Could this indignation (v. 19) have ended forty years after he said this, when the Temple fell again? He will ruin beyond words: or, with wonder upon wonder he will destroy.
25. “And on [account of] his shrewd dealings, he will cause treachery to prosper in his hand. And he will magnify [himself] in his own heart, and through peace he will cause many to become corrupt. And he will stand up against the ruler of rulers, but he will be broken other than by a hand.
Treachery: The details are given in the books of Maccabees. Because of his shrewd dealings, many nicknamed him “Epimanes” (madman) instead of his official, self-imposed title, “Epiphanes” (glorious, an appearance of deity). Through peace he will corrupt: Rashi says, “With guile and with smooth talk he will destroy many who dwell with him with a covenant and in peace.” It is easy to see how this is shaping up to be true in our own day, as the “peace process” opposes and ousts those who are aiming to occupy the Land in accordance with the Torah. That Antiokhus died (164 B.C.E.) before the latter of these prophecies (especially as described in chapter 11) leads us to conclude that there is an even stronger fulfillment of this prophecy that is yet to come. Ruler of rulers: We have already seen that this is a “synonym” for the set-apart ones of the Most High. (7:14, 22) Other than by a hand: parallels the stone cut out without hands (2:34), showing that it is the same as the statue of four metals being broken down at the time the Kingdom is about to come. And this stands to reason, because Antiokhus IV was not broken without a hand (he was killed), and Titus was not broken until the day he died. So this must be yet to come. No matter what we do politically, once we are about loving one another, our enemies will fall. They have armies and terrorist training camps. We cannot fight their missiles, but they are not armed for the type of battle that is coming. Islam is now conquering the world by feeding the poor, and this is very similar to YHWH’s “secret weapon”. Judgment came because we hated one another, so we must reverse this. As we draw nearer and nearer to one another, Israel’s enemies will have a formidable “flock” to deal with. All that stands between us and the Kingdom is our lack of love for one another. Keep His commands, and this will be fulfilled.
26. “And the appearance of the evening and the morning that was spoken [of], it is true. But you, close up [and hide] the prophecy, because it belongs to many days [hence].”
True: Whichever way we understand the 2,300 (whether that many days or half), it appears that this number cannot be changed. Daniel did live his life according to the offerings that had gone on in the Temple, praying at the same times he would have prayed if there at the Temple. So these do refer somehow to the morning and evening oblations.
27. And I, Daniel, was done in and was made sick for days; then I rose up and did the king’s business, as I was dumbfounded in regard to what appeared, and there was no clarification.
Daniel had asked for clarification (v. 15), and he received some (v. 17), but things did not really seem to become clearer for him. There was no way for him to have the retrospect that we have, being on the other side of the events. Business: specifically, public works: apparently the reason he had come to Shushan (v. 2). This is very similar to his response to the vision in chapter 7, only more intense. If he had understood it, he would have tried to do something about it, but this time he was not impelled to do anything about it as he had been in chapter 7. It had to remain somewhat blurry, or he might try to insert his hand into it, and that might derail something YHWH had set in motion. Instead, he wisely decided to simply go back to doing the king’s business, once he recovered from the nervous stomach or whatever ailment these troubling visions caused. I.e., he just went back to the work (that which had been made clear for him) and did his job. As in Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes), where Shlomoh found much to his chagrin that knowledge alone did not seem to get him anywhere, his conclusion was Daniel’s: just fear YHWH and keep His commandments, and go about whatever you have been given to do. And the King’s business is what we are about too. Like Daniel, we can draw much confirmation, hope, and encouragement from the visions of the righteous coming out ahead in the end, but we should not keep our heads in tomorrow, but make the most of the present day that we have been allotted. As John Fischer wrote, “You can try to guess when he’s coming, check the latest prophetic whim, or simply follow that life each day that will lead you home to him.”
CHAPTER 9
1. In year one of Daryawesh the son of Akhashwerosh, of the seed of Madai, who was made king over the kingdom of the Khasdim--
The best-known Akhashwerosh was Esther’s husband, so some identify this Daryawesh as being the son of Esther (Hadassah), but that Akhashwerosh did not become king until 486 B.C.E., by which time Daniel had undoubtedly died. The Daryawesh who was 62 when he came to the throne (5:31) in 539 B.C.E. could not be Esther’s son. There were at least three rulers, each separated by several generations, called Daryawesh. (It is not a proper name; there were at least two other rulers of Medo-Persia who were called Daryawesh, probably three, which causes many ambiguities. It is title of honor, apparently meaning "Holder of the Scepter”; Herodotus says it means "the restrainer", and others say “fire-worshipper”.) Rashi correctly says, “This is not the Akhashwerosh of the days of Haman, for he was the king of Persia, whereas this one was Daryawesh the Mede who was crowned over the kingdom of the Chaldeans when Belshazzar was slain.’” (cf. 6:1) Akhashwerosh is thus identified by many with Cyaxares, who conquered Nin’veh c. 612 B.C.E. His name was Hellenized into Axares, with the prefix Cy- or Kai-, common to the Kaianian dynasty of kings, with which we can compare the title Kai-Khosroo, the Persian name for Koresh (Cyrus). The son of this Cyaxares was called Astyages in other ancient inscriptions, so he may be the same as the first Daryawesh, who was set over Babylon as viceroy by his nephew Koresh, and allowed to live there in royal state. But this, too, is problematic, as this would not yet be close to the end of the 70 years, which began in 586 B.C.E. at the final deportation. The Daryawesh discussed here is more likely the third Achaemenid “king of kings”, who reigned from 522-486 B.C.E. This is much closer to 516 B.C.E., the 70-year mark. He is called Daryawesh the Great or Daryawesh I, despite having been preceded by the other Daryawesh, because the earlier Daryawesh was not over the whole empire. And if we compare Z’kharyah 7:1-5, which speaks of the fourth year of Daryawesh as the 70th year, we may surmise that the secular record is three years off, and that Daryawesh I thus actually came to the throne around 519 B.C.E.
2. in year one of his reign, I (Daniel) discerned by the books the number of years that came [by] the word of YHWH to Yirmeyahu the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Yerushalayim: seventy years.
Fulfillment: or completion. Desolations: being laid waste, ruins. Those who hold to this being in the first year of the earliest Daryawesh surmise that because Yirmeyahu had said (25:11) that Yehudah would serve Bavel for the 70 years, when the Medo-Persians took over Bavel, Daniel thought that the exile might be cut short because Bavel had been defeated. (This was only 47 years into the exile.) Major changes were taking place on the world stage. Bavel had fallen, and Daniel may have wondered whether such a major change was recorded somewhere, especially since he had now moved into the second stage of both his and Nevukhadnetzar’s dreams, and he wanted a second witness from a reliable source as to whether the rest could be trusted to come true as well. Yirmeyahu was that, being both a prophet and a priest, the latter being those with higher authority in Israel even than kings. Otherwise, it is 64 to 67 years into the exile, and he recognizes that the earliest possible end of the exile is getting close. Books: Yirmeyahu’s writing is long as prophets go, and some manuscripts have been found with only part of the book, because there is a natural break and it may thus have been divided into two sections originally. Also, the book of Lamentations, written by Yirmeyahu as well, speaks of the exile coming to an end (4:22) and has several sections that Daniel seems to have taken as his instruction for this time, for he echoes them below, sometimes nearly word-for-word (1:18 and chapter 5 in particular). How did Daniel have access to these? Though one Yehudite king burned some of Yirmeyahu’s words, he later received great tolerance even though imprisoned, because though they did not wish to repent, the kings wanted information about what was to take place, and Yirmeyahu furnished that. The court documents, records, and libraries of legal writings held by the kings were captured by the Babylonians (which is probably why we have them today). Daniel, a high-ranking official, would have had access to not only those of Yehudah, but of any nation Bavel had conquered. Access might have been even easier now that Bavel was defeated. Seventy years: One of the Hebrew words with the numerical value of 70 is “doorposts”—a place we are to write YHWH’s words (Deut. 11:20) and where the ear of a slave who wants to remain in his master’s house after he is free to leave is pierced (Ex. 21:6). Interestingly, this is exactly what many who had grown comfortable in Bavel did: they stayed on there, and the Jewish community there in voluntary exile continued beyond the beginning of the second exile, which incidentally began in 70 C.E.
3. So I set my face toward my Master—the Elohim—to plead [with] intercession and petitioning for favor with fasting and burlap and ashes,
Set: literally, gave. Plead: literally, search for or seek, rooted in a term for an attitude of lowering oneself. This term is also used of Yom Kippur, and the same attitude is nearly always expressed through fasting on that day, though this was never explicitly commanded. He knows that the key to bringing this exile to an end is walking in the right patterns as well as having the right attitude, even before his confession:
4. and I prayed to YHWH my Elohim and made a confession and said, “Please, my Master, the great and awe-inspiring El, who keeps [watch over] the covenant and the pity for those who love Him and who guard His orders!
Shlomoh knew the Torah well and opened the door for those held captive in far-off lands to pray this prayer (2 Chron. 6:37), for he knew human nature well, and with our propensities, it seemed inevitable that we would end up there. He took Shlomoh as being a prophet like his father David in this regard, and almost takes Shlomoh’s words as a script for his prayer.
5. “We have sinned and acted crookedly and wickedly, and have [bitterly] rebelled and turned away from Your orders and legal procedures,
The Yom Kippur confession liturgy (Vidui) sounds very much like this. He is judging himself, which is the root meaning of the word for “pray” in Hebrew. But this is just the beginning; it also includes accepting the judgment and actually doing something about what we are praying for. When one says to YHWH “Will you please…”, what he needs to remember is that this commits him to being YHWH’s vessel to bring about what is requested, if YHWH deems him to be appropriate for the job. There is a release because YHWH is the one in charge, and He may choose to use someone else, but at the same time, one is surrendering himself, saying, like Yeshayahu, “Here am I; use me to be part of the answer.” Prayer is asking, in essence, “Where am I keeping this from taking place? How can I get out of the way so it can be accomplished?”
6. “and we have not heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors, and to all the people of the Land.
Not heeded: i.e., “He gave us the solution before any of this took place, even since the time of Moshe himself. (v. 4) If only we had listened, we would not be in this mess. We would not have needed any of these visions, and we ourselves would have regathered our brothers in the other tribes.” Ancestors: or simply, fathers, which could include present-day leaders as well. People of the Land: often an idiom for ordinary folk or the poorest. Though the kings had more influence, we are all in this together. Just because the king does not heed the prophet does not mean the rest of us are not responsible to try to do so.
7. “To You, my Master, belongs righteousness, but to us, the shame of faces, as [it is] this day for the man of Yehudah and the inhabitants of Yerushalayim and to all Israel who are near and who are far away, throughout all the lands into which You have driven them in their treacheries by which they have trespassed against You.
My master: This is not one of the 134 places where the Soferim, by their own admission, changed YHWH’s name to Adonai in the Masoretic text; otherwise it would have been strange that they did not change it later in the chapter. So the contrast makes it all the more instructive. When repenting, Daniel exemplified the lowering of self spoken of in verse 3 by, throughout the whole prayer, addressing YHWH with this title that expresses His superiority, and he reserves his use of His proper name for third-person usage, another form of honorific address. Near and far away: This establishes that this idiom speaks of all Israel, so when “you who were far off” is used elsewhere (Eph. 2:13), it must also be referring to the people of Israel. It is a code word for the Northern Kingdom in particular, but most who read Paul miss this allusion because they do not recognize that this is who they are. Shlomoh provides the link between the two passages in 2 Chron. 6:36, using the same terminology. Nehemyah 1:6 echoes this prayer and speaks of praying day and night to confess his people’s sins. Realistically, how does one do this? By speaking to YHWH as soon as we wake up, certainly. And it is accomplished as constant judgment of self becomes a lifestyle and the kingdom is at the forefront of one’s priorities in every context: asking how each thing we contemplate doing will benefit the Kingdom or affect the rest of the people of Israel. Will it bring profit by YHWH’s definition, or will it be a waste of time? One hallmark of this is beginning to prepare for the next Sabbath as soon as this one is over, as symbolic of preparing for the Kingdom it foreshadows. As we do such mundane things as go shopping for Sabbath supplies, we are restoring the Kingdom. (These activities are “prayers” too—different kinds, no doubt, but this is how we can be constantly in prayer.) Daniel came from that Kingdom, so to speak—an early, imperfect version of it, but one that nonetheless was a great tragedy to lose. So when he does something for the restoration of the Kingdom like he is doing in this prayer, he is not thinking of something up in heaven—“pie in the sky”—but a physical people being back in a physical Land. He has seen what disobedience costs and is willing to pay to get it back. Since Daniel has already mentioned Yehudah here, it is clear that Yirmeyahu’s words convinced him that he was also responsible is also praying for those of us who had been exiled even longer than he had. Such concern is rare in Yehudah, but Yahshua had it, and it is becoming much more common today as the time for our reunification approaches. Trespassed: from a word for ascending, so specifically the transgression of trying to rise up higher than one should, as Adam and Hawwah did.
8. “My Master! To us [belongs] the shame of faces—to our kings, to our leaders, and to our ancestors—in that we have sinned against You.
I.e., we do not blame You in any way for what You have done; we are the ones to blame for our own experience of such consequences. Compare Yirmeyahu 2:26ff.
9. “To YHWH our Elohim [belong] the compassions and the pardons, because we have rebelled [bitterly] against Him,
Only He can provide forgiveness for this sin, because it was against Him alone that we sinned. Nowhere else can we be cleared of this offense. But notice the change in reference. He changes to the third person. Is he merely lowering himself one step further, as it is common for those who live where kings reign to say, when speaking directly to the king, “Would the king like to sample my delicacies?” (YHWH even describes Himself in such a manner in Exodus 34:6.) Or is he, in a parenthetical aside, addressing those who are praying along with him? I.e., is he saying, “We have rebelled, haven’t we, my fellows?” All of the above may be true. But YHWH is a king, and wherever men see kings enthroned, they are always surrounded by a court. He has been praying—a term that in Hebrew means “judging oneself”—and now he is ready to address not just the Judge, who will make the decision, but the whole court with Him. In a previous vision, Daniel has seen that courtroom (7:13-27), but at that time, he was only an onlooker; now he is permitted to testify. He is not imagining this or playing a game; he is in this courtroom. His words carry weight in the heavenlies, that is, he will shake eternity and help bring the Kingdom about. We are in the same position to affect things when we confess, “Our fathers have inherited lies…” (Yirmeyahu 16:19) And he is also addressing us—his readers after his time—as if he is there to remind us, for we need reminding. Christians have been told that all of their sins were forgiven, but Daniel is telling us all that if we are not yet obeying the commandments, we are still in sin. Jews may think their relationship to YHWH is on better footing, but Daniel is saying that no one has it all together, whether we have obeyed the voice of Paul or Aqiva, not just YHWH’s, and Moshe told us that if we add to or take away from YHWH’s words, we cannot keep His commandments properly. (Deut. 4:2) Daniel has seen a vision of the end, but he now sees that there are obstacles to getting there. Do the visions conflict? The outcome may depend on which vision we empower. In prayer, we are outside of the realm of time, and can be witnesses in that very same courtroom. We can bolster Daniel’s witness--or testify against him. We are used to praying for things after our time; why not things before our time? We can pray for him to be strengthened as well, for in the place where there is no time, he is not dead, but alive. (Compare Mat. 22:32.)
10. “and we have not obeyed the voice of YHWH our Elohim, to walk in His instructions which He provided in our presence by the hand of His servants the prophets,
In our presence: or, in our faces. As Deut. 30:12 says, these instructions were not something so far away, to which we had no access. We were fully responsible for what we did with them; we could know better and if we did not, it was by our own choice to neglect them. Daniel is not praying amiss. He has clearly been searching the Scriptures for direction in how to pray. He has undoubtedly been reading passages like Yirmeyahu 3:20-4:5 and Nehemyah 9:17, which show that YHWH is willing to bring us back after we have become ashamed of our ways, and is following their guidance very directly so that he knows he is asking for the very thing YHWH wants. We must pray with understanding. David emphasized this, as did Shlomoh, and Paul (1 Corinthians 14:15-19). We will dissipate our efforts if we pray for whatever may strike our fancy. We need a firm foundation. Bringing His own words back to Him is the best place to begin; quote the judge Himself to bring forth your defense! Daniel is not begging without having done his homework. He is not praying selfishly, but has searched and found the key that YHWH Himself provided to let us out of the prison He imposed on us.
11. “and all of Israel has transgressed Your instruction and veered [off course] so as to be without obedience to Your voice, so the curse is being poured out on us along with the oath that is recorded in the Torah of Moshe, the servant of Elohim, because we have sinned against Him.
Without obedience: or, without (the ability) to hear. Now we have gotten out of range, as compared to verse 10, because we chose a path that took us away from the proximity to the teachers of His commands. If we do not use what we are given access to, we may lose access to it. The curse: the specifics are delineated in Lev. 26:39ff and Deut. 28:15ff. He uses YHWH’s own words as his two witnesses, saying, in effect, “I understand; You told us this would occur if we did that. We did it anyway, so it came about.” He is now in the position these passages describe of when Israel will be in the land of our enemies, and true to the prophecy, his heart is humbled there and he is seeking to return. He found that the Scriptures said that after the curse has come to pass, we repent, and he sees that he is at that point, and asks that indeed repentance will be granted. And we are at the same place in the Northern Kingdom’s cycle of the same pattern. Repentance was allowed for Yehudah, which brought us Yeshua, and his work has now brought us to the point of being able to repent, despite the many times the followers of his followers became sidetracked. Pray that YHWH will grant that this come to full fruition!
12. “So He has carried out His words, which He spoke in regard to us and in regard to our judges who governed us, to bring upon us great trouble which has not been perpetrated under the heavens like it has been done to Yerushalayim.
Carried out: or established, confirmed, put into effect, made binding. The threat was there all along, but now they have gone into “active mode” because we had fulfilled the prerequisites. But this is cause for greater confidence in YHWH, because we see that He keeps His promises, for better or for worse. Our judges: They were supposed to hold our feet to the fire. Yehudah had more favor than the Northern Kingdom because of David, but when Yehudah saw what befell her sister and kept doing the same things, YHWH counted her wrongdoing as even worse. (Y’hezq’el 5:5-9; 16:45ff) She had more, so she was held more responsible. Her cup had become full. Not been perpetrated: Israel has the potential of experiencing the best YHWH has to offer, and the worst, depending upon how we respond to His instructions.
13. “Just as it is written in the Torah of Moshe, all of this trouble has come upon us, yet we did not plead the presence of YHWH in order that we might turn away from our perversities and [wisely] ponder Your truth.
This is what we should have done, and by doing so could have avoided this exile. The word pictures here are strong in Hebrew. The term for “plead” holds the connotations of becoming sick with grief, praying, begging, feeling weak, or being wounded. In other words, when situations like this occur, we should repent from the depths of our hearts to the point of strong tears until our stomach turns from the emotion, or maybe until we sweat blood as Yahshua did. (Compare Hebrews 12:4.) Of course, it should not be only emotion, but it should have this strong of an effect. Presence: or face. Our pride testified to His face. (Hos. 7:10) The face, in Hebrew, means “the part that turns”, and we did not turn to YHWH. (Yesh. 9:13) So there are two additional witnesses; the matter is established. Ponder: to be circumspect and study intelligently, considering not just what someone else has told us, but seeing what original results the knowledge we have been give may uncover. Truth: the term also connotes faithfulness, stability, something sure and reliable, and continuance. I.e., we have found ourselves in a great place of instability, and need to consider not only the fact that YHWH has been faithful to His threats, but what it will take to get back to the place where we can be sure we are on firm footing as He sees it. Where could they get truth? From knowing the Torah intimately: what did it mean? What can it mean? We have not yet been redeemed from exile because we have not studied I the right way. We may be intelligent, but we must be intelligent in our study as well. Every time one takes up the call, we get a step closer to Home. Then we can do more than know the truth; we will be the truth.
14. “And YHWH has kept watch over the calamity, and brought it upon us, because YHWH our Elohim is justified in all His deeds that He brings about, because we did not obey His voice.
Kept watch: He has been very careful to guide it squarely in our direction, making sure that it reaches its goal. This gives a different shade of meaning to “He who watches Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps”! (Psalm 121:4) Did not obey: must particularly in the matters of idolatry and of not leaving the Land fallow in the seventh year for 490 years, which was really worshipping Security, because we did not believe YHWH would care for us as He said He would. (2 Chronicles 36:20-21; Yirmeyahu 25:4-12) While the Temple stood, we were lulled into complacency because He waited so patiently that it seemed He was letting us get away with it. We thought He was not paying attention, but all the while He was awake after all, and was keeping score. Since we did not accept the lesser beatings, confess, and do the right thing, the bill came due. We got what we deserved. We owed YHWH 70 years, and He got it. Part of the remedy is to have the right attitude toward the Land, and to practice keeping His commands regarding it before we get there so we will do it justice when we do arrive.
15. “So now, My Master, our Elohim (who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a firm hand and have made a name for Yourself), as it is this day, we have erred; we have done wickedly.
Who brought Your people out...as it is: YHWH reminds us of this often (Deut. 5:15 et al); now Daniel is reminding Him, possibly in hopes that He will again notice the plight of His people. This time it was not backbreaking labor or suffering of any kind, for the most part, for their conditions were nothing to complain about on the physical level, except in the rare exceptions we read about in earlier chapters where there was persecution. It could start up again at any time, of course, but our main problem was that we were simply not in the place He intended us to be, and no matter how pleasant our surroundings may be, this is our problem again today as the set time for our exile is now up, but we are not yet Home. Something is still not right.
16. “O My Master, according to all of Your righteousness, I beg [You] to turn back Your anger and Your burning rage from Your city, Yerushalayim, Your set-apart mountain, because in our errors and our perversities, our ancestors, Yerushalayim, and Your people have become an object of scorn for all of those who are around us!
The biggest thing we can learn from this is that, although a prophecy of return was given, it would not take place automatically if YHWH’s people were not ready, and if there had been no widespread repentance—a critical mass, so to speak. So Daniel was concerned that this window not be missed, and the same holds true in our own day. Notice the first thing that must be cleared away before the Temple can be used again is YHWH’s displeasure with His place. YHWH’s anger is not against the city as such, but Daniel perceives that His wrath is still waiting there, and senses the need to clear the air so they can come back without being killed. Daniel did not ask this in a vacuum. There were those who were already on site, already working toward the cleansing of the Temple from defilement, so he could be confident about asking YHWH to show them favor. They did not have enough resources, but they were trying their best. Scorn: We can read examples of this in Nehemyah chapters 4 and 6 and Ezra chapter 5, where the rebuilders of the city are mocked by the local authorities who were trying to intimidate them. They also derided them because they had said they were YHWH’s people, but now were in exile. (Lamentations 2:15-17)
17. “So now, our Elohim, listen to the intercession of Your servant and to his petitions for favor, and illuminate Your presence above Your deserted sanctuary, for my Master’s sake!
Illuminate: bring back the visible demonstration of His acceptance as He did when Aharon and Moshe blessed the people and dedicated the altar for use (Lev. 9:24) and when Shlomoh dedicated the Temple. (2 Chron. 7:1) Daniel is asking that YHWH do this again. For my Master’s sake: I.e., “Yes, we deserved this, but Your reputation does not. This is having undesirable side effects.”
18. “Bend down Your ear and listen; open Your eyes and notice our desolations and the city which is called by Your Name, because not on [account of] our righteousness do we interpose our pleas for favor before Your face, but on [account of] Your great compassions.
Which is called by Your Name: or, over which Your name is uttered. It is inextricably connected with His reputation. (See also v. 19.) Not on our account: We do not deserve this, but in order to fulfill our calling, we need it! King Shlomoh, in his own prayer, opened the door for Daniel’s prayer to be heard. (1 Kings 8:33-34) Some of these very phrases have been incorporated into the Vidui prayer for repentance used on Yom Kippur.
19. “O My Master! Hear, My Master! Pardon, my Master! Pay attention and act! Do not delay, for your own sake, O my Elohim! Because Your city and Your people are called by Your name!”
Do not delay: I.e., “Now that the seventy years are coming to an end, do not make us wait any longer than necessary for Yerushalayim to be restored. Please honor what You said.” (He appealed to YHWH’s justice in v. 16.) His own reputation of limiting His punishment to what He had threatened depended on this reproach being lifted. YHWH had orchestrated the destruction of the city and Temple; He had the house burned down because the wife for whom He had it built was cheating on Him. He did not even want to look at it anymore, and He sent them to Bavel. But He had never liked Bavel, and Daniel knows this. The strange visions he has seen have given him hope that YHWH might allow them to come back. It is like an estranged wife who is told by a mutual friend, “I saw your husband the other day, and he asked about you.” He gives these indirect hints that He might be open to giving them another try. So he says, in essence, “Is there any possibility You’d take us back? We’ll do whatever we have to do. You don’t even have to build the House again; we’ll do it.” Thus far Daniel has demonstrated the “Shema” in action: “Love YHWH your Elohim with all your heart, all your motivation, and all your resources.” He is doing nothing halfway.
20. And while I was [still] speaking--that is, interceding and confessing my error as well as the error of my people Israel, and causing my plea for favor to fall before YHWH my Elohim on [behalf of] the set-apart mountain of my Elohim--
My error: not just that of the people as a whole, but he takes his responsibility very personally, though he was probably too young to be responsible for any of this guilt while he was still living in Yerushalayim. But he wants to ensure that the problem from which he is, nonetheless, also suffering is remedied. He inherited a bad situation from his parents, and so it became his problem, though he had not brought it upon himself, nor was it his fault. The Torah offered us the choice of life and death, and though he did not get to make the choice himself, he is in the exile his ancestors were warned about. Someone else might have pushed him off the bridge into the water, but that does not mean he has to wait for someone else to come along before trying to come out. Daniel might at least ask, “Why did it take these crazy visions to make me see? Should the words of Yirmeyahu not been enough?” We are in exactly the same position today. Our fathers inherited lies. (Yirm. 16:19) But we should ask, “Why did I not recognize this sooner? Was it because we did not take that extra five minutes studying?” From that perspective, it is as much our fault as Yerov’am’s that the Northern Kingdom is still in exile though our time for being out of favor is up. By confessing that he shares in the responsibility, Daniel is putting himself in the right position to be healed.
21. while I was still speaking in prayer, then the man Gavriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being brought to exhaustion by wearying [speed], reached me around the time of the evening tribute-offering,
Gavriel is specifically called a man here—not an “angel”, not even a messenger as such, though that is clear from the context. Beginning: or piercing, profaning. Reached me: i.e., arrived; literally, touched me. He had been shown this man in the vision so that he would recognize him when he came. Now he was no longer merely a vision, but someone tangible. Note again how, though Daniel is in exile, his sense of time is based on what went on in the Temple while it was still intact. This is how a true Israelite marks time, even the time of day.
22. and he had insight and spoke with me, and said, “Daniel, just now I have come forward to give you circumspect understanding and discernment.
Had insight: partly in regard to the matter at hand, partly in regard to Daniel’s own plight. Circumspect understanding: skill, insight, comprehension, all-around wisdom; i.e., to show him the “big picture”.
23. “When your pleas for favor began, the word came forth, and I have come to report [it to you], because you are [much] desired. So [pay diligent attention to] understand the utterance, and cause what you see to be understood:
As soon as Daniel started praying, YHWH had told this one called Gavriel to set out for Persia to give this message to Daniel. He has been traveling so long and so hurriedly that he is exhausted. Might this be Yirmeyahu himself, called all the way back from having taken the daughter of the king of Yehudah (the legendary Tea Tephi) to Ireland for safety, arriving in time to see his own prophecy fulfilled? Desired: delighted in, beloved. As with Avraham, he may be saying, “Can I hide from YHWH’s prophet what I am going to do?”(Gen. 18:17; compare Amos 3:7.) Note that he also underlines the importance of making the message very clear. If he has done his job well, it is therefore not meant to be a very mysterious message.
24. “Seventy weeks are delineated in regard to your people and in regard to your set-apart city to restrict the rebellion and to seal up errors, to effect a covering for crookedness, and to bring righteousness of the ages, and to seal up vision and prophet, and to anoint the Holy of Holies.
Your people: He is thus identifying himself as someone who is not from the tribe of Yehudah as Daniel is. The fact that the Levitical priests are called “the messengers of YHWH” (Mal. 2:7) strongly suggests that he is one of them. Might this be Yirmeyahu himself, back from having taken the daughter of the king of Yehudah (the legendary Tea Tephi) to Ireland for safety? (See Yirmeyahu 1:1.) He is bringing clarity, as a priest is supposed to do. (See also Deut. 18.) Delineated: decreed, settled, marked out, determined. Note that He does not mention the Temple here; that was already permitted to be restored, but the rest had to wait. Restrict: restrain, bring to completion, finish off, hold back, forbid. Rebellion: transgression; in modern Hebrew, crime. Seal up: lock away, or possibly a misspelling for another word for finishing. Note that he does not speak of them ceasing to exist, but of being held at bay in a very forceful manner. Righteousness: justice, or simply what is right and normal (from YHWH’s perspective). Of the ages: or eternal, universal.
25. “So be aware and circumspectly understand that from the issuing of the word to restore and rebuild Yerushalayim until a conspicuous anointed one [there are] seven weeks, sixty, and two. It will return and be rebuilt—open plaza and restricted place—and with pressure of the times.
Conspicuous: or governor, leader, prince—but from a word meaning to make known or proclaim (i.e., the one who is a highly-visible leader). While many kings, priests, and prophets have been anointed, this one would stand out in a special way—like a banner lifted up so it could easily be seen. Yes, the 70 years were up, and something big would occur, for some have been diligent and not even waited for the time to be up, but went as soon as they were permitted to do so, and have been working in the face of much opposition and delay (Ezra 5:17, 6:1) to see that YHWH’s sanctuary be restored. Their efforts will therefore be honored, and the Temple itself will be therefore be completed by the time the seventy years are up. But not all the prerequisites for a complete restoration have been fulfilled. There would actually be a second 70 years (approx. 516 to 446 B.C.E.) to wait before the rest of the city could be brought back from its desolation. (See v. 2.) This seems to constitute a doubling of the sentence similar to that of the Northern Kingdom per Yirmeyahu 16:15-18. Does YHWH’s disappointment in Z’kharyah 1:12 (at the end of the 70 years) indicate that was this a case of the sentence needing to be extended to 7 times as long (Lev. 26:18), as was done for the Northern Kingdom? In other words, first He said “70 years”, but now He says “70 sevens”—or, could we say, “seven seventies” (since the form of the word for “weeks” is the masculine shavuim rather than the usual feminine form, shavuoth)? Is this conspicuous anointed one “THE Messiah”? In the context of this book, it could refer to Israel as a whole people (and Yeshayahu 41:8-9; 42:1 would support this on one level). Y’shua, the high priest in Ezra’s time, was certainly conspicuous--set up on a lampstand so everyone could see how Torah was to be lived out. We must not lock ourselves into only one possible interpretation. Sir Robert Anderson posited that this verse’s count of 69 weeks began in 445 B.C.E. (with the release of Nehemyah to go rebuild the city per Neh. 2:1) counting by 360-day years (based on 42 months of Rev. 13:5 and 1,260 days of Rev. 11:2-3 and 12:6 being the same length of time) –which breaks down to 173,880 days. He says this brings us to the very day of Yahshua’s being called king by many—on the 10th of Nisan, the day the “lamb” was selected. He was indeed made conspicuous on that day, and allowed it to be so for the first time, after having tried to keep largely “under the radar” for the three years or so before that. Whether it is that precise or not (and why should it not be?), it is at least too close to ignore the possibility, and no other major theory seems to work. Rashi says it is from the day of the first destruction in the days of Zedekiah until it will be [destroyed] the second time. But this is too long, stretching 656 years from 586 B.C.E. until 70 C.E. Others count the 483 years as we know them now (since the great calendar shift in 701 B.C.E.) from 457 B.C.E. (12 years before Nehemyah), when Ezra had gone back with Artakhshashta’s blessing, taking 5,000 returning exiles, and arrive at 27 C.E., when they say Yahshua was honored by the voice from heaven after his immersion, saying this constituted his “anointing”. There are many other variations, each with their own quirks and strong points. Certainly these all get us into the ballpark of his public life, so based on the sheer time frame, we cannot simply discount him altogether. Based on these very prophecies, apocalyptic speculation was at fever pitch in his day, as seen in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
26. “Then after the sixty-two weeks, the anointed will be cut down, and have nothing, and the people of the conspicuous one who is coming will cause both city and sanctuary to be ruined, and its cutting-off will be by a flood, and until the end of the war, appalling desolations are decided.
Cut down: or, cut off. This is probably a reference to Yeshua’s beiong killed. Have nothing: This may refer to Yeshua forfeiting his potential, rightful throne and opting to focus on the restoration of the other tribes of Israel to Torah. But it also may mean the allotment of seventy sevens was more like a deadline to accomplish all these things which had merely been patched, not really repaired, during the first seventy years. In other words, if you do not do what verse 24 says, verse 26 will come about. Just as the shofar blasts at Yom Teruah warn us that there are only ten days left for the harvest and for repentance, Yehudah was given only 490 years to “get it right”, or else there would be no framework for the Messiah to fit into. A kingdom infrastructure had to be in place for a king to take his throne, or we would need to wait for another go-round. History seems to bear this out, as do Yahshua’s own words in Matthew 23:29-38 as well as what he said about “seventy times seven” as being the limit of forgiveness. This is why Daniel was told so strongly to pay attention to the time frame (v. 25), for the “starting gun” was yet to come, but once it began there would be no room to dawdle. Conspicuous one: apparently different from the “conspicuous Messiah” of verse 25, and possibly his counterfeit and usurper of his throne. His people, apparently, are the Romans, who, 40 years later did destroy both the city and the Temple:
27. “And he will confirm a treaty for the many for one week, but at the midpoint of the week he will cause the slaughter and the tribute-offering to cease, and upon a wing, detestable things of one who horrifies, all the way up to the completion. Then that which was determined will be poured out over [what is] appalling.
Many people credit all of the accomplishments listed in verse 24 to Yahshua’s “work on the cross”, but while the math says this Messiah could be him, and he was a keystone in the effort, but he was no longer around by the time the slaughterings ended and the Temple was destroyed. He only planted the seeds within that time frame. He expected his students to finish the job. Many were fighting hard in a variety of ways to try to bring these ideals to reality, especially as they saw the time drawing to a close. Interestingly, the war of revolt against Rome spans seven years (66-73)—a “week”--and the Temple was destroyed at its midpoint, in 70 C.E. (another 70!). Is this “seven” separated from the other 69 by nearly 40 years? Did YHWH in mercy allow a whole generation for the lost sheep to be gathered by Yahshua’s followers before He started the clock ticking again for the final “week”? Or is that final week yet to come, as many believe? Is there at least another fulfillment of this yet to come? Will another formidable personage implement a seven-year “trial” period of “peace”, allowing the Temple to be rebuilt, then deciding it no longer suits his agenda because of world opinion? It does not seem at all implausible in the political climate of today’s Middle East. One who horrifies: The Al-Aqsa Mosque is actually on one “wing” of the Temple Mount, but this is more likely an idol of some type—and if it does refer to a modern context, it is probably a crucifix, for under Paul, Christianity was already beginning to get the movement off topic completely, thinking they were merely a “spiritual” Israel, so returning to our Homeland was no longer even a goal, let alone setting up a physical kingdom. People became comfortable with this, and the momentum was lost. A zealous few certainly tried their hardest to preserve the sanctity of Yerushalayim, but there just was not enough in place, with all too many Jews still “hating one another without a cause”, so YHWH’s judgment was that the House had to be destroyed again. Does this mean all hope is lost forever? Not at all. All the signs point to there being a door opened to us again, especially now that the Northern Kingdom has done its sevenfold time. Now both houses are available to do what Yehudah alone could not do. So we should not spend too much time trying to add up these years, and focus on adding up where we stand, how committed we are to seeing those goals in verse 24 fulfilled. When we do this, we will understand the meaning. It is not meant to be so intimidating. Daniel is a book of hope, not fortune-telling. But if we do not do our part, none of it will occur, for a prophecy is not a guarantee that things will come about in spite of what we do, but an impetus to get on the right track and work with YHWH to bring it about. Even once we get back to the Land, we will not have arrived. Will the next generation continue to walk up the steps we have built for them, or will they return to going in circles of vanity? The Kingdom is just the beginning. Who wants to get to the end, anyway? Torah—and life—are about the race, not the finish line. Ezra 4:6 speaks of the Akhashwerosh mentioned in verse 1, for the Temple was already being built, but progress was stalled. Chapter 6 has Daryawesh after him supporting the previous enactment of Koresh, which has been many years since, so this seems to be the same Daryawesh spoken of in this chapter.
CHAPTER 10
1. In year three belonging to Koresh, king of Paras, something was revealed to Daniel, whose name was called Beltesha’atzar, and the thing was true, but the army was large. And he understood the matter, and had insight into the vision:
This is in the preamble style very common all over the ancient Near East. Most documents followed a certain formula according to what they intended to convey, whether to tally one’s debt, make a contract of sale, etc. They usually included the date, as here, and mentioned the deity of the region in which they were written. Daniel, a learned scribe, knows the patterns (also exemplified by Hammurabi’s code, et al). Paras: that is, Persia. Army was large: or, warfare was long. Understood: or discerned, made a distinction. The thing was true: Essentially an oath, because he is about to make statements that might seem incredible, so he stakes his life on the fact that he is not lying about what he saw, though he does put in some disclaimers about his state of mind:
2. “In those days, I, Daniel, was a mourner for three weeks of days.
The reason Daniel changes person between verses one and two is that he is making a statement of witness to his own actions. Three weeks of days: Colin Heath suggests that Daniel was fasting because “there was a delay between the overthrow of the Babylonian Empire (Dan 5:30-31) and the decree of Koresh (Cyrus) which resulted in the release of the Jews (2 Chron 36:22-23 & Ezra 1:1-4). Daryawesh the Mede was the overall king of the Medo-Persians at the time of the fall of the Babylonian Empire and at that time Koresh (a Persian) was in his first year as the king of Persia. …By the third year of the reign of Koresh the Jews had still not been released!” Heath also suspects that “each of the three 'weeks' in this text is a reference to the [entire entity of the] seven weeks … which fell between the wave sheaf offering and the Feast of Weeks each year. It suggests that Daniel performed his 'mourning' at this time in the years following the victory of Daryawesh the Mede until the decree of Koresh.” (Daniel would have been familiar with the prophecies of Yeshayahu 44:28 and 45:1.) Interestingly, the date given in verse 4, if read as referring to the Hebrew calendar, would fall right during that time. Rashi agrees that the reason Daniel was mourning was that “he saw that Koresh had curtailed the construction of the Temple, for he had ordered to commence it, and he reneged because of the missive of the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin… as is written in the Book of Ezra (4:5).” Another possibility is that the now-common Jewish practice of fasting because of the fall of the Temple (from the 17th of the 4th month to the ninth of the 5th month) had already begun during the Babylonian captivity.
3. “I ate no desirable bread, nor did meat or wine enter my mouth, nor did I put any ointment on myself until three weeks of days were completed.
Desirable bread… meat… wine… ointment (anointing oil or scented oil): all luxury items that he could afford but which he chose to forego in order to humble himself before YHWH, as if at an extended Yom Kippur. He did eat during this time, but it was essentially a “bland diet”. But that he fasted from meat suggests that he normally did eat meat, though chapter 1:12-16 suggests that he had adopted a vegetarian diet during his exile. That was many years before this, and with his current position of influence he would have by this time not only been able to find access to but probably even instigate a source of true kosher food. Knowing how entrenched Jews became in Babylon, there was undoubtedly by now a well-established infrastructure for the distribution of kosher-slaughtered meat. While his disclaimer on the one hand shows that nothing he ate or drank affected his judgment (he was not under the influence of alcohol), he does allow for the possibility that, being very hungry, he might have been delusional, even if spiritually clean. Still, at any rate, he knew he was not lying about what he thought he had seen. Three weeks of days: possibly stated in this manner to emphasize that he is not speaking of “weeks of years” as in chapter 9, but simple literal days. Or this may suggest 21 otherwise-consecutive days but excluding the intermediate Sabbaths, which are meant to be days of joy, not mourning. In that case, the time would actually span 24 days, so it is interesting how the next verse begins:
4. “And on day twenty-four of the first month, as I came beside the great river, that is, [the] Hiddeqel,
If not the first Hebrew month, this would be the first Babylonian month, which is the seventh month on the Hebrew calendar, and this would then be immediately after Sukkoth and Shemini Atzereth. Having no temple to attend the festivals at, he at least went to the synagogue, for it has now been proven that synagogues had their origin in the Babylonian exile, and, as we see from Acts chapter 16, synagogues in the diaspora were usually built beside rivers, where there would be a natural supply of water acceptable for ritual purification, not to mention the fact that he had not bathed for three weeks. Hiddeqel is also the Hebrew name for the Tigris—one of the four rivers that flowed from the Garden of Eden. (Gen. 2:14) This may set the stage for the understanding of the vision.
5. “when I lifted up my eyes and watched, lo and behold, [there was] a single man clothed in [white] linen, with a belt of fine gold of Ufaz around his waist.
Gold of Ufaz: Rashi says this means it was studded with jewels, which would be reminiscent of the garments of Israel’s high priest.
6. “Also, his body was like a yellow gemstone, and the appearance of his face was like lightning, and his eyes were like torches of fire. His arms and legs were like the color of polished brass, and the sound of his words was like the noise of a crowd.
A yellow precious stone (possibly the transparent beryl) might be what Adam looked like before he fell, when he was said to have been a being of light rather than flesh. Daniel masterfully juxtaposes what Daniel looked and smelled like—gaunt, emaciated, and probably somewhat rank—with this paragon of shiny cleanness. Noise of a crowd: One must truly quiet his own heart to be able to hear the different voices, let alone YHWH’s “still, small voice”. This is one of the reasons the Sabbath is so valuable; even YHWH pauses to “meditate” every seventh day. Once one’s own heart is quieted down—an art most have a hard time with in our fast-paced, amazingly productive society—we must then have our filters in place to weed out what is not from YHWH, whether it be our own deceptive hearts or the philosophies we have been taught. This is not Zen meditation; the Torah forbids us from consulting with our ancestors, even if their voices are among those we hear at such times.
7. “And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, while the men who were with me did not see the vision. Nonetheless, an intense shaking fell on them, and they hurried to hide themselves.
The men who were with me: There seems to always be someone with Daniel when he prays, probably because he understood that he was not as effective alone. These men in particular were probably his students, possibly including Zoroaster this time. Paul’s experience on the road to Damaseq was reminiscent of this. Others knew there was something going on, but were not sure what. They might have been fasting as well, but were either not as studied or not as dedicated as he. If knowledge is lacking, a vision will not be understood by its recipient. Conversely, the more one knows, the more he will be able to see or hear. YHWH longs to work with us, but we must provide Him with “building materials” so He has something to work with. Daniel was not only aware that something was going on in the spiritual realm, but knew how to decipher what it was. Had the others been as spiritually-attuned, they might have seen it as well. Most such visions will require that we change our lifestyles radically, and he was willing to do that, unlike those who asked Moshe, whose face also glowed, to be their intermediary at Sinai.
8. “So I was left alone while I saw this great vision, and there was no firmness left in me, because my dignity in regard to myself was changed into decay, and I [could] summon no strength.
This prefigures Yahshua’s being left alone during His greatest struggle. Dignity: or splendor, honor, even complexion. It seems he went very pale and his legs went all wobbly, and one may imagine that he lost control of other muscles as well.
9. “Yet I heard the sound of his words, and as I heard the sound of his words, I ended up on my face, unconscious, [lying] with my face on the ground.
Unconscious: stunned; he may have fainted. He was speechless, with his “head swimming”; he was not sure what to think. But the term can also mean a deep sleep, the same as was brought over Adam when YHWH was about to bring about Chawwah, and used for the stupor into which Paul said all Israel had fallen until the fullness of the Gentiles is brought in (based on Yeshayahu 29:10) So one would expect some sort of fruitfulness to result from this state when it came over Daniel as well.
10. “Then, lo and behold, a hand touched me, and set me up, tottering, on my knees and the palms of my hands,
Tottering: or trembling, disturbed, staggering. Is this some progression of steps taken in a prayer or courtroom ritual that might be preserved in some respect by the motions Muslims go through when praying today? Or is he simply overwhelmed and debilitated by the intensity of the vision—or, we could just as well translate it “the sight” (that which he saw)? This would be just as faithful to the Hebrew, and would demystify what may or may not be something of an other-worldly nature. After doing his homage to this formidable personage, he is raised back to his feet to be reminded that the other is also just a man and before YHWH they are on equal footing—much like Yochanan’s vision of Yahshua in Revelation 22:8-9.
11. “and said to me, ‘Daniel—man [who is much] desired—make the words that I speak to you be understood, and stand upon your place, because I have been dispatched to you.’ So at the word which he said to me, I stood up, trembling.
Much desired: This is the same word used of “coveting” in the tenth commandment, and thus it means a man who is “much in demand”. It is also the same word used for the type of food Daniel refrained from eating (v. 3) while he focused on what mattered more to him. A man who was in the position to choose any lifestyle he wished chose to do without in order to hear more clearly what was desirable to YHWH. He was like one who did not eat the last of the crop, but saved it as seed so that later generations could more fully experience the covenant. His actions brought about the fulfillment of the prophecies of restoration because he led his students in confessing their sins. (Compare 9:23.) As when Yahshua’s students asked him why he told the meanings of his parables to them and not the crowds, YHWH likes—prefers—those whose hearts are inclined to pleasing Him. (It was the favor given to his mother that made Yahshua the Messiah, as badly as this concept has been twisted by the unlearned and unstable.) Daniel wants YHWH’s presence back among His people. Stand: or, take your stand. However overwhelmed he was personally, he had a responsibility to fulfill.
12. “And he told me, ‘Don’t be afraid [of anything], Daniel, because from the first day you devoted your heart to providing understanding and to lowering yourself before your Elohim, your words were heard, and at your words, I came.
At your words: this may mean “as soon as you spoke” or “by your own words”, which summoned him.
13. “‘But the ruler of the kingdom of Paras stood in opposition to me [for] twenty-one days, but then came Mikha’el, one of the foremost rulers, came to my aid while I was detained there with the royalty of Persia.
Paras: i.e., Persia. Mikha’el means “Who is like Elohim?” Was detained: the term has the sense of overflowing, i.e., staying longer than he should have. Royalty: the plural form of the word for “king”. Rashi says his opposition was with the intent “to battle with me in heaven by requesting an extension for the kingdom for Persia to enable them to subjugate you (Israel).” This is a spiritual prince that operates behind the physical government of a nation. Verse 20 has a parallel description of the ruler of Greece. (More about this at verse 21.) The book of Jubilees (15:31-32) says YHWH placed lesser spirits over the nations (a few examples of which are seen in Dani’el 10:20), while He placed no such sub-ruler over Israel, being our own Ruler directly.
14. “‘But I have arrived to bring you understanding of what will befall your people in the lattermost of days, because [the] vision is still for days [from now].’
Or, “there is yet a vision for those days”. Rashi said its purpose is “to tell you what has not yet been told, and it will come in many days at an appointed time.”
15. “And while he was speaking with me such words as these, I put my face to the ground and was [struck] speechless.
16. “Then there came [one] resembling [the] sons of Adam [and] touched my lips, and I opened my mouth and started speaking. And I said to the one standing in front of me, ‘My master, because of the vision, my pangs have begun to come over me, and I have no strength left!
This is similar to what occurred with Yeshayahu in chapter 6 of his prophecy. My pangs: Rashi has, “my joints turned”, saying this means they were “dislocated from their place out of much trembling and quaking”.
17. “‘And how can the servant of this master of mine speak with this, my master, since from this time forth there will arise no strength in me, and there is no breath left in me?’”
Rashi explains, “He refers to himself as a servant, and to the angel as ‘my master,’ i.e., to say, ‘How will your servant be able to speak with you?’”. Breath: or spirit; Heb., neshamah, the word for the “second soul” that is said to be given to us on the Sabbath, and also the term for the “breath” of life that YHWH breathed into Adam. (Gen. 2:7) It is used again in Gen. 7:22 of the flood in which “all in whose nostrils was the breath of life perished.” In other words, he was suffocating and thought he would die from the sheer shock which the vision gave him.
18. So once again one with the appearance like a human being touched me and restored my strength,
19. and he said, “Don’t be afraid, O man [who is much] desired. Peace be to you. Get a grip! Yes, get a firm grasp!” And as he spoke to me, I was able to summon my strength, so I said, “Let my master speak, because you have made me strong.”
Peace: better, “total well-being”. Get a grip: This encouragement from a person with the right authority did provide the strength he needed.
20. So he said, “Do you [now] understand why I have come to you? And now I will go back to do battle with the ruler of Paras. When I have gone out, then the ruler of Yawan will arrive.
He only hints at why he has come. Yawan is Greece. As he learned in 8:21 and as he has seen in all of the preceding dreams and visions, Greece is the great power that will follow Persia in the series of world empires. Down the line, it turned out to be much more cruel against Israel than Persia.
21. “But I will inform you of what is inscribed in the Document of Truth, and there is no one who withstands with me in regard to these things, except Mikha’el, your ruler.
Withstands: Rashi explains it as, “the document of the decree is true, but not one of the heavenly princes is exerting himself to assist me with all these, except…” Your ruler: the “your” is plural, so he is speaking of Daniel’s people, Yehudah, or possibly all of Israel. Just as he mentions a ruler of Persia and one of Greece, this Mikha’el seems to be their counterpart who stands for all of Israel in YHWH’s eyes. These are taken to be angelic beings, and we even see evidence of this interpretation in the name “Michelangelo”! This may be the case, but we cannot assume so. Deut. 32:8 says, “When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.” Some manuscripts read “of the sons of Elohim.” Since “sons of Elohim” is elsewhere used as a term for non-human spiritual beings (Gen. 6:2; Iyov 1:6), these three rulers may be examples of those. But it is easy to get carried away with these, and some have spent voluminous time praying against “territorial spirits” by name, which is probably largely a waste of time, especially with the Torah’s prohibition against having the names of other mighty ones on our lips.(Ex. 23:13) There is probably something to it; here we may at least be given a glimpse of the responsibilities of angels—if that is what these are. Interestingly, demons as such are not mentioned in the Torah, which means any focus on them should have a low priority, at best. Only later did terms like “ostriches” and “screech owls” come to be used as idioms or metaphors for demons. In the Renewed Covenant there are many mentions of demons. It is possible that greater clarity came later, but we must consider how comparatively few mentions of “extraterrestrial” beings there are in Scripture and not let our fascination with them grow disproportionate. Overspritiualizing such messages tends to make us think we are relieved of the responsibility to help fulfill the vision. Like Daniel, our concentration must be on the task at hand, no matter how intense the vision. The rest of Scripture would suggest that there is a more practical way to interpret this. As we saw with Y’hezq’el’s strange “wheels within wheels”, the message was not so mysterious after all; it was just another way of viewing the camp of Israel. If we see this man’s garments as reminiscent of the high priest (v. 5), several possibilities open to us. Since he is called “one man”, we can connect him with the faithful of Israel who come together as one man to rededicate the Temple, over which the high priest presides. (Ezra 3:1; Nehemyah 8:1) Yehudah operated as one man when reinstating David as king after Avshalom’s revolt, when they were the last tribe to return to him. (2 Shmu’el 19:14) We again see Israel operating as one man in Judges chapter 20. This fits better with the previous visions in Daniel than something projected backward from the Book of Revelation, understood from a Gentile point of view. Notice how much of the same imagery as in this chapter is used in Ezra 8:18-21, which describes the preparation of the people who were determined to go back and rebuild the Temple, after they were able to find some priests to go along with them. (8:15-17) We might even see a hint of the same imagery in the two men who struggle with one another (Lev. 24:10-11) when we compare this “one man” with the other “man” depicted in Nevukhadnetzar’s image and the succeeding visions in which he is the conglomeration of Gentile rulers. This is the battle in the unseen realms that we are meant to see here, for it is an epic one, but must be seen in context and from the right perspective. The imagery in verse 6 of flames of fire (correlating with the menorah), legs of polished brass (for the laver in which the priests washed their hands and feet was of the same material), and the noisy crowd all suggest that this is a vision of the high priest back in his proper setting, the Temple, though the sanctuary is not yet rebuilt at the time Daniel sees it, for the high priest, when he enters the sanctuary, is there as a single representative of the entire, unified people of Israel, as shown by the fact that he bears the names of all the tribes to remind him of why he is there. It is a message of hope of restoration—the very message we need today. And more, we had inklings that this messenger might be Yirmeyahu the prophet himself. We know that when he was imprisoned by the king, he was still treated with “kid gloves” when anyone else would have probably already been executed; this indicates that there is some line the king is afraid to cross, despite his own rebellion against YHWH. We also know he was a priest as well as a prophet (Yirm. 1:1), and that, though he was a very young man, he had a scribe of his own. This is very unusual, unless it means he was being groomed to be a very important priest—possibly even the high priest. While by the time his father died the Temple was already destroyed and he did not get to fulfill this role literally, YHWH may be showing him through this vision—or simply his appearance in these “golden vestments” as the high priest’s garments were called, that this is his true position, much as it is suspected that Yochanan the Immerser should have been the high priest in Yahshua’s day if it were not for the same corrupt group of usurpers who also kept Yahshua from his rightful throne. To those who care, he comes and operates in his proper role, and the release of some of Yehudah to go rebuild the Temple is accomplished.
CHAPTER 11
1. “Now as for myself, in year of Daryawesh the Mede, I was standing as one who made him firm and protected him.
Myself: This is still the messenger speaking to Daniel, though it is no longer a vision. It is simply a prophecy, given to bring clarity to Daniel, who has been troubled by the confusing imagery in which the visions about the same events have been couched. He cares what it means because it will be relevant to his people as they return to the Land of Israel. As a Kenyan proverb says, “When two elephants fight, the grass is what gets hurt.” The holy land is right in the middle of the vicissitudes of the superpowers we will see battling back and forth in this chapter. This may have been one of his concerns. He reasoned that he had been shown these visions because they relate to the restoration of the Kingdom. Because Daniel searched for clarity with fasting and earnest prayer, the clarity came even when he was not in a trance, giving us hope that we, too, can come to an understanding of the same information and its relevance to Israel today.
2. “So now, truth I will recount to you: Pay attention! Three more kings will arise in Paras, then the fourth will be rich with greater wealth than them all, and as his grip becomes firm through his wealth, the whole will start inciting the kingdom of Yavan.
The approximate date that this prophecy was given was 535 B.C.E. (the third year of Koresh, per 10:1). The three Medo-Persian kings that followed Koresh were his son, Cambyses II (530-522 B.C.E.), Gaumata the Magian (also known as pseudo-Smerdis, who reigned for a short time as an impostor in 522 B.C.E.), and the Persian Daryawesh I (known as Daryawesh or Darius the Great – 522-486 BCE), who was married to the daughter of Koresh. The fourth king is known in Greek-based records as Xerxes (486-465 B.C.E.), but in Scripture as Akhashwerosh, the husband of Esther/Hadassah. (Thanks to the work of Brian Huie and Dale DePriest for much of the historical research cited in this chapter.) Start inciting: After making many preparations and gaining allies even among the smaller city-states of Greece, Akhashwerosh brought a two-million man army against Greece, and was victorious at first, but was defeated at Salamis (480 B.C.E.), and this set the tone for the remainder of the war which continued under the successors of Akhashwerosh, for it was this thrust that brought about the Delian defensive league and set the stage for a strong Greek ruler:
3. “Then a heroic king will stand up and rule with great dominance, and do as he wishes,
A heroic king: Alexander of Makedon, the “conspicuous horn” of 8:21. Do as he wishes: He killed Daryawesh III (Codomanus) and overran his empire. This was in 333 B.C.E., over a hundred years after the events of verse 2, but he was really the next notable world ruler in matters pertaining to Yehudah.
4. “but as he stands up, his kingdom will be broken up and divided to the four winds of the skies, but not to his posterity nor according to the authority with which he ruled, because his kingdom will be uprooted and [given] to others besides these.
Broken: Alexander died at the age of 33. Four winds: An apt comparison, for his kingdom was indeed divided between four of his generals, and none of them was his posterity. Several members of his family did vie for power immediately after his death, but none of them held it long except his brother. Their story reads much like that of the family of Herod: full of intrigue and backstabbing. Two of the original generals who were heir to his empire were also killed off, leaving the lines drawn as follows by 301 B.C.E.: Cassander ruled over Greece, Lysimakhus in Asia Minor, Seleukus I (Nicator) ruled over Babylonia and Persia, and Ptolemy I ruled Egypt (and Judea). Their kingdom was indeed not as strong as that of Alexander. They correlate with the four heads of the leopard in 7:6, and the details are spelled out here without allegory. What was once a winged beast with horns is now a people. Daniel, who did not rest on his laurels and live in luxury as he could have but kept seeking more understanding and, better still, teaching what he knew, had greater focus and could therefore be trusted with more knowledge, for he had proven he would use it for the betterment of the people of Israel. Helping others to see what you have seen enables you to see it more clearly as well.
5. “Then the king of the south will gain a firm hold. Then one of his leaders will start to have a firm grip above him, and will dominate, and his dominion will be a great dominion!
Rashi puts it thus: “The head who will reign in the south will be stronger than the head opposite him who reigns in the north, and [stronger] than his officers.” Seleukus killed Lysimakhus in battle in 281 B.C.E., so the four heads had essentially been reduced to two superpowers.
6. “After years, they will finally begin to join themselves together, and the daughter of the king of the south will approach the northern king to make an agreement, but she will not retain the power of the arm, and neither he nor his arm will stand, and she will be given over along with the one who brought her, the one who begot her, and the one who firmly supported her in [those] times.
This woman is Berenike, daughter of Ptolemy II (Philadelphus), who sent her to the king of the north, Antiokhus II, to unite their kingdoms through marriage. These were the terms for ending the warring between the two remaining branches of the Greek Empire, but they fell apart because Antiokhus was already married. He divorced his wife Laodike for the sake of peace and to regain the parts of Syria that his father had lost to the Ptolemies, but after Ptolemy II died, he repudiated Berenike to return to Laodike. However, the latter no longer trusted him and quickly poisoned him, and persuaded her son to kill Berenike and her infant son.
7. “But out of an offshoot of her roots, one in his office will rise up and approach the army, and will enter into the refuge of the king of the north, and he will act against them, and will prevail.
Ptolemy III, eldest son of Ptolemy II, was angered by his sister Berenike’s murder, and successfully invaded Syria’s Seleukus II, son of Antiokhus, killing Laodike and taking a key fortress on the Tigris in the process.
8. “And he will even bring their elohim with their molten images and with their desirable articles of silver and gold into exile in Egypt, and he will endure for years longer than the king of the north.
Ptolemy III recovered many of the idols that the Persian forces of Cambyses had taken during their conquest of Egypt about 300 years before this, acquiring silver in the form of tribute in addition to the gold of spoils. He also indeed survived Seleukus II by four to five years after the latter died in a fall from his horse. His son was also killed by conspirators while on a military campaign in Asia Minor (now Turkey).
9. “Then the king of the south will come into his kingdom, but return to his own land,
The “king of the south” and “king of the north” are clearly not just two individual men, but two dynasties. An alternate translation is “Also, he will come to the kingdom of the king of the south, but return…” Indeed, history bears out both sides of the Hebrew ambiguity: When Ptolemy III (south) was poised to completely take over the Seleukid kingdom (north), the latter counterattacked targets within Ptolemy’s own land, and he had to turn back to fight him there. Seleukus II (Callinicus, of the north) tried to invade Egypt (south) to gain revenge for the humiliation he had suffered, but had to return to his land after his fleet perished in a storm.
10. “but his sons will stir themselves up and assemble a noisy crowd of huge armies, and one will certainly enter and overrun [the other] and cross over, then he will return and be excited—[that is], to his stronghold.
Seleukus II’s two sons sought to restore Syria’s lost prestige through conquest, and one of them, Seleukus III, was assassinated by his own generals because he could not pay his army, as all the riches of his kingdom had been plundered by Egypt. The other, Antiokhus III, retook Syria, driving the Egyptians back to the southern border of Israel by 217 B.C.E.
11. “Then the king of the south will become bitterly enraged and will go out and fight with him (with the king of the north), and though he will raise up an abundant crowd, the crowd will be given into his hand,
The same year, Ptolemy IV (Philopater) attacked and defeated Antiokhus III at the Battle of Rafia in Gaza, though the latter had 62,000 infantry, 6,000 horsemen, and 103 war elephants!
12. “and when he has carried away the crowd, his heart will be lifted up, and though he will make tens of thousands fall, he will not prevail:
Not prevail: or, not be strengthened by it. Ptolemy did not finish the job of settling affairs after his victory, apparently being eager to return to his luxurious estate in Egypt and live in decadence, and so left hastily, leaving the important port city of Seleukia (in Phoenicia) in the hands of Antiokhus III, with whom he concluded a peace rather than taking over his realm. This left Antiokhus an open door for recovery. His heart was also lifted up in the sense that he presumed to enter the Holy Place in Yerushalayim’s Temple to YHWH. His lazy self-indulgence made him slack, and he lost what he had gained; his own army turned on him and even the southern part of Egypt seceded. So we are seeing the typical pattern of Gentile powers: going back and forth with their battles, but getting nowhere, but rather ending up in the very same geographical positions. It is Shlomoh’s “vanity of vanities”—a zero-sum game except that many lives are wasted. This contrasts radically with the vision Daniel has been given of a Kingdom that will last forever. These kingdoms clearly will not. While Greece and Egypt are still nations today, they are nothing but has-beens. Any kingdom that will remain strong must clearly be underwritten by YHWH Himself. He allows others to do what they need to do, but they will not last, and Daniel realizes this long before it plays out, because he has devoted himself to study. His vision is better because more knowledge and experience has enabled him to focus better. He speaks in generalities, possibly because he is still seeing “through a glass darkly” and knew he had more to learn before he could be more certain about specifics, and probably to leave room for a later fulfillment with different specific players in the north and south (for a cardinal rule in Jewish interpretation of prophecy is “what has been is what will be”). But on the other hand, it is far too detailed to be merely a prognostication and guesswork. He was a major scholar with access to pretty much anything ever written in every major language, because he was part of a kingdom that absorbed many other peoples and valued knowledge. (Alexander the Great learned from the Persians and, despite his bloody viciousness, he formed great repositories of knowledge. He had the works of Bavel, Persia, and other nations translated into Greek rather than destroying them as the Church and the Muslims later would. He put worthy people in power, and made libraries much more accessible to those he conquered.) Yet Daniel still did not have nearly as much as we do. What took him years to amass, we can gain from just one day’s study on the Internet! “To whom much is given, much is required!” We cannot let our resources sit unused. If we master this, we can wear “royal robes” as Daniel did.
13. “When the king of the north returns, he will raise up a crowd even greater than the first, and toward the end of the times of years, he will certainly come with a large army and with abundant equipment.
14 years later, after Ptolemy IV’s death and successful campaigns in Persia and India, Antiokhus III rallied his now-larger forces and resumed the battle with Egypt, whose ruler, Ptolemy Epiphanes, was only a child.
14. “And in those times, many will rise up against the king of the south, and the sons of the violent breakers of your people will take it upon themselves to make the vision stand, but they will stumble.
In 199 B.C.E., Antiokhus retook the territory he had occupied 18 years earlier in the Holy Land, with a crushing defeat of the Egyptians at Banyas in the Golan Heights at the headwaters of the Yarden River. Many Jews voluntarily joined him and provided for his army, and helped them besiege the garrison at Yerushalayim, but when Antiokhus’ son later came against Yerushalayim, none of these kindnesses were remembered. But when he withdrew for the winter, the Egyptian commander Scopas retook Judea, including Yerushalayim. Make the vision stand: Possibly a reference to the prophecy in Yeshayahu 19:19 which speaks of an altar being built in the midst of Egypt at a time when Egypt and Israel will live as brothers. At Elephantine (Yeb), an island in the middle of the Nile at the border of Egypt and Nubia, there was a large Jewish colony that began as a military installation under King Menashe, and is best known from papyri written in the fifth century B.C.E. It even included temple to YHWH, which some say included a copy of the ark of the covenant (probably the one now hidden away by Ethiopian Christians). Since Egypt allows mainly only its own archaeologists on the site, it is not known to what extent this temple replicated the one in Yerushalayim. YHWH, however, constantly discouraged any type of Israelite return to Egypt. (Yirm. 31:1; Hoshea 9:3) So how could this stand?
15. “Then the king of the north will come and pour out a siege mound and capture the most-defensible parts of the city, and the arms of the south will not stand up, nor will his choice people, and there will be no strength to stand.
Siege mound: Even the words of the prophet sound “cleaned up”, for a siege is a horrifying thing. The besieging army is trying to weaken the defenders and drive them to starvation so they will surrender. They close off all access to food, and, if possible, water. Read the accounts of the extremes to which the besieged in Shomron were drive in 2 Kings chapters 6 and 7. Most defensible: or best-fortified. Choice people: his best soldiers. Scopas fled to the fortified port city of Tzidon. But after Antiochus III besieged it, Scopas surrendered in 199 BCE in exchange for safe passage out of the city back to Egypt. He and his troops were allowed to leave the city naked after giving up their weapons.
16. “But the one who comes toward him will do what he wants, and none will remain standing before him. Then he will stand within the honored Land, and all of it [will be] in his hand.
For the final time, Antiokhus took the Holy Land from Egypt. He was received with open arms, but eventually another meaning of the Hebrew phrase “all of it” would take effect: that of being consumed, i.e., completely taken, even destroyed.
17. “Then he will set his face to come with the authority of his entire dominion, and upright ones along with it. And he will do [it]. And the daughter of women will be given to him for the slaughtering, but she will not stand [on his side], nor will she be for him.
Jerome reports that in 194 B.C.E., instead of continuing with the policy of frontal attack, Antiokhus III tried by means of a treaty with Ptolemy V to gain control of the rest of the empire. His dream was to reunite Alexander’s empire under his own authority, and secure Ptolemy’s neutrality in his war with Rome. He offered his daughter, Cleopatra I, to Ptolemy as a wife, and as a dowry Ptolemy surrendered his holdings in Syria and Judea (the “upright ones”) to Antiokhus, who hoped his daughter would betray Ptolemy. But Cleopatra stood by her new husband rather than using her position to advance her father’s intrigues.
18. “Then he will turn his face to the coastlands and capture multitudes, but a commander will make his reproach cease for his own behalf, without his reproach coming back on himself.
After his victory over Scopas, Huie writes, “In 192 BCE, the ambitious Antiochus III crossed into Greece to aid the Aetolians. He sent ambassadors[including Rhodinus] to Rome asking for friendship. However, the Roman senate replied that they would be friends if Antiochus III left the Greeks in Asia free and independent and if he kept away from Europe. Antiochus III refused, and went to war against Rome.” Hannibal, who was exiled to Rome, sided with Antiokhus III, who sailed across the Aegean with 10,000 men and took some strongholds in Asia Minor and its islands. But by doing so, he alienated his former ally, the Makedonian king Philip V. The Roman army followed behind and defeated most of Antiokhus’ forces at the Battle of Magnesia in 190. Make his reproach cease: Two years later, in the treaty of Apamea, Roman general Publius Scipio set a high cost on Antiochus III for peace. He demanded twenty hostages (including his own son, Antiokhus IV), the reduction of his warships to a mere twelve, and payment for the costs of the war (which came to 15,000 talents) over twelve years. Huie writes, “The all-consuming ambition of Antiokhus’ had finally brought defeat to the kingdom of the North.” Without his reproach coming back: Scipio had rebuffed the reproach against Rome, and his reputation remained untarnished.
19. “Then he will turn his face back to the safety of his own land, but he will be made to stumble and fall, and he will not be found.
This loss to Rome brought major difficulties back home. The outlying provinces reasserted their independence from the Seleukid empire, which was reduced to Syria, Mesopotamia, and western Iran, making it very difficult for them to pay Rome the damages they demanded. He had to raise taxes in a way that was burdensome to his people. In 187 B.C.E. he was killed. One story says it was while he was trying to plunder a pagan temple near Shushan. But there are two other versions of how he died, one being that he died in battle and another that he was killed by his own people because of these high taxes. This may be why it says “he will never be found”; to this day no one knows for certain just how he died. In yet another version, Rashi comments, on verse 18 and this one, “His reproach and his blasphemy, with which he blasphemed the Holy One, blessed be He, and Israel, as is written in the book of Josephus (ch. 20), ‘and He punished him, for He smote him with evil boils while he was in transit, for he went to besiege Jerusalem, and his flesh became putrid, his limbs fell off and he ordered his slaves to bring him back to Antioch, but he did not manage to get there before he died of evil illnesses.’”
20. “Then one who causes a tribute of the splendor of the kingdom to go across will stand up in his same [place], but within a few days he will be broken, but not through anger or through war,
The kingdom: that is, Yehudah. Antiokhus III's eldest son, Seleukus IV (also known as Philopater), took over after his father's death. Due to the heavy debt burden imposed by Rome, he taxed the Jews heavily. Dale DePriest reports that Shim’on the Binyamite, in spite against the high priest Onias III, provided them with information about the treasures of YHWH’s Temple, telling him there was enough treasure there to pay off his entire debt, and since Seleukus had gotten Cleopatra’s dowry back from Egypt, Judea was under their control, and so Seleukus IV sent his minister Heliodorus to plunder it. However, he did not do so. The Roman senate permitted an exchange of hostages, and in order to have Seleukus’ younger brother, Antiokhus IV, released, they ordered Seleukus IV to send his son Demetrius, the heir to the throne, to Rome. Antiokhus IV then went to Athens. In 175 BCE, after Demetrius had been sent away to Rome, Seleukus IV was poisoned by Heliodorus. Some historians think he desired the throne for himself, but others believe Antiokhus IV was behind the murder. His “few days” was therefore 12 years—much shorter than Antiokhus III’s 37. Seleukus' younger son, also named Antiokhus–who was then five years old—was put on the throne in his place. However, Heliodorus was the actual power behind the throne.
21. “and in his place will arise one who is held in contempt, and they will not give him the honor of a kingdom, but he will come quietly and seize [the] kingdom by smooth [talk].
Smooth talk: literally, slipperiness, an idiom for intrigue. The rightful heir to Seleukus’ throne was Demetrius, but he had been sent to Rome as a hostage. When Antiokhus IV heard of his brother Selukus’ death, he quickly sailed to Pergamum and sought assistance from its king, Eumenes II. By flattering Eumenes II and his brother Attalus, he won their support and backing. So when Antiokhus IV arrived in Seleukia, he had a powerful ally and was thus able to thwart Heliodorus' designs on the throne. He became co-regent and protector of Seleukus IV's five-year-old son Antiokhus. In 170 BCE, the younger Antiokhus was, in Huie’s words, “murdered while Antiochus IV was conveniently absent, paving the way for him to take sole possession of the throne…Because of his ability to charm people and ally himself with them, Antiochus IV Epiphanes was able to overcome all threats to his throne.” Held in contempt: Despite his mastery of the flattering tongue, he was really a double-crosser. Also, because he did not act like a king, but preferred to frequent battlegrounds for entertainment and the company of “those who sang vile songs”, he was nicknamed “Epimanes” (madman) as a word play on his desired title, Epiphanes (an avatar or manifestation of the deity). That he had “the eyes of a man” (7:8) suggests this earthy, “low-life” behavior. In 1 Maccabees 1:10, he is described as “a wicked root”. 2 Maccabees 4:21-35 describe his “abominable actions toward the Jews”. They had never suffered as much as they did under his rule. DePriest writes, “He is the little horn of 8:9-12, 23-25. He also foreshadows one who will again desecrate the sanctuary.” When Daniel saw that vision of him, he was physically sick for days. How much more of this terrible personage did he see than what he wrote down? This sets the stage for the story of the Maccabees, who are celebrated at the festival of Hanukkah. We could call him “the Haman of Hanukkah”.
22. “Then with the force of a flood, they will be swept away from before him, and they will be broken, even the prince of the covenant.
Force of a flood: literally, arms of overflowing or outrage. When Ptolemy Philometer, son of Cleopatra and sister of Antiokhus, was a boy, his guardians tried to recover Syria and Judea for him, But in the ensuing war, Philometer’s generals were vanquished, and Pelusium, the key of Egypt, taken by Antiokhuis (171 BCD). Prince of the covenant: a reference to Onias III, the Jewish high priest in Yerushalayim at the time of Antiokhus IV’s succession to the throne. This is not the first time in Daniel that a high priest is called a prince. Onias’ brother Y’hoshua, who had become Hellenized (changing his name to Jason), made a deal with Antiokhus: he would pay Antiochus IV a large bribe if he would remove Onias and make him high priest in his place. So Antiokhus IV forced Onias (the legitimate priest) out and installed Jason as high priest in 174 BCE. Two years later, Jason sent a priest named Menelaus to Antiokhus with his tribute money, but Menelaus took Jason's money, added some of his own, and bribed Antiokhus IV to secure the high priesthood for himself. Menelaus returned to Jerusalem and deposed Jason, who fled for his life. These are the first of many instances in which the priesthood was bought, both under the Greeks and Romans. Disgust with the corruption in the higher echelons at the Temple is thought to have been the reason for the founding of the Qumran community, thought to have been made up largely of legitimate priests so fed up with the impostors that they could not stomach being around the Temple, and tried to find alternate means to live out their calling and to decipher prophecies for guidance in how to recover the proper leadership according to Torah.
23. “And from [the time] they join themselves in league with him, he will deal deceitfully, and he will ascend and become mighty with a tiny nation.
Deceitfully: through misleading and beguiling. In Egypt, 14-year old Ptolemy VI Philometer (nephew of Antiochus IV) had become king. His mother (Cleopatra I) was Antiokhus’ sister. Antiokhus therefore IV sought an alliance with him, wanting to take advantage of what he perceived as weakness in the Ptolemaic kingdom, setting his sights on gaining Egypt for himself. Claiming to come to act as his nephew’s “protector”, he moved into Egypt through Syria and Judea with a very small army, so as to not arouse suspicion to his true motive.
24. “He will enter with ease even into the richest of a magisterial district, and he will do what neither his fathers nor his fathers’ fathers have done: scatter to them both plunder and possessions, and in regard to the strongholds he will devise his plans, all the way up until [a particular] occasion.
With ease: or quietly, peaceably, being at rest. Huie writes, “Antiochus IV pursued a novel plan for gaining the Egyptian-controlled provinces. He moved into the parts of the kingdom that were the richest. Then he did something that no other Seleucid king had ever done. Antiochus IV spread around some of the spoils from his war campaigns to secure the loyalty of the people. …He spent much on the public (I Mac. 3:30). It is even reported that he would go into the streets and throw money to the citizens there. However, this was only the beginning of Antiochus IV's plan. Using his cunning, he visited Egyptian strongholds to find out their power.” He was making reparations to those he had overrun a few years earlier. Even the most wicked of rulers endeared himself to the people because he co-opted a Torah principle: share the spoils even with those who have not fought. Pontius Pilatus used a Torah principle of washing his hands of guilt. In both cases, it worked even for them. The Torah is that on which the world revolves; it works as well for the left hand as for the right. John Hulley records in Comets, Jews, and Christians how the inventions most beneficial to mankind have all come from places that at least partially kept the Torah. Even Hitler used some of its principles and prospered for a time. Of course, it requires greater righteousness to get very far with it. Imagine how the world would benefit if we walked in it 100 per cent! Israel would be completely undefeated and could turn the whole world into a paradise, if we stick to it over the long haul.
25. “Then he will muster his power and his courage against the king of the south with a large army, then the king of the south will be incited to battle with a large army and vast to the extreme, yet he will not remain firm, because they will devise plans against him.
Huie notes, “In 170 BCE, when Antiochus IV felt secure about the state of his own kingdom, he decided to take Egypt by force in what came to be known as the Sixth Syrian War. He regarded Ptolemy VI as a weak ruler and therefore not capable of successfully waging war against him. Antiochus IV was able to move his army to the border of Egypt before he was met by the Egyptians at Pelusium, which is near the Nile Delta. The Egyptians had a large army arrayed against him there. Antiochus, risking death by riding into the midst of the battle of Pelusium, ordered the Egyptians to be taken alive instead of slain. By this policy, he gained Pelusium and later took Memphis.”
26. “Even those who eat a portion from his [table] will break him in pieces, and engulf his army, and many will fall, mortally pierced.
Huie writes, “Ptolemy VI's army, although large, was not able to withstand Antiochus IV. In large part, this was due to the intrigues of Antiochus IV, who corrupted several of the Egyptian ministers and officers. This was one of the main causes of the defeat of Ptolemy VI. Those who were in his confidence and possessed the secrets of the state betrayed him to Antiochus IV. For example, Ptolemy Macron (also called ‘Ptolemy the son of Dorymenes’) had been appointed by Ptolemy VI as governor of Cyprus. However, sensing the young king's weakness, he deserted to Antiochus IV, who made him governor of Coele Syria and Phoenicia.” I.e., he paid off Ptolemy’s advisors to obtain state secrets and learn their weaknesses. He did not even pretend to be upright; he reveled in his nastiness.
27. “And the hearts of both of these kings will be [inclined] to mischief, and over one table they will make deceptive promises, but it will not succeed, because still the end is for an appointed time.
Mischief: literally, what comes from evil. They were plotting against each other even as they sat down to sign their treaty! Huie writes, “Due to the intrigues of Antiochus IV [mentioned in verse 26], the Alexandrians had renounced their allegiance to Ptolemy VI, and had made his younger brother, Ptolemy VII Euergetes, king in his place. While at Memphis, Antiochus IV and Ptolemy VI had frequent conferences. Antiochus IV professed his great friendship to his nephew and concern for his interests, but his true plan was to weaken Egypt by setting the brothers against one another. Conversely, Ptolemy VI professed gratitude to his uncle for the interest he took in his affairs. He laid the blame of the war upon his minister Eulaeus, one the guardians appointed to watch over him after his father's death. All the while, Ptolemy VI sought to smooth over things with his brother Ptolemy VII so they could join forces against their deceitful uncle, Antiochus IV.” The end is for an appointed time: This may be in part a hint that there will be a second fulfillment of this prophecy. But that they did not succeed is to our benefit; had they succeeded, the world’s history would have turned out much differently and much worse.
28. “And he will return to his land with great possessions, and his heart against the holy covenant, and when he has acted, he will return to his land.
Huie reports, “While Antiochus IV was engaged in Egypt, a false rumor arose in Judea that he had been killed. This prompted deposed high priest Jason to raise an army of 1,000 men and attack Jerusalem. His army captured the city and forced the high priest Menelaus to take refuge in the Akra fortress in Jerusalem. When news of the fighting in Jerusalem reached Antiochus IV, he took it to mean that Judea was in revolt against him. Antiochus IV left Egypt; on his way home, he and his armies marched against Jerusalem. He commanded his soldiers to kill everyone they encountered (men, women, and children). Within the space of three days, his forces had killed somewhere between 40,000 and 80,000 people. A similar number were captured and sold into slavery. Not satisfied with the slaughter, Antiochus IV entered the Temple and (guided by Menelaus) took the holy vessels, including the golden altar, the menorah, the table for the showbread, the cups for drink offerings, the bowls, the golden censers, the curtain, the crowns, and the gold decoration on the front of the temple. He took all the silver and gold, as well as the hidden treasures which he found. After appointing the Phrygian Philip as governor in Jerusalem, Antiochus IV then returned to Antioch.”
29. “At the appointed time he will return and come into the Negev, but it will be like neither the first [time] or the last,
Meanwhile, in Egypt brothers Ptolemy VI and Ptolemy VII reconciled and agreed to share power. This annulled Antiochus IV's alliance with Ptolemy VI and caused his loss of control over the Ptolemaic kingdom. Because of this, in 168 BCE Antiochus IV once again sought to go to war against Egypt. However, this time he would not have the same success as he achieved previously.
30. “because [commanded] ships of Kittim will come against him, and he will be disheartened and turn back and be defiant against the holy covenant. And when he has acted, he will return and have regard for those who forsake the holy covenant.
Defiant against the holy covenant: Antiokhus was extremely brutal. When he forbade the Jews to study or follow Torah, and women continued to circumcise their sons, he had his solders kill the boys and hang them around their mothers’ necks until their corpses rotted, which of course sickened and killed the mothers as well. Ships of Kittim: Rome (See note on 7:23.) As they knew that they could not defeat Antiokhus IV alone, the Ptolemy brothers appealed to Rome for backing. To check the threat of Greek expansion, the Romans agreed to provide assistance, and the legions were brought to Egypt in ships. As Antiokhus’ army marched toward Alexandria, they were met by Gaius Popillius Laenas and two other Roman senators in Eleusis, a suburb of Alexandria. The Roman ambassador Popillius delivered to Antiokhus the Senate's demand that he withdraw from Egypt on penalty of death. Antiokhus requested time for consultation, but Popillius drew a circle around him with a stick and told him he could not leave the circle until he gave his response. The king of the North was astonished at this display of Roman arrogance, but after a brief time, said he would do all that the Romans demanded. Have regard for: or show consideration for. On his way back to Syria, Antiokhus tried to ease his humiliation at the hands of the Romans by taking out his frustration on the Jews in Judea. He set his sights on Yerushalayim, encircled the city, then attacked. Any who resisted were executed. However, the pro-Hellenistic Jews who allied themselves with Antiokhus were left unharmed. It is terrible even that it could be written that there were Jews who wanted to be favored by such a beast. Friendship with the world is equated with making war on YHWH (Yaaqov/James 4:4)—a scary proposition, for who could win that war? None of these events was nice; it was all horrible, bloody business. 2 Maccabees 7:1-5 speaks of a mother and her seven sons being compelled by the Seleukids to eat swine’s flesh, and being fried in the very pan intended for the pig, among other agonizing tortures. Yet the heroism of the Maccabees preserved Torah culture for Yahshua and others to be born into. We can take comfort and hope from the fact that YHWH weaves them all together to move things toward the Kingdom (Romans 8:28), and while we may learn many profitable things from their example, we also need to learn from this not to open the wrong doors. Most of these events could have been avoided had Yehudah not invited Hellenization, as described in the opening chapters of 1 Maccabees. Wherever we do not uphold the Torah, such atrocities come running through the open door. And even before that, had frequent news from the even more-paganized Northern tribes all the way up to the Babylonian exile, and indeed their only hope against the Babylonians would have been to call their lost brothers to return and help resist. The Torah tells us to redeem our brothers, but for the most part they considered us forsaken by YHWH and with no hope of repentance, so they did not bother, for they knew it would be inconvenient and upset the new balance of power. While we should not lose hope as we see ominous things shaping up for the Land again, we must emphasize what a priority it is for Yehudah not to make the same mistake this time, even as we focus most of our rebukes inward on becoming tribes worthy of return.
31. “And armed [forces] from him will rise up and profane the sanctuary of refuge, and take away the regular [offering], and will set up the appalling abomination
Appalling abomination: or, detestable thing that horrifies. Antiochus IV's army desecrated the Temple and stopped the daily sacrifices. On the 15th of Kislev, in the winter of 168 BCE, the Syrians built a pagan altar on top of the altar of burnt offering in the Temple and placed an image of Zeus Olympius upon it. (See 1 Maccabees 1:44ff) Ten days later, on the 25th of Kislev, swine's flesh was offered on the altar to Zeus, thus desecrating the altar. It was taken apart, though made of stone, because of the “reproach of the Gentiles”, and another built to replace it. However, because it had once been put to holy use, it was stored in a sacred precinct under one of the buildings beside the Temple, to wait until a prophet would tell them what to do with the stones. This is the background for the questions put to Yahshua in Yochanan 10. But it could be that this was already encompassed by the preceding verse. It is possible to read the “from him” as “from it” (that is, Kittim, or Rome, spoken of in verse 30) and thus to see the text as quite possibly moving beyond Antiokhus at this point, to the next stage in the world’s assault on the holy covenant. The Maccabees’ dynasty, the Hasmoneans, allied themselves with Rome to rebuff the Gentile nations around Judea who attacked after hearing of their victory over the Seleukids, and because of this alliance, the reforms the Hasmoneans made were soon reversed as a Hellenistic flavor returned to the Land. And it is noteworthy that Yahshua speaks of the “appalling abomination” as something yet to come in his own day. So while people like Brian Huie and Dale DePriest have done a masterful job of correlating the next few verses with the life of Antiokhus and his successors, and the latter part of the chapter with Herod, at the very least there is another fulfillment of this prophecy, and quite possibly another that is still to come. Since we are not aware of anyone else having treated the subject from this angle, that is where we will focus. As Antiokhus “changed the times and seasons” (7: 25), so did the Romans. About 6 decades after they destroyed the Temple in Yerushalayim, thus taking away the daily (tamid) offering, Hadrianus built a temple to Jupiter on the same site, like many such acts throughout history to symbolize the conquest of one deity over the former one that occupied that sacred precinct. (It had an octagonal shape, which is why the Dome of the Rock has that shape, unlike other Muslim shrines, for it was built on the same foundation). He renamed the city Aelia Capitolina after one of the hills in Rome and part of his own name, and soon thereafter forbade all Jews from returning to the holy city. This time, after the failed Bar Kochba revolt (in the 130s C.E.), it was wholesale genocide.
32. “And those who act wickedly against the covenant he will corrupt through flattering promises, but the people who know their Elohim will get a firm grip and act.
Corrupt: or profane. One must be a party to a covenant to act wickedly against it. While Constantine was the one who finalized the slide of Paul’s brand of Christianity into Gentile and pagan ways, this process had begun long before that. (The eastern “churches” remained much more faithful to the teachings of Yaaqov/James and the apostles, and though paganism crept in there as well, it took much longer; Christians continued writing against these “Ebionites” for centuries, and pockets of Torah-keepers who also had the testimony of Yahshua have always existed in small numbers here or there. ) Many had already shifted from Sabbath to Sunday worship, and Constantine had no trouble at all co-opting this; he just had to sell veiled sun-worship to those who already had chosen this day of worship. Constantine gave the false impression that he believed in Israel’s Elohim, and when Rome offered a deal, the already-Hellenized “church” took the bait, and the corruption became sealed. The people who know their Elohim: Yeshua told us who these were when he said, “We worship what that which we do know, because salvation is of the Jews.” (Yochanan 4:22) Even Paul, who facilitated the western “church’s” plunge into Hellenism, said much the same in Romans 3:1-2 and 9:4. When Bar Kochba did rise up and bravely revolt against the appalling abomination(s) brought by Rome, Jewish believers in Yeshua were volunteering to fight along with the other Jews, but since they did not subscribe to Bar Kochba being Messiah, they were told they were not real Jews and were not permitted to join his army. So they did what they had done at the first revolt and obeyed Yeshua’s directive to flee to the mountains and ride out the storm. This kept them alive since YHWH was going to work things out a different way. (In this context, Matithyahu 24, Yahshua speaks of false Messiahs that would arise.) Again, this verse may also have had a more immediate fulfillment in the rise of the Maccabees.
33. “And those of [the] people who are circumspect will be discerning on behalf of many, yet for [many] days they will stumble [and be tottering] due to the sword, the flame, captivity, and plundering,
Are circumspect: or, have insight. In the progression seen above, this probably refers to the rabbinic sages who, after Akiva ben Yosef, continued the process of compiling the Mishnah and then the Talmud. The reason they did this was that they realized that in exile and with the absence of the Temple, much of the oral tradition would probably be permanently lost as eyewitnesses to the now-defunct methods of carrying out sanctuary-based commands would begin to die off. They therefore broke tradition and wrote down what they had heretofore avoided writing lest it get into the wrong hands. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, “In the year 96 Akiva went with other rabbis on a mission to Rome to persuade the emperor Domitian to revoke an anti-Jewish edict [by which Jews had been prohibited from living in the capital of the Empire since Claudius expelled them in 49 C.E. because of the “growth of foreign superstitions, per Tacitus]. Shortly after their arrival, Domitian was assassinated, and his successor, Nerva, adopted a more humane policy toward the Jews.” But this did not last. One year, on the 33rd day of the counting of the Omer, a large number of Akiva’s students died, and many think the “plague” that killed them was actually a massacre by the Romans. During the Bar Kochba revolt against Rome (132-135), Akiva insisted on continuing to teach the Torah, though this was now, as under Antiokhus IV, a capital offense. He was imprisoned, tortured, and executed by the Romans, dying with the Shema, Israel's profession of faith, on his lips. Captivity: or exile. After the Bar Kochba revolt, Yerushalayim was off limits to Jews, so attempts to rebuild the Temple could no longer be made.
34. “but when they stumble, they will be supported by a little help, but many will be joined onto them with slippery promises,
A little help, but… slippery promises [or flatteries]: Rabbinic Judaism is both a wonderful and horrible thing. On the one hand, it codified and therefore preserved the memory of many traditions, but to the extent that it nullified parts of the Torah. Those who knew the religious precepts taught those who did not have access to the Scriptures, eventually including many of the lost tribes who ended up living in proximity to them throughout the empire. With the Temple gone, the rabbis, from Akiva to Yehudah haNasi in C.E. 200, formulated a structure which modern Judaism has inherited, by which a Torah lifestyle could be lived without the ability to offer any of the Temple offerings. They ostensibly replaced the sanctuary, formerly so central to Jewish life, with piety, prayer, and almsgiving so they could continue to practice it not only in a Land without a Temple but wherever they were exiled. While there was some dynastic connection among the rabbis to the line of David, they also did, through a series of political moves, fully usurp the authority of the priesthood in the eyes of the majority of Jews. The winners got to write the history. At the time the Temple was destroyed, there were a vast number of sects within Judaism, and even among the Prushim (Pharisees), there were the two major schools, that of Shammai, the stricter, and that of Hillel, whose more liberal views prevailed once conditions no longer facilitated the literal fulfillment of many commands (although the rabbis say that in the age to come, Shammai’s views will again prevail, paralleling the prophecy that the Messiah will rule with a rod of iron). The Prushim are the only non-Nazarene sect that survived after the quelled revolts; there were no longer Essenes, Zealots, or Tzadduqim (Sadducees) to any great extent; the tiny group of Karaites are all that remained of the latter. The rabbis changed many things, essentially telling the people what they wanted to hear (that prayer and piety had effectively replaced the need for animal sacrifices), and it became as much a replacement for Torah as Christianity. A general respect for Torah remained, much more so than in Christianity, yet it was gutted of its core practices. By 219, the Romans started allowing the Jews to return to Yerushalayim, because they were confident that under this new system they would no longer want to rebuild the Temple. Once when they had access to the Temple Mount (a scenario repeated in 1967), they did not make use of it, for they had already become comfortable with the new system and felt they could actually do well enough without it. They were allowed some degree of autonomy in matters of public assembly, the calendar, etc. Some academies were even allowed to be built in the Galil. During the Pax Romana, the rabbis represented the interests of both the Jews and the Romans to one another, as mediators. Joined onto them: Some who might have been afraid to come back from Bavel because of the greater strictures in place while the Temple stood might have now been willing to return to the Land since the Jewish lifestyle there now was much more like what they had “enjoyed” in exile. But it was not until the 1940s that the majority of Jews returned from there.
35. “and some of those who are circumspect will stumble—in order to refine them, purge them, and whiten them up until the time of the cutting off, because it still belongs to [an] appointed time--
Again, we see both sides of the story of Talmudic Judaism. The rabbis tickled people’s ears, but yet they also helped keep things in place to some extent so that returning Yoseyf now, at the end of this age, would know where to look for answers. It may be largely because of Yahshua’s willingness to redeem kinsmen so distant that he really had no responsibility for (simply because there was no nearer kinsman qualified to do so and because his ancestor was once our king as well) that Yehudah has experienced the favor of being the sole guardians of the Torah for so long—because one of their own was so concerned for the rest of Israel that he went to the death to do so. His death shook things in the cosmos. The sky went black, the earth shook, the veil in the Temple tore, not because “God was dying”, but because a brother laid down his life for those all his nearer kinsmen had given up on. Whether or not he is also the Messiah that is to come, his work was effective because, despite two millennia of inheriting lies, enough of his message survived, and he we are returning to Torah. But what if Yosef had awakened, and Yehudah had completely assimilated? If not for these man-made rules, we, who had left the covenant completely, might have nothing at all to look to when we came back. Many, like the Karaites, have been rightly angered by the fact that Torah was “frozen” in one form when it could take many, but the freezing did nonetheless preserve something that could later be thawed out as is being done today. Artificial life support is not a life anyone would choose, but sometimes it is the only bridge to the resumption of normalcy in the aftermath of a catastrophe such as Yehudah experienced with the Temple. Though the rabbis replaced the Temple services with liturgical prayers, they at least wrote down the details of what was being replaced. This kept Yehudah as a people from not giving up on Torah altogether just because they could no longer carry out all of it. They preserved the record of how things were carried out when there was a Temple, and this has proved invaluable to those researching how to build the next one on the site of the last. The Mishnah can profit us today if handled properly. Otherwise, it can hurt us. Many in Yehudah do not know what to do with Efrayim, which is returning and wanting to keep Torah, but not the Talmud. They are even redefining the Talmud’s views on the Noachides in order to try to find a pigeonhole for us. Yet the same Talmud says we do not need a Temple, and yet the very same people are involved in preparing with great fervor to rebuild it, while others still could not care less, and many are even opposed to it. More refining may therefore remain. (John Hulley has pointed out that the lost Northern tribes can also be identified throughout the history of our exile by their parallel experience of persecution under the Roman Empire, Roman Catholicism, as well as the Protestant state churches later.) Appointed time: probably one of YHWH’s prescribed festivals at which time all of this will become crystal-clear and we will understand the whole vision. But in retrospect we can summarize the refining described here: its two exiles have effectively cured Yehudah of its former idolatry, as well as remedying the “baseless hatred of brother by brother” that had been the cause for the Temple’s destruction, as minority status and persecution forced Jewish communities to become ever more closely-knit. If Yehudah will let Yoseyf be Yoseyf instead of pretending to be Yehudah or mere “righteous Gentiles”, how much more could be repaired? Another way of viewing this verse is that the righteous stumble so that the rest can be purged. I.e., some with the deepest insights, who can elucidate them in the simplest manner with succinct clarity have been taken from us at a very young age so that their insights will not be relied on too heavily, with the rest of us becoming lazy about bothering to become insightful by searching things out from Scripture. Even when they are present, other angles are needed in order to round out the approaches of the community as a whole. Some of the rabbis also went too far into things mystical, such as many forms of kabbalah, and ended up looking more like the Church than like Torah.
36. “then the king will do as he pleases and lift himself up and magnify himself above every el, and he will say unimaginable things about the El of Elim. And he will have success until the indignation has been completed, because what is decided will be accomplished.
Is this “king” the pope (not one individual but the office), who took on Constantine’s title, “pontifex maximus”, the “greatest bridge” (between heaven and earth), and insisted on both political and spiritual power, becoming in essence the emperor as the Roman Empire itself was in the process of decay? There are strong parallels that make this theory worthy of consideration. Pope Pius V said, “The pope and God are the same, so so he has all power in heaven and earth.” (Quoted in Barclay, chapter 27, Cities Petrus Bertanous) While some Christians see the Church as the persecuted party in these prophecies, in fact, when the Church finally does show actually up there, it is as the “bad guy”. It would be the means by which many descendants of Israel (both houses) would be purified by suffering. (John Hulley) This was part of YHWH’s Indignation on our ancestors, yet YHWH allowed these generations to suffer for more noble reasons while in exile—for standing up against enforced idolatry. “The Indignation” is a reference back to 8:19-25, where this time is given a very definite cut-off point. (See v. 40 below.) But the case seems stronger for this king being Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. As we approach the end of the book, time seems to be on fast-forward here, and we must remember that all of these prophecies have something to do with Daniel’s people, Yehudah (possibly with a broader reference to the rest of Israel in some cases, for based on Deut. 28 and the statement that our punishment would be repeated seven times in Lev. 26:18, this comes all the way up to our own day, when Islam is indeed still strong and getting stronger). When Muhammad and his followers arrived in Medina in 622 after being expelled from Mecca, they were completely dependent on the hospitality of the three Jewish tribes that lived there alongside the Arabs. He initially viewed Christians and Jews, whom he referred to as the "People of the Book", as natural allies who shared his core teachings, and anticipated their support. Originally, Muslims prayed toward Yerushalayim, as Jews do. In the Constitution of Medina, Jews were given equality to Muslims in exchange for political loyalty. However, when the Jewish leaders of Medina first heard of the coming of a prophet preaching belief in one God, they were intrigued. They did not immediately accept or reject him, but they wanted to know more (Ibn Ishaq, 192). Relations began to deteriorate as the Jews discovered Muhammad was not very familiar with their scriptures and traditions. (Ibn Ishaq, 351). After each major battle with the Medinans, there were accusations of Jewish tribal treachery for aiding the enemies of the community, and within two years their lands were confiscated by Muslims as soon as they had achieved the power to do so. Their leaders were expelled "with their families and possessions" from Medina. Others allied themselves with Mecca against Muhammad, and when defeated, were allowed arbitration by the leader of a Jewish tribe who had converted to Islam, and he ordered 800 to 900 of them beheaded, and their wives and children enslaved. The Jewish community in Egypt was decimated in the same way. Within 28 years of Muhammad’s first visions, mostl of the world’s Jews were under Muslim rule. Until the Indignation is completed: Islam continues to have success to this day, and only increasingly so since oil revenues have funded its rapid spread, and it is the fastest-growing religion today. But can Muhammad really be called a “king”? Interestingly enough, Muhammad sent envoys to Shah Siroes of Persia, addressing him as an equal, which was insulting to him, and said, “My religion and my empire will reach far beyond the kingdom of [your predecessor].” (628 C.E.)
37. “And he will consider neither the Elohim of his ancestors, nor what women find desirable, nor will he have consideration in regard to any elohim, because he will magnify himself above everything.
What women find desirable: or, the desire of women. This may refer to the custom that, from Gregory onward, the pope did not marry. So again this could argue for the “papal prong” of interpretation of this prophecy. But in context this is another object of worship, and we interpret Scripture best from other Scripture. The clearest example in Scripture of something desired by women is Y’hezq’El’s vision of the women at the gate of YHWH’s own House weeping for Tammuz (8:14). Figuratively, what is the gate to YHWH’s house for the Northern Kingdom more than what came to be called Christianity, which began as a move to restore the lost sheep to their Hebraic heritage and ended up adopting so much paganism that it came to have a totally different agenda. In particular, as it merged with Roman religion, which had inherited so much from Bavel, including Tammuz, the son of Semiramis, widow of the Nimrod of Genesis 10. When she was found to be with child after her husband’s death, she had some explaining to do, and she came up with quite the story: this child within her was her husband himself, being “reincarnated” as her son. These statues of the mother and the child who “was” his father which had been part of the iconography long before Yahshua was born were brought into this new catholic “pantheon” and renamed “Mary, the mother of God”, though not with Yahshua’s permission! If Daniel saw these modern statues of “Mary and Jesus” in his vision, he would clearly think of them as Semiramis and Tammuz, “the desire of women” for which they wept every year in this pagan rite long before Yahshua was born. By this time Christianity had developed strongly in this vein despite small remnants of truth at the fringes. Muhammad’s father was, by some accounts, a Christian of the eastern persuasion (which took much longer to incorporate idolatry and preserved many more of the Hebraic overtones than the Western version). He obtained much of his information from this source as well as the Jews, skewing some aspects and confusing others. But he did ultimately forsake even this which we would recognize as much closer to the truth. He said there was a prophet named ‘Isa the Messiah, but (rightly, in this case) that he was not who people said he was. But he saw him only as part of the progression intended to lead to Islam. Any elohim: Not only did he rid Mecca of its idols. Muslims see the Qur'an as the completion of the previous scriptures (Torah, Psalms, and Gospel), and to synthesize them as the Creator's “true, final, and eternal message to humanity”, making the others pale into insignificance before it. Muhammad tipped his hat to the religions of the Book, but still did not honor them. He saw his teaching as the next level, a higher plane that superseded all the others.
38. “But to the elohim of securities he will give weight in his own office, and the elohim that his ancestors were not familiar with, he will honor with gold, with silver, with a precious stone, and with desirable things.
Elohim of securities: or forces, protections, strongholds, fortresses. The sword was the way Muhammad spread his religion. Elohim that his ancestors were not familiar with: Biographer Maxime Rodinson writes, “Muhammad was accused of listening to men who spoke a foreign language (Qur’an xvi, 105) and who told 'legends about the ancients' (Qur’an xxv, 5). These were certainly stories that he listened to most carefully. By their light he gradually pieced together a picture of the world and its history.” Jews and Christians told him about a single creator of heaven and earth. He identified it with one of the local deities, the moon-god, al-Ilah (Allah), but cast him as this singular creator in a way and to an extent to which he had not been worshipped before. Gold and silver: possibly references to Nevukhadnetzar’s statue, since Islam did conquer Babylon (the head of gold) and Medo-Persia (the silver portion of the statue). Yeshayahu 14:4 calls Babylon the golden city. It also may refer to the wealth gained for Muslims by means of the Jews who lived under them and continued to be heavily involved with trade and lucrative ventures. The wealth amassed by the Roman Church is well-known, but some of Islam’s earliest mosques were just as elaborate as the cathedrals, and oil revenues today have made many Islamic sheikhdoms some of the most up-and-coming places on earth. Islam’s is the best-financed revolution in history. A [singular] precious stone. The Ka’aba, which became the central point of Muslim worship, was built around (and some say upon, with it as cornerstone) a black meteorite that was considered extremely valuable, as sent from heaven.
39. “And he will act toward the most secure fortresses with a foreign deity, whom he does respect. He will increase authority, and make them rule over many, and will apportion out the ground for a price.
A foreign deity: Not one of the idols the Arabians traditionally worshipped, though he used one of their names, but actually borrowed much information about Israel’s Elohim and adapted it to his own needs and circumstances, and Allah is presented as a god of war or of peace according to the need of the moment. While Europe was going through the Dark Ages, most of the advances in science, art, and medicine were being made by Arabs. They conquered more territory and a greater variety of cuotures than any empire before them.Even France and Britain are being overrun by radical Muslims, who are well on their way to being in the majority through overwhelming population growth. And the Americas are in their cross-hairs as well; a manifesto for taking over these lands has been found in the process of the Gulf Wars, and now even the politicians here are capitulating to them. Apportion out he ground: or, divide out the land. Other nations are keeping favor with the Arabs specifically by making Israel pay the price in terms of security, land area, and resources. In the original British Mandate plan, all of the land of Jordan was to have been Israel, but it was whittled down to almost nothing, and the later gains are being eroded away again. Muslims are very patient, willing to chip away little by little for however long it takes, for in their minds they have already won.
40. (“Now at the time of cutting-off, when the king of the south engages in a butting-match with him, the king of the north will storm against him with chariots, war-horses, and many ships, when he enters the territories and overwhelms and crosses over.
Butting-match: Remember the imagery of the rams and goats in chapter 8, speaking of the same basic pattern of characters. Previously the king of the south referred to one in Egypt, and the king of the north to a Syrian one. But Egypt was now Muslim, so this could very well still be speaking of Islam in general as opposed to the Byzantine Empire (which took over the Syrian area) or the later Crusades. The Land of Israel certainly went back and forth between Christendom and Islam for several centuries, like a butting-match. But if we read the “him” as referring to the preceding verse rather than to the king of the north in the next phrase, we could see three entities in this verse: the Shi’ite Muslims (from Persia but based in Tunisia, who built the new city of Al Qahira/Cairo as their new capital), the Sunni Muslims (already entrenched in Egypt), and the crusading Christians. The first two are divided over the issues of successor to Muhammad (inherited vs. earned) and whether there can still be any prophecy after Muhammad. Jimmy Dunn writes, “During the 11th and 12th centuries, the major Muslim powers were fighting amongst themselves. The Sunni Muslims’… attention was directed towards the Fatimid Muslims. However, small factions of unruly adventurers and war bands controlled by neither major Islamic power lived on the edge of the Byzantine empire. It was their raids and troublemaking that provoked the Byzantine emperor Romanus Diogenes to raise a large army and advance against the Seljuq-led Sunni Muslims… During the first part of the Crusades, Egypt was under the control of Fatimid rulers. At first, the Crusaders paid little attention to Egypt, but they soon began to consider the country a prize, as did the Sunni Muslims.” Since the context is “the time of cutting-off” (described in 2:34-44 as a harvest, since it speaks in terms of chaff, and 8:17), we must also ask whether this is speaking about the animosity between Christians and Muslims that has continued all the way to the present time, more often battling to convert one another by polemics rather than the sword. And now these configurations of nations are again attacking each other with weapons. We cannot ignore the wording in verse 40 that the king of the north will “storm” against him, when the name of the first attack in the First Gulf War was “operation Desert Storm”! And ships have indeed played a role in the blockades of the Gulf.
41. “And he will enter the prominent Land, and many will be made to stumble, but these will slip out of his hand: Edom, Moav, and the head of the sons of Ammon.
Prominent Land: that is, Judea—the focal point of the Crusades. But this region to the east of the Yarden River was NOT a “backwater” in the Crusades. The 400 years of Ottoman rule also saw stagnation in Jordan, since its only importance was a route to Mecca and all development was based on the needs of pilgrims. But this seems forced, and pushes us to look for other interpretations. Edom, Moav, and Ammon make up the whole populated portion of what is today one political entity, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. (The rest is desert.) This political configuration is too big a coincidence to ignore the possibility that there is a fulfillment of this prophecy that is yet to come. It seems to correlate with Yeshayahu 16, which tells Moav and Sela (Petra, which was Edomite) to shelter those that are driven out of Israel just before the (apparently Messianic) Throne is established. This may be the time of Yaaqov’s trouble (Yirmeyahu 30:7) and when Efrayim will again be made to live in tents (Hoshea 12:9), reliving our wilderness experience prior to entering the Land th first time. (See also Yeshayahu 26:20.) It may also be prophesied in Psalm 91. Yahshua spoke of a yet-unfulfilled version of the “appalling abomination” of verse 31, but the Roman siege did not end exactly this way (though the followers of Yaaqov/James the brother of Yahshua did leave for Pella, in northern Jordan, when the Romans threatened Yerushalayim), suggesting that this sequence of events may recur. “Cross over” (v. 40) might refer to even the West Bank being given to Jordan. Out of his hand: Though usually considered Islamic, Jordan is very independent-thinking and allows people of other faiths much more freedom than other Muslim countries. There are few true kings left in the Mideast, most rulers being puppets of the imams, but Islamicists who raise their head here have been quelled by the army. Jordan has even welcomed Israeli tourists with great festivity before the eyes of this writer, and has an open border with Israel. Even in more tense times, Jordan’s King Hussein, though himself a descendant of Muhammad, warned Israel of the impending Yom Kippur War. In 1988, Jordan disengaged completely from the newly-invented “Palestine” touted as a historical Arab entity, after 18 years of crumbling relations aggravated by Fedayeen “freedom fighters” who thought themselves exempt from its laws and wrought havoc. They keep a low profile in Middle eastern politics because they do not want the Palestinians back, though that would be the obvious place they could easily resettle if not willing to live under Israeli rule (as many Arabs actually prefer to do). One of our number has seen firsthand evidence that the Palestinians in Israel also loathe Jordan. In any case, the fact that the Messiah is seen as gathering—and apparently fighting for--Israel at Botzrah (Yeshayahu 34:6; 63:1; Mikha 2:12-13) shows that this land will somehow play a special part in the ultimate return of all of Israel. (Technically there were no literal “sons of Ammon”, for those who were called Ammonites were descendants of Ben-Ammi, Lot’s son. Ammon may have become a name adopted by his descendants, for it means “the greatest people”. The Jordanian capital, Amman, is the ancient Rabbat-Ammon.)
42. “He will also stretch out his hand against the lands, and the land of Egypt will not escape,
If the king of the north is seen in light of his position inherited from the days of Antiokhus IV when it referred to the Selukid branch of the Greek empire in Syria (when Egypt was also the Ptolemaic “king of the south”), this may correlate with Nur-ud-din and Salah-ad-Din (who also defeated the Crusaders at the Horns of Hattin), who in 1174 C.E. brought Egypt under his control and was named king of both Syria and Egypt.
43. “and he will rule over the hidden stores of gold and silver, and over all the desirable things of Egypt, with the Lubites and Kushites among those who march [with] him.)
Who march with him: or, be at his steps. Could Kushites refer here to Somalians, since they are Muslim? Or Sudan, a Kushite people held captive by Muslims? Ethiopia is basically Christian, but Eritrea, which renders Ethiopia landlocked, is also Muslim.
44. “But a report from the sunrise and out of the north will terrify him, so he will leave with great rage to annihilate and devote many to destruction.
Devote to destruction: or, place under the ban. It may refer to the Muslims—not well-organized, but with a lot of money and able to mobilize quickly—either mow down those who attack with great zeal, or simply that their fast birth rate will overwhelm the countries they are targeting, like England, France, and the Americas, with those children simply voting in Islamic governments when they grow up. With sabers rattling in Pakistan and Afghanistan—the frontiers of both north and east--could this report be forthcoming very soon?
45. “And he will plant the tents of his palace between the seas toward the prominent holy Mountain, yet he will arrive at his end, and there is no helper for him.
Is this the waterloo of Islam? The phrase “tents of his palace” is unusual. It is a Persian word, apadnu--a military commander’s headquarters tent, showing that it refers to some kind of war. One also cannot rule out the fact that the U.N. (ostensibly a peace-keeping force), which wants to make Yerushalayim an “international city”, has its headquarters on what in Avshalom’s day was called“The Hill of Evil Counsel”, which overlooks the Temple Mount. The unusual phrase “prominent holy mountain” may be the Hebrew equivalent of the Arabic name for the Temple Mount (Haram ash-Sharif, or noble sanctuary). Interestingly, the Hebrew term for “destruction” in verse 44 is the very same word, haram. Yerushalayim is indeed, midway between the two seas mentioned in Y’hezq’El 47 (the Mediterranean and the Dead or Salt Sea). Could it be the plan of the “global entity” to make Yerushalayim its own capital, the real reason they wish to take it out of the hands of Yehudah and make it “again” the capital of the Palestinian state that never was? Yerushalayim remains a stone of stumbling. (Z’kharyah 12:2-3) Another intriguing possibility is that verses 40-45 refer to Yehudah itself, the Indignation of verse 36 having already been ended; this could be referring to the establishment of the state of Israel, with its capital in Yerushalayim. Could these “tents” be Israel’s military bases already on the ground—the non-Torah-oriented government that dragged its own people from their homes to appease other nations, whose day of reckoning must come? Could the “territories” of verse 40 refer to what outsiders call “the occupied territories” captured along with Egypt (v. 42) in the Six-Day War? And the “escape” of Jordan in verse 41 might refer to the fact that all of Jordan was originally supposed to be part of the territory called “Palestine” given to the Jews during the British Mandate, and it kept getting eroded away by Britain’s oil interests. No helper: The way even the United States is pressuring Israel to do what would be suicidal and withdrawing its support could be an example of this lack of help from even its former best ally, and set the stage for chapter 12, which is the first chapter that appears to have no possible fulfillment yet in history.
CHAPTER 12
1. “But at that time Mikha’el will come on the scene—the great prince who stands over the sons of your people--when there will be a time of distress such as has not been brought about since [the] nation existed until that time. And at that time your people will be delivered—any who are found written in the document.
Mikha’el: By tradition, the arch-angel, the field commander of the army of YHWH as seen in Y’hoshua 5:13-15. But this was probably an inference drawn later, as no name is given there. Outside of Dani’el (and Jude) there are ten other Scriptural mentions of a Mikha’el, and they are all names of human beings. So what would lead us to think this one would not be human as well? Distress: or pressure, squeezing, a tight spot, trouble, oppression. The Hebrew word is tzarah, the root from which the word Mitzrayim (Egypt) is derived. Interestingly, in 1 Shmu’el 1:6, the same term is used for a rival wife—the very same thing Hagar, an Egyptian slave, became to Sarah, and she married her son to an Egyptian woman. Those who most distress Israel today are therefore three-fourths Egypt and only 25% Avrahamic. This is no mere coincidence. This event is what Yahshua was alluding to when he spoke of the “great tribulation”. (Mat. 24:21) The context is the end of Daniel chapter 11, in which Yehudah appears to have been betrayed by all its allies, is left alone to fight his battles, and is at “his end”. This is not necessarily a final end, but, as we say, “the end of his rope”. But that is when Israel always calls on YHWH, and ends up really shining. And it is definitely the end of a chapter of his history, for a great surprise awaits both him and his enemies. Any who are found: This implies that there are many of “his people” who will not be found in that document (or book) as well. So to what book is it referring? Moshe suggested that YHWH blot his name out of “the book You have written” if He would not forgive the rest of His people. (Ex. 32:32) YHWH replied that instead He would blot out those who had sinned (provided they did not repent). David says that the details of our lives are recorded in YHWH’s book. (Psalm 56:8) He calls it the “Book of Life” in Psalm 69:28, and equates it there with being “enrolled with the righteous”. Yahshua speaks of his students’ names being “recorded in heaven”. Paul spoke of his fellow-workers “whose names are recorded in the Book of Life” (Philippians 4:3). In Yochanan’s vision, Yahshua said that the one who overcomes would not be blotted out of that book. (Rev. 3:5) Others would not be written there in the first place. (Rev. 13:8) And the final judgment will be based on whether one’s name is written there. (Rev. 20:12-15) The background for all of these is the Hebrew concept of three books, the Book of the Righteous, the Book of Sinners (those missing the target), and the Book of the Wholly Wicked. Everyone’s name is written in one of these three. But as we can see from the above, a name can be transferred from one to the other. Tradition says that the books are opened on Yom T’ruah (the Feast of Trumpets) and closed on Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement, nine days later). How one lives during the forty days before Yom Kippur, when the door is opened for repentance as at no other time, will determine which book he will be inscribed in for the coming year. A common greeting at this time is, “May you be written and inscribed for the best.” Those who do not even know what Yom Kippur is are in deep trouble! In Mal’akhi 3:16ff, we catch a glimpse of YHWH “eavesdropping” on conversations between “those who fear Him and who meditate on His Name”, even if they come from differing persuasions, and a “book of remembrance” is written about them. Afterward they are able to discern between the righteous and the wicked. (v. 18) The middle category is no longer there. Yahshua says that what makes the difference is what we did with the Torah. (Mat. 5:17-19) Delivered: literally, allowed to escape, but the term is also used for the delivery of a baby. This immediately links us to the common Jewish concept of the “birthpangs of the Messiah” alluded to in Mat. 24:8. While the results may not necessarily be worse than the Holocaust, the prospects for the survival of the nation look even more bleak. We saw a foreshadowing of this in Yeshayahu 37:3 where King Hizqiyahu says,“The children are brought to the birth, but there is no strength to deliver.” The analogy is to the stage in a woman's labor where she has been having severe contractions already. She gets to this stage called "transition". It is the shortest time, but the most serious. The next stage is delivery, but at this point she feels like it is impossible to go on. Yirmeyahu calls this the “time of Yaaqov’s trouble” (30:7), saying, as here, that it has no parallel in history, and that Yaaqov will be delivered out of these straits. Z’kharyah (chapters 12-14) also speaks of a time where the continuance of Yerushalayim (the context of 11:45 above) is in doubt. And as one Scripture answers the questions raised by another, we have a very strong clue there about who this Mikha’el is. We are simply told in 10:13 that he is “one of the foremost rulers”. Some identify him with the Messiah. But we have seen much in this book about the possibility of a “corporate Messiah”. Paul speaks of Messiah being the head and his followers the body. (Col. 1:18: 2:10, 19) This, not just the head, is Mikha’el, for Scripture interprets Scripture for us. Z’kharyah says, when the nations assemble around Yerushalayim and YHWH allows the leaders of Yehudah to devour them, “YHWH will liberate the tents of Yehudah first, so that the splendor of the House of David and the splendor of an inhabitant of Yerushalayim may not be magnified above Yehudah. In That Day, YHWH will surround the inhabitants of Yerushalayim with a protective covering, so that the feeblest among them on That Day will become like David, and the House of David will be like Elohim—like the messenger of YHWH in their presence.” (12:7-8) In the same context, there is a mourning for and acceptance of one described as a pierced firstborn son. Who are the last known leaders from the House of David? Yahshua and his brother Yaaqov (James), who led his followers after his departure. This is probably why Yehudah and the House of David are spoken of here as two separate entities. Yehudah today does not represent the House of David. When a kinsman redeems another kinsman according to the Torah, the latter becomes a member of the household of the former. So those who recognized these two leaders (the Northern Kingdom of Israel) are the ones who have carried on the House of David. (There is a historical precedent that seems prophetic, in that during Avshalom’s revolt, David himself was king over all of Israel except the tribe of Yehudah, until Avshalom was dead.) But even some of them, in the process of making amends with Yehudah, have forsaken Yahshua, yet keep quoting the New Testament, because Yahshua did a tremendous work that still affects them; he was the first reason most of them knew anything about Israel. Yet there remains that tendency, about which both Paul (Romans 11) and Yeshayahu (11:13) wrote, for Efrayim to exalt itself over Yehudah—in large part a vestige of our former Christian days. This is why YHWH allows Yehudah to precede us. The clincher is that phrase, “the House of David will be like Elohim”. The last word in Hebrew is ka’Elohim. The name Mikha’el means “Who is like Elohim?” Mi ka'Elohim? The answer is right here in Z’kharyah 12. It is the House of David, which includes any who consider the Davidic ruler to be their own king, and as we have seen, that is largely the House of Yoseyf or Efrayim. Already many are standing up for Israel, thus marking themselves as not really being Christians, but Efrayimites held captive by the Church. While visiting Israel, “[U.S. Presidential candidate anf former Arkansas governor Mike] Huckabee spoke about American Christians' very deep support for Israel. He believes there is more unity amongst Evangelicals for Israel than there is among Jews. He describes the Christian connection to Judaism as one that is totally genetic, ‘part of its DNA,’ and that because of this, Bible-believing Christians assert the right of the Jews to their homeland.” Is that not a Yosefite speaking, though he may not know it? This is how a nation can be born in a day. (Yeshayau 66:8) The House of Yosef is ready in some ways; they need only this one piece—a common enemy with Yehudah--to come fully (back) to life. Will there be a particular person who is the quintessence of this “Mikha’el”? Z’kharyah linked the House of David with “the messenger of YHWH in their presence”. This is not necessarily an “angel”, because Yahshua, who inherited the line of kings who had been called “sons of Elohim”, constantly referred to himself as YHWH’s emissary. Knowing the laws of agency, in which one who speaks for another is to be treated as the one who sent him, how much closer could any human being get to being “like Elohim” yet without literally being Elohim? It will take a strong, wise ruler to clarify this point for such Christians and bring these who are right on the edge of recognizing what continues to elude them—that they are truly Efrayim—and bring them all the way over into the camp of their true heritage. So undoubtedly there will be one head (the son brought forth before Yerushalayim goes into labor to bear many sons, per Yeshayahu 66:7), but he will not stand alone, but will be leading a whole people. It will have to be a people with access to many armaments. Most civilians in the world have no such recourse, but in the United States, many still do, and the National Guard is under each state. What if a governor decided to buck the President’s reneging on commitments to Israel and send the “army” that is at his disposal to aid Israel though the federal army does not? By the time returning Efrayim is again called “sons of the living Elohim” (Hos. 1:10), they are “in the place where it was said, ‘You are not my people’.” I.e., they are back in the Land of Israel, probably having come out of mere support for Yehudah, most not even knowing who they really were. The very next verse describes the two houses of Israel together choosing one head, undoubtedly this same “Mikha’el” from the House of David. (Compare Y’hezq’el 34:23.) Z’kharyah 13 describes the “man who is My associate” (who could that be but the messenger who is “like Elohim”?) being struck down and the people refined by further distress after being purged of idolatry (including the idolizing of their leader), and YHWH finally fighting for His people. Yeshayahu 49:22 speaks of nations bringing our sons and daughters who are still left outside the Land back home on their shoulders after Tzion is amazed to find herself full of children she vaguely remembered but had not realized belonged to her. Why are the sons and daughters brought separately? Because the men have come as soldiers in advance of them to liberate the city from a siege by all nations, then their families are reunited with them after the battle is won. So many prophecies are all shrinking into one event as Daniel’s sealed scroll is beginning to be opened up.
2. “And many of those who are sleeping in the dusty ground will awaken, some to life [in] the age and some to disgrace—to [be] abhorred [in] the age.
Dusty ground: often rendered “dust of the earth”, and thus almost unanimously taken to mean the dead. Awaken: This clearly refers to a resurrection, at least an allegorical one, and directly parallels the vision of dry bones in Y’hezq’el 37. That specifically speaks of the northern kingdom not only returning when all hope was gone, but coming as an army, just as in verse 1. But for some it will be like waking from a nightmare and finding that real life is even worse. The “dusty ground” is literally “soil of dust” in Hebrew, the word order being reversed from that “dust from the ground” from which Adam was said to have been taken. (Gen. 2:7) It suggests an allusion in particular to the Land belonging to the descendants of Avraham and more specifically Yaaqov (Gen. 13:16; 28:14). It may thus be a dual reference, partly to a resurrection of the dead (which is how it has been interpreted by both Jews and Christians) and to an awakening of some other sort by those dwelling in the Land of Israel in particular. What if it is both, and Avraham and his trained men, Gid’on and his 300, and David and his mighty men all join the already-unexpected attack, taking those who are distressing Yehudah by complete surprise? Some…some: literally, these…these. In the age: that is, the age to come, or the Messianic Kingdom; alt., eternal, but if we take it as the former, we can see exactly where Yahshua based his teaching about those who taught others to disregard any part of the Torah being called least in the Kingdom. (Mat. 5:17-19) The word for “called” means not so much “referred to” as “summoned”—i.e., for this judgment.
3. “And those who are circumspect will shine like the shining of the expanse, and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.
This corresponds with the five wise virgins. (Mat. 25) Those described in verse 2 were also invited to the wedding feast, but while some embrace the new discovery that they are Israel, there will be others who will want nothing to do with being a part of Israel. Shine: or glisten, reminiscent of that “extra oil” the wise virgins brought with them to outlast the groom’s delay; the word has a secondary sense of sending out a warning—like a lighthouse. Shining: the Hebrew term tzohar, which has taken on many mystical interpretations because it is what is said to have served to light the interior of Noach’s ark. (Gen. 6:16) It is thought by some to have been a technology beyond what we have now, as the word is not used as a noun anywhere else in Scripture. But it may have been some kind of prism to reflect the light from a skylight into the rest of the ark. In this way it would be analogous to these people who break the brilliant “light” of truth down into manageable increments so that anyone can learn it. Many are expecting an age of light to come—a millennial Kingdom when things will be better. But it will take people who know Torah to work out the details so that this can actually take place. It is the difference between waiting for an age of light and building that light. Expanse: either an allusion to the “firmament” of Genesis 1, or to something “beaten out” so compactly that it glimmers. Like the stars: not only far brighter than the generic light on the horizon, but recognizing again that they are Avraham’s seed. These who stood on behalf of Israel have already proved that they loved their fellows as themselves, so they are in the Book of the Righteous. This war is being won in advance in the daily details of how we act toward one another even now.
4. “But you, O Daniel, close up the[se] matters, and seal up the document until the time of the cutting-off. Many will run back and forth, and knowledge will multiply.”
Close up: a term often used for stopping up wells or blocking the flow of water. Here it is the flow of information being stopped, whether by leaving out some of what he was going to write or using some form of encoding. Scrolls were commonly sealed (a common practice both in Israel and Rome was to place seven seals at intervals throughout the document) to prevent unauthorized persons from reading the contents. The “matters” (or words) are here, held in reserve, until the time when they will matter. But they were not to be understood by anyone before that time, try as they might. When they are unlocked, they will be clear instructions that make perfect sense to those who need them at the moment. Run back and forth: or travel. Until ocean liners and airplanes were invented, common people could rarely travel more than a few towns away, and even when they became available, it was mainly the wealthy or scholars who could access them, but now nearly everyone has flown at one time or another. With the Internet giving us instant access to any part of the world, it is as if we were traveling across borders, not to mention the fact that it only takes a day at most to fly to Israel from any part of the world now, so shuttling there is possible even before we are able to settle there. Knowledge will multiply: not just increase. What kind of knowledge? In context, Torah knowledge in particular. 200 years ago, there were no archaeologists as such, only treasure hunters. A yeshiva was a rarity, and usually majored on the Talmud rather than Torah as such. But now Bibles can easily be obtained, often free of charge, and most families have multiple copies, even if they are not always the best translation. With information that only a few short years ago required travel to distant cities, some of which were barred to us, or digging through dusty libraries, it only takes days for knowledge increase exponentially—if we seek it out. In contrast to the time when even translations of the Bible were kept from the masses, now even the original languages are opened wide even to those who do not speak them. The tools available now, such as exhaustive concordances, especially when paired with computers, enable in-depth study with a speed never before known. The obvious response is, “To whom much is given, of him much is required.” (Luke 12:48) “Run back and forth” may also be an idiom for “diligently search”, and there may be a cause-and-effect relationship here: i.e., seal it up so that it has to be searched out. It cannot be understood without knowing the rest of Scripture. Thus YHWH has made us curious about prophecy in order to motivate those who would not otherwise read the more important parts of His word.
5. Then I, Daniel, looked, and, lo and behold, there were two others standing [there], one here on [this] bank of the river, and one on [the other] bank of the river.
Now we appear to be back to his original setting, the Hiddeqel (Tigris) River (introduced in 10:4), which, we must remember, is one of the four heads of the river that flowed out of Eden. The speaker who began in 10:19 has now stopped talking, and two other people come into focus. Interestingly, the numeric value of the name Mikha’el is 101, and the first time a word with this numeric value is found in Scripture, it is “went out”, speaking of that river that “went out” from Eden. (Gen. 2:10) In that context, “Who is like Elohim?” seems to be an answer to the serpent’s temptation, “You could be like Elohim…” (Gen. 3:5) I.e., the emphasis is on the fact that although the great emperors spoken of and addressed by Daniel all tried to be like Elohim, how did their kingdoms end? So who is like Elohim? No human! Only one kingdom will remain, at YHWH’s pleasure.
6. And [one of them] said to the man clothed in [white] linen who was over the waters of the river, “How long until these hard-to-understand things will end?”
The Hebrew allows him to be saying, “Will wonders never cease?” But the tone seems negative instead. This observer seems to have been growing weary of being given knowledge which he could not put to use. It was also very frightening material. But the fact that there are persons on two sides and one in the middle dressed in wite linen evokes the memory of the two parts of Israel reciting the blessing and curses on the mountains on both sides of Sh’khem with the priests in the middle. (Deut. 27; Y’hoshua 8:33) This suggests the two houses of Israel, as Daniel has addressed them both. Gentiles want to know the details about tomorrow, and the Northern Kingdom patterned itself after Gentiles. (Hos. 7:8; 8:8)
7. Then I heard the man clothed in [white] linen, who was over the waters of the river, when he raised his right hand and his left hand toward the heavens and swore by the One who lives forever that [it would last] for an appointed time, a pair of appointed times, and half. And when they finish shattering the hand of the set-apart people, then these things will all be completed.”
Unless there was a bridge or a helicopter here, which men would stand “over”, “above”, or “upon” a river but priests (as when they carryied the ark, who stopped in the middle and “made” it cease flowing)? It may be one more evidence that this is still Yirmeyahu speaking to him. Completed: It almost seems that that is the end of the story! Notice that he swears not with one hand raised, but both (in contrast with Deut. 32:40, for example): seemingly a way of making the oath absolute; i.e., no matter how you slice it, whether in kindness or in anger, it will be this way. Or, the two hands could mean the events spoken of would befall those on both sides of the river. This then suggests that the “shattering” or “scattering” (in some sense dividing) of the two houses of Israel is what must come to an end before the prophecy is fulfilled. Daniel speaks from the viewpoint of Yehudah, and it seems that his tribe’s exile is over, but the other tribes are still in exile. Appointed time: the specific term for the festivals YHWH gave Israel. The time reference may be either to three and a half years (complete cycles of appointed times) or three and a half months (or one feast, one pair of feasts, and half a feast; the Feast of Unleavaned Bread and Sukkoth both have seven days, and so there would be a day that is the definite midpoint of each). Which it is may depend on how much discipline His people need at the time. It is probably based on YHWH’s appointed times, or festivals, so the count would begin from and probably end with one of them. Half: two festivals are exactly half a year apart: Passover and Sukkoth. He swears by the One who lives forever, because this is for a time thousands of years after his own, and no mortal living then could ever guarantee that something that far away would take place, though we can all work toward it.
8. And I heard, but did not understand, so I said, “My master, what [will be] the latter [end] of these [matters]?”
He was understandably puzzled. The man had said it would be completed, but did not really tell what the outcome would be. Would the righteous win—or just be snuffed out? Who is not confused when not enough information is given? Yet Daniel, the one who, at the pleasure of the crown, is the foremost scholar of his day, and has been the wisest in the empires in which he lived since he was a child, still says, “I don’t get it! What does it all boil down to? What do you want me to do about it?” And he had actually seen it with his eyes; how much less are we, who only hear it, likely to understand it--unless the unsealing comes in our own day? Then the meaning will be so plain that everyone will be amazed that they spent so much ink speculating about it. In light of verse 7, he may also be asking, “At which festival will this end?”
9. And he said, “Go [away], Daniel! Because the words are closed up and sealed until the time of the cutting-off.
Dani’el was getting too curious, too close to matters that could either burn him or were simply none of his business, so he was chased away. When we are given one revelation, it is easy to think we deserve more, but YHWH has allotted so much to each. Paul had to be given a “thorn in the flesh” to keep him humble; maybe YHWH did not want to do that to Daniel, who was “greatly beloved”. If the messenger did not give Daniel all the information, he could be sure Daniel would not reveal it to anyone else. The “hidden things” belong to YHWH.” (Deut. 29:29) But part of the reason he could not answer this question is that the outcome depends on us. Time of the cutting off: We may be able to read this as “the end of time”—not the end of all things, but when time itself ceases, for time was a concept unknown to Adam and Chawwah before they were banished from Eden. (If one is immortal, what does time matter?) Time is the flaming sword that prevents our return to Eden, yet it is two-edged: the path back there is also time. It is overcome by walking in YHWH’s appointed times (v. 7). Until all Israel walks in them, all is hidden, but then the door can open for the shattered “hand” to be repaired, and that will only be the beginning of an existence known as “eternal life”. When asked how to obtain it, Yahshua did not give a standard Christian answer, but said we arrive there by keeping YHWH’s commandments, properly undersatood. (Mark 10) Focus on things of the Kingdom, and we can get past time.
10. “Many will be purified, made white, and refined, but the wicked will act wickedly, and none of the wicked will discern, but the circumspect will discern.
Purified: the meaning ranges from brightened to purged out to clarified or polished. Clarity comes from YHWH, but not magically; in practicality, we receive it by studying and being taught by those who are wise. Made white: a consistent idiom throughout Scripture for purification as expressed by our clothing, a picture of our outward works. I.e., the actions of many will become increasingly consistent with the Torah. Refined: includes the sense of being heated very hot. This seems out of order, because why should we need more heating if we are already purified? Because this is a test of how well we have been tempered. It means that those who are purified will still have trouble in their lives! What is laundered still needs heat to dry or to be pressed. Many stop with just the cleansing—they recognize when Scripture says the Sabbath is, but still go to church on Sunday because that is when it meets, or still go to work. That is not a laundering, but only a spit-shine. YHWH wants us to go on to perfection—to be made not just white but complete. That sounds unattainable, but in the Hebraic sense it means “maturity”. It takes time to grow into awareness of what it is all about. Those who are aware in one area can grow more quickly in others because they are all connected. But until we recognize our clothes are filthy, we will not even start to clean them. This third step of refining also includes the meaning of welding—fusing metal together (different from soldering of two different metals). This is the fullest maturity: when all of Israel is made one. The wicked will [go on] act[ing] wickedly: Both groups may hear the same things and receive all the same data, but the message must meet with something in the hearer that corresponds and resonates, or it will just be meaningless noise which goes right past him, while others will blend with it in unimaginable harmony that makes the world much more beautiful. We see this in the fact that a great variety of religions has resulted from a reading of the same Scriptures. A “strong delusion” comes over some because they refuse what truth they have been given—and it specifies that they do not love the truth, but find pleasure in unrighteousness. (2 Thessalonians 2:10-12) That makes the difference between sinners who are salvageable though they miss the target and the wicked, who are not even interested in finding the target. We must remember that the wicked in the world at large are not even worthy of mention in this context, which is that of returning Israel. This is not speaking of Hitler, but those who are supposed to be part of the covenant. “Those who are wrong” might be a better translation in this case, because we need not be “evil” to be missing the path altogether. If they are doing what is right in their own eyes and not looking in the mirror of Torah, they cannot recognize when they are wrong. Mal’akhi 3:17ff tells us that the difference between the righteous and the wicked is that one serves Elohim and the other does not. They cannot meld with the rest of Israel because they have too much self still in them. We need to see Him rightly—neither as a “sugar daddy” or one distant and unconcerned with what we do, for we have a contract with Him, and when He forecloses, there is no bankruptcy court! Some think they are promised the world to come just because they are Jews. (See Matithyahu 3:9.) We are to keep the covenant as a people, but it is hard to make the case that you are part of Israel if you are not living it as an individual. Here we see Yahshua’s parable of the ten virgins (Matithyahu 25). Five ran out of oil, and the others were unable to share their oil with them because they could not give them a crash course in being circumspect if they had been unwilling to go through the three preceding steps when they had time. They stopped after the first stage, and now there was no time left to complete the rest of the course. This is Yom Kippur imagery: “If it is determined for anyone ... to this he will go.” This will be very important for the next verses. The final prayer of Yom Kippur is the neilah ("closing"), referring to the closing of the gates of the Temple (representing the gates of heaven) at sunset, according to one Talmudic opinion. (Artscroll Machzor for Yom Kippur) Joseph Good points out that as one moves into the neilah, the Shofar haGadol (great trumpet) is blown (cf. Matt. 24:29) and YHWH will make a covenant with those who are inside the gates when it is blown. "The tempest of YHWH has gone forth...It will whirl on the head of the wicked. The anger of YHWH shall not turn back until He has executed [and] set up the purposes of His heart. In the akherit yamim (latter days) you will understand it perfectly." (Jer. 23:19-20) Discern: We have to understand where we have gone wrong so we can turn back from it (as Daniel did in chapter 9; compare Psalm 51). The term for “discern” means “to distinguish one thing from another”— to discriminate, to make a mental separation between right and wrong, or between YHWH’s will and one’s own. The world is trying to train us to stop discriminating, to believe that no one or nothing is better or worse than any other, but we have to understand why we are in the situation we are in, and where disobedience can lead. (Yirmeyahu 9:12ff) Those who are circumspect—who are alert to what is going on around them on every side—are the ones who need to be our teachers, for they have already learned to be discerning.
11. “And from the time the regular [offering] is taken away and the appalling abomination is set up, [there will be] 1,290 days;
Regular offering: Heb., tamid, one that is offered every day, not just for special occasions such as festivals. A parallel passage tells us that this cessation of altar offerings is in the middle of the 70th “week” of seven years (9:27). There was another similar occurrence prophesied in 8:14, but the number of days is different, suggesting that this is occurring a second time. This time it does not specify that it is in the Temple. “Taken away” does not indicate a final end either; it has the nuances of being turned off (temporarily) or even removed to a place other than its proper location. This seems negative, and we can certainly see that in a figurative sense, the Jews moved the offerings from the literal altar to the prayer book, while the Christians said that Yahshua’s one offering replaced every one of them. But when Antiokhus IV set up a statue of Zeus Kurios with his own face (which experts have said has 39 points of congruency with the image on the Shroud of Turin) on it in the Temple precincts, it was too much for the holy people to stand being near it. Gentiles had defiled the Temple and ruined Yerushalayim. (Compare Psalm 79, in which David also asks, “How long?” and asks for YHWH’s help.) If those in Yehudah flee to the mountains and are sheltered in the wilderness, they will probably move the offerings to that site. A Temple Institute respondent reminded us that the new altar that is being built off site could even be used there. Scholars know this well, and if the issue were brought to a head, they would have to endorse it since it is Torah. The Tabernacle is primary in the Torah, and the Temple was really an afterthought. So wherever the Tent of Appointment is, there can be an altar on which the tamid can be offered with full validity. II Maccabees 2:5 tells us that the prophet Yirmeyahu hid the Tabernacle, ark, and altar of incense in a cave at Mt. Nevo, where Moshe had seen the Promised Land. Mt. Nevo is in a very dry place, conducive to preserving things for very long periods, as we saw with the Dead Sea Scrolls. So it is quite possible that the original or parts of it are still intact and could be used again at such a time of need. As soon as there is an altar, the tamid offerings can resume. So it could simply be relocated for this time period if the Temple service is forced to stop functioning in the ideal location—or even before the Temple is rebuilt.
12. “blessed is the one who waits and reaches 1,335 days.
Reaches: or attains to. It has the sense of endurance being required, and correlates very well with Matithyahu 24, which says, “He who endures to the end will be rescued.” YHWH says, Wait for Me” at the time when things look the worst, because He has a reason for the nations to gang up on us: so He can destroy them in one fell swoop. (Tz’fanyah 3:8) In other words, “Trust me.” It is like when we say, “Wait right here; I’ll be back” without saying how long. Wait as long as He takes—“though He may tarry”, keep on having confidence in Him. Something extraordinarily wonderful will be accomplished within those additional days that will make it thoroughly worth the patience and sacrifices it will take to endure until that time. When this time ends, the Kingdom may have fully arrived. Tying together prophecies both here and in Z’kharyah 14 with clues in numerous other prophets about events that take place on the appointed times, and based on Jewish traditions correlated with Renewed Covenant writings, Temple teacher Joseph Good suggests that the seventieth “week” of years begins on Yom haKippurim (at the beginning of the civil year, in the seventh month of the Israelite year). At its midpoint, Daniel said a counterfeit messiah would put a stop to the offerings. (9:27) Mr. Good suggests that on Nisan 10, the date the Passover lamb is to be selected and the same date Yahshua rode into Yerushalayim on a donkey and finally accepted acknowledgement as king, this counterfeit messiah might stage a counterfeit “triumphal entry”, and the Appalling Abomination (v. 11 above) be set up. Offerings to YHWH cannot be made in its presence. Those in Yehudah, who have been watching and preparing, flee for the wilderness and are sheltered there by YHWH through the hand of the inhabitants of Jordan. (Yeshayahu 16) This Passover celebrates yet another safe crossing over, and they remain there for three more Passovers and up until the 10th of the seventh month, which is again Yom haKippurim (halfway throught the next year—possibly correlating with the [appointed] time, pair of times, and half a time in verse 7), when Messiah leads us all back to liberate Yerushalayim, where all nations are gathered, allowing them to all be conveniently judged in one fell swoop. There are two days in Scripture called yom haDin (day of judgment), and Yom Kippur is one of these. But we are also told that this takes place when they minister between the altar and the porch (Yo’el 2). The only day this is done is on Yom Kippur, in the Avodah ceremony. Secondly, we are told that the high priest will "stand and minister in the name of YHWH". (Deut. 18:5) There is only one day of the year that the high priest has traditionally mentioned YHWH’s Name: Yom Kippur. Yahshua tells us that messengers are sent out with the sound of the Shofar haGadol (Great Trumpet), which is the specific name of the one blown at the beginning of the last service of Yom Kippur (Neilah). This is all phraseology that is only used for the Day of Atonements. Counting from Nisan 10, this makes 1,260 days by the ancient system of counting 30-day months. 75 days later (the 1,335th day) is Kislev 25 (the first night of Hanukkah in the ninth month), when the Temple, or at least the altar, was rededicated once before. 1,260 days is mentioned in Revelation 12, but not here. Why are there an additional 30 days? It relates to the sanctuary still being defiled, possibly even after Messiah retakes the city. Sukkoth would fall within that time, and there would not be enough time to cleanse the Temple between Yom Kippur and Sukkoth, which begins the 15th of the seventh month, so it might take until a month after Yom Kippur to accomplish that and begin rebuilding the altar thereafter. (Or there could be an intercalary month in one of these three years, making it add up to 1,290 already, but only if the original 360-day year with its months of exactly 30 days each is not restored by then.) There appear to be 45 days’ difference between these two numbers given here and in the preceding verse. The only 45-day interval that is part of YHWH’s festival calendar is from the first of the sixth month, Elul, when the 40 days of repentance leading up to Yom haKippurim begin, then there are five more days until the beginning of Sukkoth, which is the most joyful feast of the year, in the context of the blessing spoken of here. The first word in Scripture with the numeric value of 45 is “Adam”—the name used when we were only one person, even before Chawwah was separated ouit from him. What YHWH wants most from Israel is to have the intimacy He had in Eden with Adam. If while gathered at Sukkoth, already living in tents, we should decline YHWH’s offer of tribal lands and choose to remain a unified camp with His sanctuary in our midst, saying, “This is enough; we don’t want to spread out, so we can stay right here with You”, that just might be enough to remove the veil of time and open the doors back to eternity in the Garden of Eden right away. This is one way of counting it. But we must admit that nothing is said about 45 days in the text. The appointed times are the route out of the cycles of “vanity” that were imposed on us as time when we were barred from Eden. To overcome time we may need to “think outside the box”. What if we were to add the 1,290 and 1,335 days together rather than overlapping them? We come up with 2,625 days, which, by the ancient 360-day measure, is 7 years plus three and a half months. We noted earlier in the book that there is a stronger case for the “time, pair of times, and half” referring to months than years, since the same term can be used of a menstrual period. This, then, could encompass the entire “70th week” as well as the “time, pair of times, and half” of verse 7. There is a completely different way of looking at these things which is not mutually exclusive, but an additional “layer”. Rashi also points out that the phrase “And I will hide my face” in the Hebrew of Deut. 31:18 totals a gematria (numerical value) of 1,335. Blessed indeed is the one who sees the end of that time! The numeric value of “time, pair of times, and half” is 434, and the first word in Scripture with this value is “bore [a son]”, a phrase also used of Yitzhaq’s birth, which Gen. 17:21 indeed links with an appointed time, which by tradition was Passover. Three and a half months before Passover is again the first day of Hanukkah (the 25th of the 9th month). This may or may not have a bearing here. We will not know for certain which of these viewpoints, if any, is correct until the time is upon us. But YHWH does not hide anything that He does not want us to search out; it is to the honor of kings to search out what He hides (Prov. 25:2), and this would include any who belong to the House of David. (See note on verse 1.) When we see “seven years”, we should search out every place in Scripture that this imagery occurs, and something may click. These include the cycle of the Sabbatical year of release of debts, when the Land lies fallow (we would begin replanting around Passover), the seven years that Yaaqov worked for each of his wives, the age of Yoash when he began to reign, and the seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine under Yoseyf. (Will the whole world be plunged into seven years of famine, the doubling of the drought in Eliyahu’s time, because this abominatin is set up?) David ruled for seven years from Hevron before taking Yerushalayim. (This certainly seems to line up with the sanctuary being moved to a different place, as seen in the note on verse 11, then the Davidic king again being enthroned at Yerushalayim.) We may be wrong many times as we try to decipher the data, but that is usually what it takes to get something right. (Ask Thomas Edison.) We should not be obsessed with these things; the main point is to bring forth teaching that feeds Israel, not just our curiosity. Pay attention to what is going on around us, and the understanding will come as we need it. Confirmations will be there. The way the number 1,290 in verse 11 is broken down in Hebrew is 1,000, 200, 90. The word for 1,000 is elef, a variation of the name of the first letter, alef. The letter with the numeric value of 200 is resh, and tzadhe has the value of 90. These three letters together spell “eretz”, the name used even today for the Land of Israel in particular. 1,335 is broken down into 1,000, 300, 30, and 5. This translates to alef-shiin-lamed-hey by the same method explained above. This spells a word meaning, “I will be tranquil”, possibly a reference to the peace that comes with the Kingdom. The name Shiloh is based on this root, reminding us of Gen. 49:10—“until Shiloh comes”. But it can also mean, “I will draw out” or “I will fish out”. When we remember that Efrayim and Menashe are to multiply like fish (Gen. 48:16) and that YHWH would send men to fish for us among the nations (Yirmeyahu 16:16; compare Mat. 4:18-19), there is a clear reference here to the northern Kingdom joining Yehudah, who is already in the Land. Hoshea 1:10-11 puts Efrayim back in the Land before the King is recognized by both houses together. The numbers 1,2,9, and 0 add up to 12; so do 1,3,3, and 5, another hint that they have to do with all 12 tribes being restored. Mikha’el, in the “atbash” code often used to encrypt ancient Hebrew messages, is yod-mem-lamed-tav-kaf--“he will fill you up”, correlating perfectly with Efrayim becoming the “fullness of the nations”. (Gen. 48:19) We will stand up (v. 1) when Yehudah needs us so badly that they cannot put us off any longer. Having possession of the Land has given them a degree of arrogance, thinking there was no way enemies would dare attack after the initial few exploits. But then they quit fighting. The one thing this passage tells us for certain is that when we see Efrayim get Yehudah out of very deep, deadly trouble, that is the time to put our people in the Land.
13. “But you, go on to [your own] cutting off; then you will rest, then stand up for your allotment at the end of the days.”
Daniel had written much about the “end”; now it is time to experience his own end. Like Moshe on Mount Nevo, his part was done. The messenger had no more to say about this during Daniel’s lifetime. But though he would not live to see the day he wrote about, he would nonetheless see it indeed. The end is not really the end. While verse 2 may refer only to a figurative resurrection, there is no way to interpret this verse as anything but a literal resurrection. The resurrection is one of the 13 core beliefs of Hebraic faith, according to Maimonides. It was a very hot topic in the days of Yahshua and Paul; some of the Tzadoqim (the Boethusians) did not believe in a resurrection, and both of these teachers used that fact to their advantage. Daniel, who was so busy teaching well into his old age would soon have his much-needed rest. But not to worry; he would be back to receive his reward, which may include finally understanding it! He had put a lot of time and effort into this work, so someone would be sent to wake him up when the time came so he would not miss it. His allotment (literally, his lot—another tie-in with Yom haKippurim) was very real, but was not to be obtained during the days when “moth and rust corrupt or thieves break through and steal”. (Mat. 6:19; contrast verse 9.) To receive it when the Kingdom has fully come would be even better than surviving to go back to the Land in the days of Ezra and Nehemyah’s diminished Temple. Daniel got to skip right to that time, because the first phrase literally only says, “But you, go/walk/move on to the end.” Many who have invested even their last ounce of strength into making it possible for the Kingdom to come have passed away before that day arrived. But YHWH is not so unjust as to leave them without the reward of seeing their efforts realized. In the same context, Paul told his audience,“so comfort one another with these words.” (1 Thess. 4:13-18) However, he then goes on to remind us that we don’t know exactly when it will be, so we need to be sober and alert at all times to be ready. But this is just what Daniel is told, in effect: “Don’t put any more effort into trying to decipher the details; just write it down and save it up for the time when it will be needed.” This advice could have saved many people countless wasted hours of frustration had they read it more carefully. What he does, as on previous occasions, is to let this lie and go back to doing his job for what time he had left. What it tells us is, “Focus on walking in Torah; keep doing that, and whether you survive to the end or are required to sleep through some of the intervening period, you will not miss the appointment when it comes.” This indeed is a message of hope—if we take the advice.
WRITINGS OF THE PROPHET
Dani'el
INTRODUCTION: The story begins in 597 B.C.E., contemporary with the end of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles. Egypt and Babylon were vying for domination of the civilized world. King Yoshiyahu interfered with a battle Pharaoh Nekho wished to fight on his territory, and in doing so was accidentally killed. His sons then came under Egyptian jurisdiction, though they continued to reign. When Nevukhadnetzar gained the throne, he decided to take Yehudah from Egypt, and for three years Yehoyaqim submitted, but then revolted. (2 Chron. 35, 36) Nevukhadnetzar tolerated it for three years, but then put down the rebellion, deposed Yehoyaqim, led him off in chains to Babylon (where he died), and, to crush morale and prevent another such rebellion, carried off Israel's most talented people (including Daniel) Though he left the rest there, within less than 12 years the continuing spiritual decline (legacy of King Menashe) rendered the political nation unfit to continue (never to be regained until our own day). Nonetheless, despite their exile, men like Daniel kept the core of Israel's heritage intact so it could weather the storm and be reestablished. Indeed, since Babylon was never brought under Roman control, the Jewish community there was able to thrive much longer than in the restored Holy Land, remaining stable enough to compile a fuller version of the Talmud. But the book of Daniel goes beyond the experiences of the prophet. They become a springboard for some revelations about the later course of history and include a unique pinpointing of the time of the Messiah’s appearance. This book was studied heavily during second-Temple times, and stirred up much messianic fervor, also inspiring many pieces of literature in the apocalyptic genre. There are many parallels with the book of Revelation, but since this work was written first, its reading should be a prerequisite to revelation, since it includes the foundations for the interpretation of the other. There are many cross-currents with Daniel’s contemporary, Y’hezq’El (Ezekiel) as well. Of course, the understanding of any biblical prophecy depends on a thorough knowledge of the Torah in which it is rooted. At present, the chief value of this book for us may be that it is an excellent handbook on how to maintain a Hebrew life while in exile.
Engraving of Daryawesh the Mede
