Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/6_300.lzh/6_337.TXT

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and he shall destroy wonderfidly ; or beyond all credit,
countries, cities, towns, and their inhabitants; he slew
fourscore thousand Jews in three days' time, bound
forty thousand, and sold as many, 2 Maccab. v. 14. or,
h.e shah destroy wonderful things {}; the temple, anti the
wonderful things of worth and value iu it, so Sandish
and Jacchiades; he took away the vessels of the tem-
ple, the golden lamps, the ark, and table of gold, 4.c.:
and shall prosper and practise; for a while do wilat he
pleased, noue being able to oppose and hinder him;
see yet. 12 and shall destroy the mighty and the holy
people; by the mighty may be meant the Egyptians, Par-
thians, and other nations he made war with; and by
the holy people the Jews, who were sanctified and se-
parated from other people by the Lord, to be a pecu-
liar people; among whom were his holy temple, bis
holy priests. his holy word, ordinances, and wor-
ship; lnultitudes of these he destroyed, as before ob-
served. Jacchiades interprets this of the sons of Aaron,
the holy priests of the Lord. whom he slew.
Ver. 25. And through his policy aho he shall cause
craft to prosper in his hand, &c.] His schemes were
laid in such deep policy, aud he managed so artfully
and craftily in the execution of them, tllat he com-
monly succeeded; as in getting the kingdom of Syria
from his nephew; and, under a pretence of peace and
friendship, and to defend Philometer king of Egypt,
a minor, and by large promises to the nobles or' the
land, made himself master of it; and by deceitrid me-
thods he orerailed in Judea; see ch. xi. 21, 2, 24:
and he sb. all magnify himself in his heart; swell with
pride, ou account of success, through his policy, craft,
and cunning, and think himself above all mortals, and
equal to God himself; yea, as his antitype antichrist,
exalt himself above all that is called God; hncy that he
could command the seas, weigh the mountains in scales,
and reach heaven itself, 2 Maccab. ix. 8: and by peace
shall destroy many; under a pretence of peace enter
into countries. and destroy the inhabitants of them,
as in Egypt and Judea; or, by leagues and treaties of
peace, outwitting those he made peace with; so some
politic princes do themselves more service, and their
enemies more hurt, by treaties than by battles: or. in
peace {w}; when at peace with them, or while they are
in peace and tranquillity; coming upon them unex-
pectedly. at an unawares, when they did not so much
as dream of war: he shall also stand up against the
Prince of princes; not the high-priest, as Grotius; nor
Michael, as Aben Ezra; but God himself, as Sandlab
and Jacchiades; who is King of kings, and Lord of
lords, the only Pontcurate, to whotn all the princes
above and below are subject; him Antiochus stood
up against, when he profaned his temple at Jerusalem,
tbrbid his worship, persecuted and destroyed his peo-
ple, and set up the image of Jupiter. in his house: but
t,e shall be broken 'without hand; alluding to his being
a horn; it is expressive of his death, 'and the manner
of it; that he should not dic by the [land of an enemy
in battle, nor be assassinated by the hand of a ruffian,
but be cut off' by the immediate hand of God. Jac-
chiades says, that by the providence of God he fell ill
of a bad disease, and at the cry of one of his elephants
his chariot was overturned, and he fell on the ground,
and his hones were broken. Of his death, and the
manner of it, see 1 Maccab. vi. 8. 2 Maccab. ix. 5, 9.
which was much like that of Herod's, Acts xii. 24.
being stricken with a violent disorder in his bowels:
iris body covered with worms; his flesh flaked off, and
emitted such a stench, as was intolerable to his army.
Aben Ezra says, he fell from the root' of a house, and
was broken, and died.
Ver. e6. And the vision of the evening and the
ing which u'as told is true, &c.] That is, of the
2300 evenings and mornings, or natural days; unto
which time the daily sacrifice was to cease, and the
sanctuary and host trodden under foot; and then the
sanctuary would be cleansed. This account i,.; true.
and not only to be believed, but is clear and plain.
and to be literally understood of so many days, of such
a term of time exactly, having no obscurity in it:
.wherefore shut thou tep the vision; the whole vision of
the ram and he-goat, and the little horn: the meaning
is, that he should keep it to himself, and conceal it
from men; not from his own people, for whose sake
it. was given, but from the Chaldeans, whose destruc-
tion was near; and who would be succeeded by the
Persians, who might be disgusted With this prophecy.
should they see it, it tbretelling the destruction of their
empire: or this order was given to suggest to Daniel
that the fulfilment of it would be deferred some time,
during which it would not be so easy to be understood
as when it was near accomplishing and accomplished;
and then prophecy and facts might be compared to-
gether: for it shall be for many days; it were three
hundred years, or more, from the reign of Belshazzar
to the death of Antiochus, in which this vision ends.
Vet. 27. And I Daniel fainted and was sick certain
days, &c.] Or, then I Daniel fainted {x}; after he had
seen the vision, and had thought upon it, and consi-
dered the afflictions that were to come upon the peo-
ple of God, and the condition the temple, and the
worship of it, would be in; these so affected his mind,
that he not only fainted away, and was struck with a
kind of stupor and amazement, but had a tit of illness
upon him, which continued some days; such a near-
ness and sympathy there are between the soul and
body: afterwards I rose up; from the bed in which he
had laid some days ill: and did the lcing's business; by
which it appears, that, upon the death of Nebuchad,
nezzar, Daniel was as vet continued in the service oi'
the king of Babylon, though perhaps not in the same
posts as beforo, and was not a favourite at court, and
so much known as he had been; and also that he was
not in reality at Shushan, when he had this vision,
but at Babylon: and I was astonished at the vision; at
the things contained in it, which were of so much im-
portance, respecting the kingdoms of the earth, espe-
cially the Persian and Grecian empires, and the state
of his own people the Jews: but none undcrstood it: to
whom he shewed it; none but himself, who was made
to understand it by the angel, ver. 16, 17,

{u} \^twalpn\^ "mirabilia", Montanus, Polanus.
{w} \^hwlvb\^ "in pace", Calvin, Vatablus; "in tranquillitate", Montanus,
Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Michaelis.
{x} So Noldius, Concord. Ebr. Part. p. 309.