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Class-Book of Old Testament History

<hr class="sect_35" /> <h3> CHAPTER <abbr title="1">I.</abbr> DANIEL AND NEBUCHADNEZZAR. <abbr title="Daniel">Dan.</abbr> <abbr title="chapters 1 through 3">i.–iii.</abbr>   B.C. <abbr title="circa">circ.</abbr> 606<abbr title="through">–</abbr>570.</h3> “Nothing,” it has been remarked, “could present a more striking contrast to their native country than the region into which the Hebrews were now transplanted. Instead of their irregular and picturesque mountain-city, crowning its unequal heights, and looking down into its deep and precipitous ravines, through one of which a scanty stream wound along, they entered the vast, square, and level city of Babylon, occupying both sides of the broad Euphrates; while all around spread immense plains, which were intersected by long straight canals, bordered by rows of willows. How unlike their national temple—a small but highly finished and richly adorned fabric, standing in the midst of its courts on the brow of a lofty precipice—the colossal temple of the Chaldæan Bel, rising from the plain, with its eight stupendous stories or towers, one above the other, to the perpendicular height of a furlong! The palace of the Babylonian king was more than twice the size of their whole city: it covered eight miles, with its hanging gardens built on arched terraces, each rising above the other, and rich in all the luxuriance of artificial cultivation. How different from the sunny cliffs of their own land, where the olive and the vine grew spontaneously, and the cool, shady, and secluded valleys, where they could always find shelter from the heat of the burning noon! No wonder, then, that in the pathetic words of their own hymn, By the waters of Babylon they sat down and wept, when they remembered thee, O Zion442” (<abbr title="Psalm 137">Ps. cxxxvii.</abbr> 1). Thus far removed from their native land, amidst a strange people and strange rites, and exposed to all the influences of contact with their conquerors, we might, in the usual order of things, have expected that the Jews would have ceased to remain a nation at all. But with them it was not thus to be. The ten tribes, indeed, are never heard of more, but the remnant of Judah and Benjamin in Babylonia so far from blending its national life with that of its conquerors, remained a separate people, and preserved its national institutions. We shall very much misunderstand their condition, if we suppose that the Jews became bondsmen or serfs443. They were “colonists rather than captives;” they received grants of land, agricultural or pastoral, out of the conquered territories at the disposal of Nebuchadnezzar; and so valuable were their services considered that not a few rose to high eminence (<abbr title="Daniel">Dan.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 2">ii.</abbr> 48), and held confidential positions next to the person of the sovereign. While, moreover, they increased in numbers and wealth, they retained an internal jurisdiction over their own members; they kept up amongst themselves distinctions of rank; they preserved their genealogies (<abbr title="Nehemiah">Neh.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 7">vii.</abbr> 5, 6, 64); and although from the absence of any common centre of worship they could only observe the Mosaic Law in part444, still they retained the rite of circumcision, the distinction of meats, and other points (<abbr title="Compare">Comp.</abbr> <abbr title="Daniel">Dan.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 1">i.</abbr> 8; <abbr title="Esther">Esth.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 3">iii.</abbr> 8). Nor did the Providence, which had hitherto watched over them, fail them in the land of exile. The voice of Prophecy, so far from being hushed, now swelled into louder strains. While Jeremiah445 warned and exhorted them at the outset of this sad period in their history, Ezekiel did not fail for 30 years to carry on the same work in the land of exile itself, while another and one of the most illustrious of their number rose to the very highest position, and proved the “Moses of the Captivity,” and the fourth of the greater Prophets. In the fourth year of Jehoiakim, B.C. 606, as we have already seen446, Nebuchadnezzar had ordered the Chief of the Eunuchs to remove to Babylon certain select youths of royal descent, who from their talents seemed likely to be of service in his court. Of these one was Daniel, apparently of the blood royal (<abbr title="Daniel">Dan.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 1">i.</abbr> 3), and gifted with no common talents (<abbr title="Daniel">Dan.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 1">i.</abbr> 4). With three other companions of the tribe of Judah, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, he was removed to the Babylonian court, and there trained for the king’s service in the learning and language of the Chaldæans (<abbr title="Daniel">Dan.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 1">i.</abbr> 4). Moreover, in accordance with a common custom, his name was changed, and he and his three companions were now known as Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. During the three years of their training they were not forgetful of the Law and Religion of their fathers, and with unusual firmness of character declined to partake of the daily allowance of meat and wine supplied them from the royal table, either probably because it was ceremonially unclean, or had been offered in sacrifice to the Assyrian gods. Preferring to live on the simplest fare, they yet proved as comely and well-favoured as though they had been fed on the rarest dainties, and when brought before Nebuchadnezzar were pronounced to excel in wisdom and knowledge the wisest men in his empire, and were rewarded with high positions about his court (<abbr title="Daniel">Dan.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 1">i.</abbr> 15). While they were thus employed, a remarkable circumstance took place. Nebuchadnezzar dreamt a dream, which exceedingly troubled his spirit. Summoning the magi and astrologers, he demanded that it should be instantly interpreted. They promised the interpretation, if they might be told the dream. But though this had escaped the monarch’s memory, he reiterated his command; and when told that to obey it was impossible, issued an edict commanding the instant destruction of all the wise men throughout his realms. This despotic order was made known to Daniel by Arioch the “captain of the executioners,” who was charged to see it carried out. The Jewish exile instantly sought an audience with the monarch, and having succeeded in gaining time for a fuller consideration, summoned his three friends, who with fervent prayer to Him, “from whom no secrets are hid,” besought a revelation of the dream. Their prayers were heard, and at a second audience Daniel disclosed the Vision of the Night. The monarch had beheld a great Image, the form of which was terrible. The head was of fine gold, the breast and the arms of silver, the belly and sides of brass, the legs of iron, the feet partly iron and partly clay. The excellent brightness of this Image the monarch had watched, till he suddenly saw a stone cut out of a mountain without hands smite the feet of the Image till it broke in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors, while the stone became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. Such was the Vision which Daniel then proceeded to interpret. “The king himself was this head of gold. To him the God of heaven had given a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. After him should arise another kingdom inferior to his; after that a third kingdom of brass, which should bear rule over all the earth; to which would succeed a fourth kingdom strong as iron, breaking in pieces and subduing all things. That kingdom, with its feet and toes, part of iron and part of clay, would be partly strong and partly brittle, and its subjects would mingle themselves with the seed of men, but they would not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay, and would make room for another kingdom, which God Himself would set up, to break in pieces and consume all the previous kingdoms, and itself stand for ever447” (<abbr title="Daniel">Dan.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 2">ii.</abbr> 36<abbr title="through">–</abbr>45). The great Babylonian monarch was profoundly affected by this proof of superhuman knowledge. He fell down on his face and worshipped Daniel; commanded that an oblation and sweet odours should be offered unto him; bestowed on him costly presents, and made him viceroy over the whole province of Babylon, and supreme over all the wise men of his empire. In the hour of his prosperity Daniel did not forget his three companions. By his intercession similar honours were bestowed upon them, while he himself retained the pre-eminence in the gate of the king (<abbr title="Daniel">Dan.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 2">ii.</abbr> 46<abbr title="through">–</abbr>49). Though on this memorable occasion the new viceroy had been pre-eminently faithful to the God of his fathers, and by his ascription of all his wisdom to a higher Power, had made the great monarch he served acknowledge that there was a God of gods and Lord of lords, the lesson does not seem to have made a very lasting impression on Nebuchadnezzar’s mind. In the vast empire he had won by his arms there were many different nations, with different gods, and different modes of worship. Over all he was supreme, and with the true feeling of an Oriental despot it seemed to him only right that they should all acknowledge his chief deity. This was the great Bel, or Bel-Merodach448, “the supreme chief of the gods,” “the king of the heavens and the earth,” the Jupiter of the Babylonian Pantheon. It was possibly an image of this god449, 60 cubits high and 6 broad, and overlaid with golden plates450, which he now proceeded to set up on the plain of Dura, with the command that at the sound of instruments of music, all his subjects, from the highest to the lowest, should fall down and worship it, on penalty of being flung into a burning fiery furnace (<abbr title="Daniel">Dan.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 3">iii.</abbr> 5, 6). In accordance with this edict, all the officers of the court of Babylon, and the governors of the different provinces who had been summoned to assist at the ceremony, flocked to the plain of Dura, and with one consent, as soon as the music sounded, prostrated themselves before the great dumb image which their lord had set up. But Daniel’s three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in this hour of trial remained faithful to the religion of their fathers, neither falling down nor worshipping with the rest. This act of disobedience to their master was quickly perceived by many of the native Chaldæans, who were already filled with jealousy at the elevation of the exiles, and they were not slow in reporting it to Nebuchadnezzar. On hearing it, that monarch’s wrath knew no bounds. He summoned them before him; he reiterated the command he had already issued; he warned them that in spite of their high position they should certainly suffer the penalty of their disobedience. But his words were wasted. These three mighty ones in “the noble army of martyrs” replied that they were not careful to answer him in this matter; their God could, if such was His will, deliver them from the fiery furnace, and even if He did not, they would not serve the monarch’s god, or bow before the Image he had set up (<abbr title="Daniel">Dan.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 3">iii.</abbr> 16<abbr title="through">–</abbr>18). This outspoken refusal filled Nebuchadnezzar with still greater fury. The form of his visage was changed, he bade the furnace be heated seven times more than it was wont to be heated, and ordered the mightiest captains in his army to bind the three, and fling them into the fire. His words were obeyed, but at the cost of the lives of his captains, who fell victims to their zeal, being caught by the raging flames. Moreover, when he looked to see the three martyrs speedily reduced to ashes, behold they were observed loose, walking unscathed in the midst of the fire, accompanied by a Celestial Being, in whom the monarch discerned none other than a “Son of God!” Thereupon he drew near to the mouth of the furnace, and bade his intended victims come forth. And they came forth, and on their bodies, as all attested, the fire was seen to have had no power, neither was a hair of their head singed, neither had the smell of fire passed over them. Filled with admiration for their heroic faith, the monarch issued a decree that all men, far and wide, throughout his empire should revere the God of these Hebrews, and that every people, nation, or language that spake word against their God, should be cut in pieces, and their houses made a dunghill (<abbr title="Daniel">Dan.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 3">iii.</abbr> 29). <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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