Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible · Daniel Chapter 6

Daniel 6:1. It pleased Darius— That is, Cyaxares, whose father is called Assuerus, in the book of Tobit, Tob 14:15 as he is also by Daniel, chap. Dan 9:1 meaning in both places Astyages, or the king of Media, who concurred with the Assyrian monarch in the destruction of Nineveh. Herodotus and Xenophon make mention of an ancient gold coin called Δαριεκος or Daric, as is presumed by many writers, from this king; from the first Darius, according to Suidas, or one prior to Hystaspes. This coin seems to have been called by the like name after the captivity in Ezr 2:69 and 1Ch 29:7 in the original. Sir Isaac Newton says he had seen one of them, and that it was stamped on one side with the effigies of an archer crowned with a spiked crown, with a bow in his left, and an arrow in his right hand, and clothed with a long robe, that it weighed two attic drams, and was of the value of the attic stater. Chron. of Ant. Kingd. p. 319.

The war with the Chaldeans, which ended in the destruction of Babylon, seems to have commenced originally on the part of the Medes, over whom the Babylonian queen Nitocris, according to Herodotus, had kept a jealous and watchful eye. Jeremiah, Jeremiah 51:11; Jeremiah 51:28., mentions the kings of the Medes only as raised up against Babylon, and so Isaiah 13:17, but elsewhere he joins the Elamites with them; and Thucydides generally calls the Persians Medes only. However, when Babylon was taken and subdued by the united powers of Media and Persia, Cyrus was probably induced to set over it this king of the Medes, in order to make the union of the two nations more easy, and to prepare matters better for the full establishment of the Persian empire. Cyaxares, as is generally agreed, reigned not more than two years; and during that term being only a sort of viceroy, or at least dependent upon Cyrus, the whole period of nine years is ascribed by Ptolemy to Cyrus, and no notice taken of Darius at all.

An hundred and twenty princes— According to the number of provinces which were subject to the Medo-Persian empire. These were afterwards enlarged to an hundred and twenty-seven, by the victories of Cambyses and Darius Hystaspis. See Esther 1:1. Darius divides the kingdom, and orders that an account of the whole should be rendered to the three principal officers, to whom he gives the superintendance over the rest. Darius preserved to Daniel the rank and employment which Belshazzar gave him a little before his death. Several writers have thought, that after Darius had conquered Babylon he returned to Media, and took Daniel with him; and that it was there that the establishments here spoken of were made. But, if this was not done at Babylon, it is much more likely to have been done at Shushan than in Media. See chap. Dan 8:2 and Calmet.

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Daniel 6:4. Sought to find occasion— Observed Daniel, if possibly they might find any fault in him, respecting those things which pertained to the king. Houbigant.

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Daniel 6:6. Then these presidents and princes assembled together— Came in a concourse. The true import of the verb הרגשׁו hargishu, seems to be, "they tumultuously met;" see the margin of our English translation. The princes came in a concourse, and together assailed the king with their proposal: they forced in.

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Daniel 6:8. According to the law, &c.— There was a law in this monarchy, that no ordinance or edict, made with the necessary formalities, and with the consent of the king's counsellors, could be revoked: the king himself had no power in this case. Diodorus Siculus says, that Darius, the last king of Persia, would have pardoned Charidemus after he was condemned to death, but could not reverse the law which had passed against him. We may observe the difference of style here, and in Esther 1:19. Here the words are, the law of the Medes and Persians, out of regard to the king, who was a Mede; there it is styled, the law of the Persians and Medes, as the king at that time was a Persian. See Calmet and Lowth.

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Daniel 6:10. His windows being open, &c.— According to the ancient custom of the Jews, those who were in the country, or in foreign lands, turned themselves towards Jerusalem; and those who were in Jerusalem turned themselves towards the temple to pray, conformably to Solomon's consecration-prayer, 1 Kings 8:48-49. His chamber, in the Greek, is, his upper chamber. It seems to have been the custom among the devout Jews to set apart some upper room for their oratories, as places farthest from any noise or disturbance. So we read in Tobit, that Sarah came down from her upper chamber; and the apostles assembled in an upper room. See Calmet and Lowth. Some have observed, that there was commonly but one window, or hole in the wall made in these oratories, which opened towards Jerusalem, and is called by Jeremiah God's window. See Jer 22:14 in the original, and Mark 14:15.

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Daniel 6:13. That Daniel, which is of the children of the captivity— This is added to aggravate his fault: "One who was a foreigner, and brought thither as a captive, dared to offer a public affront, to the laws of a king whose favour and protection he enjoyed." We cannot have a more striking instance than this relation affords us, of the power of inveterate malice, and of bitterest envy.

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Daniel 6:17. Sealed it with his own signet, and with the signet of his lords— That neither one nor the other of the parties might separately do any thing for or against Daniel. The Vulgate reads the last clause, That nothing might be done against Daniel; indicating the king's desire, that the lions' den might be closed with a sealed stone, lest the lords should put Daniel to death when they found him not slain by the lions.

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Daniel 6:18. Neither were instruments of music brought before him— Nor were sweet odours brought to him. Houbigant. Several of the other versions read, Nor was food, or provision set before him. See Houbigant's note.

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Daniel 6:21. O king, live for ever— לעלמין lealmin, in saecula, or "long live the king;" an usual mode of addressing the monarch. When he in his turn addressed the people, it was, as we have seen, "Your peace be multiplied;" see Daniel 6:25. And when the people saluted one another, it was according to the mode now practised, as Shaw tells us, among the Bedouin Arabs, "Peace be unto you." Mr. Bruce intimates, that when individuals or clans of suspected persons meet each other, if the one party pronounces this Salam Alicum, and it is returned by the other Alicum Salam, it is a sure indication that no evil is intended on either part.

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Daniel 6:22. And also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt— "Thou knowest my fidelity in every thing respecting my service. If upon this occasion I have disobeyed thy orders, it was only from a sense of that duty which I owe to a much greater master."

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Daniel 6:23. Because he believed in his God— Or, Because he had believed in his God. The author of the epistle, to the Hebrews attributes to the faith of Daniel the having stopped the mouths of lions. The Chaldean word may signify faith, confidence, hope. Houbigant renders it, Because he had hoped, or trusted in his God.

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Daniel 6:24. They cast them—their children, &c.— By the law of retaliation, which inflicted upon calumniators the same punishment that they would have brought upon others. They punished the children with their parents, as supposing that they would be infected by their ill example. We have various instances of this sort of chastisement; a sort of justice common among the Persians. Ammianus Marcellinus says, "They were abominable laws, by which a whole family suffered for the crime of one." Abominandae leges, per quas ob noxam unius omnis propinquitas petit.

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Daniel 6:26. He is the living God— The characters of the Deity in this and the next verse are very just and sublime, and suited to his nature, and were probably such as Darius had learnt from Daniel. Some think that he was a convert to the worship of the true God; and this, together with the favours shewn to the prophet, may in some measure account for the notice taken of his reign: many other reasons may also be assigned from a reflection on various parts of this book, and especially at chap. 9:

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