that any thing of this kind was ever insisted upon;
and therefore hoped the king would not insist upon it;
and which no doubt was true: Pharaoh required of
his wise men to tell him the interpretation of his dream,
but not the dream itself.
Ver. 11. And it is a rare thing the king require,h,
&e.] Meaning not scarce, or seldom heard of;
for they had before asserted it never had been re-
quired; but that it was hard and difficult, yea, with
them, and as they supposed with any other, impossi-
ble to be done: and there is none other that can ,hew it
before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not
with flesh; these men own there was a God, though,
they held, more than one; and the omniscience of God,
though they seem to have no notion of his omnipre-
sence; and to suggest as if he had no concern with
mortals; had no regard to men on earth, nor commu-
nicated the knowledge of tlaings unto them. Jarchi,
Aben Ezra, and Saadiah, interpret this of angels, who
are incorporeal; but the superior deities of,he Gen-
tiles are rather designed; who were supposed to dwell
in heaven, and to have no conversation with men on
earth; these, 'tis owned, could declare to the king
what he desired, and no other; and therefore should
not persist in his dem.and on them.
Vet. 1 o.. For this cause the king was angry, and very
.furious, &c.] Not only because they could not tell
his dream, and the interpretation of it; but because
they represented him as requiring a thing unreasonable
ancf impossible, which had never been done by any po-
tentate but himself, and could never be answered but
by the gods: this threw him into an excess of wrath
and fury; which in those tyrannical and despotic
princes was exceeding great and terrible: and com-
mandeal to destroy all the wise men of Babylon; not only
those that were now in his presence, but all others;
concluding from this instance that they were an useless
set of men, yea, deceivers and impostors.
Ver. 13. And the decree went forth that the wise men
should be slain, &c.] Or, and the wise men were slain {h},
as the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and Syriac versions
render it; and so Saadiah: orders were given by the
king to his proper officers, and his edict was published,
and his will made known in the usual manner; upon
which the wise men, at least some of them, were slain;
very probably those who were in the king's presence,
and at court; and the officers were gone out to slay the
rest: and they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain;
who had the character of wise men, and might be en-
vied at court, and so the officers took this opportunity,
having these orders, to slay them: there was, no doubt,
a particular providence, that Daniel and his friends
should not be at court at this time; both that the va-
nity of the Chaldean wisdom and arts might be the
more manifest and made known, and the divineand su-
perior wisdom and knowledge of Daniel might be
more conspicuous, and his fame be spread in Babylon,
and in other provinces..
Ver. 14. Then Daniel answered with counsel and wis-
dom, &c.] In a discreet manner, using soft words and
gentle language, humbly and modestly inquiring what
should be the meaning of all this. The Vulgate Latin
version is, he inquired of,he law and decree {}; what was
the reason of the king's orders, which this officer had
in commission to execute; with which others agree:
or, he made to return the counsel and decree {k}, as some
choose to render it; he stopped the execution of it for
the present, by his inquiries and prudent behaviour
but neither seem to agree with what follows; the first
sense is best: to Arioch the captain of the king',guards:
there was a king of this name, Gen. xiv. 1. this man,
according to the Septuagint version, and others that
follow it, was the chief of,he king's cooks; and Aben
Ezra says the word in the Arabic language so signifies:
or, as it may be rendered, the chief of the slaughterera {} ;
the executioners of malefactors, so Jarchi; he was the
king's chief executioner, with which agrees the busi-
ness he was now charged with: the Vulgate Latin
version calls him the prince of the militia; and others
the king's provost-marshal: which was gone forth to
slay the wise men of Babylon; who by the king's order
went forth from the court into the city, to slay all in
abylon who went under the character of wise men:;
they were not among those that could not an-
e king's demand, since they declared none
could do it; and therefore he ordered them all. to be
slain, as a set of useless men in his kingdom.
Vet. 15. And he answered and said to Arioch the
king's captain, &c.] Or governors; over the persons
before mentioned; either the king's guard or militia,
or cooks or executioners: before, the manner in which
Daniel answered is observed; here, the matter of it, as
follows: why is the decree so hasty .from the Icing ? or,
why this rash, hasty, or cruel (as the Vulgate Latin
version). decree from the king ? for so it was: what is
the cause and reason of it ? then Arioch made the thing
known to Daniel; who before was ignorant of it; he
was not with the wise men before the king; either
they did not care he should go with them, and there-
fore called him not; or he did not choose to go himself,
being under no temptation by the rewards offered, and
especially having no summons from the king himself:
this being his case, Arioch informs him of the whole
affair; how that the king had dreamed a dream, and
forgot it; and had sent for the wise men to tell him
both it and the interpretation; but they not being
able to do it, and declaring also that it was impossible
to.be done, the king had. given orders to slay all of that
character.
Ver. 16. Then Daniel went in, &c.] Or went up {};
to the king's palace, which might be built on an emi-
nence; or into his chamber, where he probably was;
or in some upper room, very likely introduced by
Arioch; and which was a bold and daring action in
them both: in Arioch, to cease from doing his orders,
and entering into the king's presence before he had ;,
and in Daniel, to appear before him, having the name
of a wise man,, when the king was in such a fury; alli

{h} \^Nyljqtm aymykxw\^ & sapientes interficiebantur, Pagninus,
Montanus, Munster, Piscator, Michaelis.
{i} \^Mejw aje byth\^ interrogavit de lege & decreto, V.L.; super
consilio, Munster, Calvin; de eo consilio, Castalio.
{k} Redire fecit consilium & statutum, Pagninus, Montanus; reverti-
fecit, Michaelis.
{l} \^ayxbj br\^ principem carnificum, Montanus, Grotius.
{m} \^ajylv\^ dominatori, Junius &, Tremellius, Piscator, Broughtonus,
{n} \^le\ t~ ascendit, Gejerus.