Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/6_300.lzh/6_352.TXT

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all principality and power; and is no other than Christ
the Son of God, an increated Angel; who is one, or the
first of the chief Princes {x}, superior to angels, in nature,
name, and office; he came to help Gabriel, not as a
fellow-creature, but as the Lord of hosts; not as a
fellow-soldier, but as General of the armies in heaven
and earth, as superior to him in wisdom and strength;
and he helped him by giving him fresh counsels, orders,
and instructions, which he following succeeded: and I
remained there with the kings ofPersia ; with the king of
Persia and his nobles, putting into execution the orders
Michael had given him, and so baffled the designs of
the evil 'Spirit; and this retarded him from being with
the prophet one-and-twenty days. The Septuagint and
Arabic versions very wrongly render the words, and I
left him there with the kings of Persia; as if Michael
was left there by Gabriel, whereas it was just the
reverse,
Ver. 14. Now I am come to make thee to understand
what shall befall thy people in the latter days, &c.3 The
contest being over with the prince of Persia, and having
got an advantage, and carried his point in fayour of the
Jews; he came directly to Daniel, to inform him of
what should befall the people of the Jews in the suc-
ceeding monarchies, especially in the times of Antio-
chus; and even of all that should befall them until the
Messiah came, as Aben Ezra rightly interprets it; for
tim last days generally design the days of the Messiah;
see Gcn. xlix. 1. Isa, it. 2: for yet the vision isJbr many
days; before it will be accomplished; reaching not
only to the times of Antiochus, three hundred years
after this, but even to the times of antichrist, of whom
he was a type; and to the resurrection of the dead, and
the end of time, as the two next chapters shew; see
Hab. it. 3.
Vet. 15. And when he had spoken such words unto me,
&¢.3 As before related, concerning the contest between
him and the prince of Persia; and especially concerning
what would befall the people of the Jews in the latter
day: I set my face toward the ground; not being able
to look up; his eyes were fixed npon the earth like one
confounded and thunderstruck, filled with amazement
and wonder: and I became dumb; not able to speak a
word, as is the case of persons sometimes in surprise,
or through excess of any of the passions: this arose
either from the majesty of the angel; or rather from
the nature and importance of the things he said; or
from a consciousness of his own impurity, and so of
his unworthiness to converse with so exalted a crea-
ture, and to be favoured with such secrets. The Arabic
version is, and I supplicated; very wrongly.
Vet. 16. And, behold, one like the similitude of the
sons of men, &c.] Not the man clothed with linen, or
Christ; but either the same angel, Gabriel, who ap-
'peared more manifestly to him in a human form; or
another of the attendants of Christ, who also had the
similitude of a man: touched my lips; with his hand,
as the Prophet Isaiah's were, by a seraph, with a live
coal from the altar, Isa. vi. 7. thereby restoring him to
Iris speech, and giving him freedom and boldness to
make use of it; and removing from him his impurity,
and a sense of it, which occasioned his silence: then [
opened my mouth, and spake' freely, and yet with all
becoming modesty: and said unto him that stood before
me, 0 lord; the angel that appeared in the likeness of
a man, and stood before the prophet, and touched his
lips, whom he calls lord; not because of sovereignty
and dominion over him, which belong to Christ, as the
Creator of all things,-and Head of fhe church; but for
honour's sake, being a noble and exalted creature: by
the vision my sorrows are turned upon me; on sight of
the glorious object represented to him in the vision,
pains seized his body in all parts of it, sharp and
pungent, like those of a 'woman in travail. Gussetins {y}
interprets it of the knuckle-bones, which turned in the
pan of them, like the hinges of a door, of which the
word is used, Prov. xxvi. 14. and this through the
tendons being loosed by the dissipation of the spirits;
and this sense the Vulgate Latin version gives counte-
nance to, my joint.s are dissolved; the Septuagint, Sy-
riac, and Arabic versions, are, my inward parts or bowels
are turned in me: and I have retained no strength'; see
the note on vcr. 8.
Vet. 17. For how can the servant of this my lord
talk with this my lord ? &c.] Or, talk with that my
lord {z} ? pointing to the man clothed in linen, who ap-
peared so glorious, and whom Daniel knew to be more
than a man; and therefore he, who was a mere mortal
sinful man, and reckoned himself a servant of the angel
of the Lord that was now before him, and had touched
him, and was converSing with him, and to whom he
was greatly inferior, must be very unfit and unworthy
to have conversation with one that was infinitely above
him; with such an one, his Lord, as Noldius {a} renders
it, as Christ the Son of God, the Head of angels, King
of kings, and Lord of lords; what was he, dust and
ashes, that he should speak unto him, or be admitted
to any discourse with him ? so sensible was he of the
greatness of Christ, and of his own frailty, sinfulness,
and nothingness; for as for me, straightway there re-
mained no strength in me; as soon as ever he saw this
great and glorious person; see the note on vet. 8:
neither is there breath left in me: when he fainted
away, and became like a dead man; and though he
was raised up again, and set upon his feet, and had a
little recovered his speech, yet it was with great dif-
ticulty that he brcathed and spoke; as it is with men
when their spirits are greatly oppressed, it is as if their
life and soul were gone out of them, and they move
more like dead than living men.
Vet. 18. Then there came again and touched me one
like the appearance of a man, &c.] Or one like a man
again touched him; the same that touched him before,
vet. 16. perhaps Gabriel, since he uses the same lan-
guage iu the following verse as lie does ver. 11: and he
strengthened me; both in body and mind, by_ his free
and thmiliar convcrsation with him, and the comlbrt-
able words he spoke to him, a divine power accompa-
nying them for that purpose.
Vet. 19. And said, 0 man, greatly beloved, &c.]. Or,

{x} \^dxa\^ "primus", Junius & Tremellius.
{y} Comment. Ebr. p. 713.
{z} \^hz ynda Me\^ "cum domino meo illo", Pagninus, Montanus, Munster,
Junius & Tremellius.
{a} Concord. Ebr. Part. p. 353.