deans, magicians, and prophets, and told them he had seen a dream; and informed them that he had forgotten the accomplishment of what he had seen; and he enjoined them to tell him, both what the dream was, and what was its signification. They replied, that this was a thing impossible to be discovered by men; but they promised that if he would explain to them what dream he had seen, they would tell him its signification. Hereupon he threatened to put them to death unless they told him his dream, and he gave command accordingly, since they confessed they could not do what they were commanded. Now when Daniel heard that the king had given a command, that all the wise men should be put to death; and that among them himself and his three kinsmen were in danger; he went to Arioch, who was captain of the king's guards, and desired to know the reason why the king had given command that all the wise men, Chaldeans, and magicians, should be slain? So when he had learned that the king had had a dream, and had forgotten it; and that when they were enjoined to inform the king of it, they had said they could not do it, and had thereby provoked him to anger; he desired of Arioch, that he would go in to the king, and desire respite for the magicians for one night; and to put off their slaughter so long; for that he hoped in that time, to obtain by prayer to God the knowledge of the dream. Accordingly Arioch informed the king of what Daniel desired. So the king bade them delay the slaughter of the magicians, till he knew what Daniel's promise would come to. The young man then retired to his own house, with his kinsmen, and besought God that whole night to discover the dream, and thereby deliver the magicians and Chaldeans, with whom they were themselves to perish, from the king's anger, by enabling him to declare his vision, and to make manifest what the king had seen the night before in his sleep, but had forgotten it. Accordingly God, out of pity to those that were in danger, and out of regard to the wisdom of Daniel, made known to him the dream and its interpretation, so that the king might understand by him its signification also. When Daniel had obtained this knowledge from God, he arose joyfully, and told it his brethren; and made them to hope that they should now preserve their lives, of which they despaired before, and had their minds full of nothing but the thoughts of dying. So when he had

with them returned thanks to God, who had commiserated their youth; he came to Arioch, and desired him to bring him to the king, because he would discover to him that dream which he had seen the night before.

When Daniel was come in to the king, he excused himself first, that he did not pretend to be wiser than the other Chaldeans and magicians,* when, upon their entire inability to discover his dream, he was undertaking to inform him of it. For this was not by his own skill, or on account of his having better cultivated his undertaking than the rest: "But," said he, "God hath pity upon us, when we were in danger of death; and when I prayed for the life of myself, and of those of my own nation, he hath manifested to me both the dream and the interpretation thereof. For I was not less concerned for thy glory, than for the sorrow that we were by thee condemned to die; while thou didst so unjustly command men both good and excellent in themselves to be put to death, when thou enjoined them to do what was entirely above the reach of wisdom; and required of them what was only the work of God. Wherefore as thou in thy sleep was solicitous concerning those that should succeed thee in the government of the whole world, God was desirous to shew thee all those that should reign after thee; and to that end exhibited to thee the following dream:-Thou seemedst to see a great image standing before thee; the head of which was

The prophet Daniel makes mention of these sort of people, and ranks them under these four different kinds. The Chartumim, the Asaphim, the Mecasphim, and the Chasdim, chap. ii. 2. Chartumim, according to the Septuagint, signifies sophists; but according to St Jerom, diviners, fortune-tellers, casters of nativity, &c. Asaphim has no derivation from the Chaldee tongue, but no small resemblance to the Greek word sophos, (whether the Greeks took this word from the Babylonians, or the Babylonians from them ;) and therefore the Septuagint has rendered it by philosophers. Mecasphims is thought by some to be necromancers, such as pretend to raise the dead, to gain intelligence of things future; but the Septuagint has rendered it by a word that denotes such enchanters as made use of noxious herbs and drugs, the blood of victims, and the bones of the dead, for their superstitious operations. The other word Chasdim is the same with Chaldeans, and here signifies a sort of philosophers among the Babylonians, who dwelt in a separate part of the city, and were exempt from all employments. Their study was natural philosophy, astrology, divination, or the foretelling of future events by the observation of the stars, the interpretation of dreams, the science of auguries, the worship of their gods, &c. as Diodorus Siculus, lib. 1. gives us an account of them. Calmet's Dictionary, under the word Magicians. B.

of gold, the shoulders and arms of silver, the belly and the thighs of brass; but the legs and the feet of iron.* Thou then sawest a stone broken off from a mountain, which fell upon the image, and threw it down and brake it to pieces, and did not permit any part of it to remain whole; but the gold, the silver, the iron, and the brass, became smaller than meal; which, upon the blast of a violent wind, was forcibly carried away, and scattered abroad; but the stone increased to such a degree, that the whole earth beneath it seemed to be filled therewith. This is the dream which thou sawest, and its interpretation is as follows:-The head of gold denotes thee, and the kings of Babylon that have been before thee. But the two hands and arms signify that thy government shall be dissolved by two kings. But another king that shall come from the west, armed with brass, shall destroy that government. And another government that shall be like unto iron, shall put an end to the pow

* By these different emblems of metals and stone, God intended to signify to Nebuchadnezzar the several empires that were to be in the world. The Assyrian or Chaldean is represented by gold, because it was the first and the most magnifi cent, if not the most extensive, and Nebuchadnezzar, being then upon the throne, is said to be head of it. That of silver is the Persian, founded by Cyrus, upon the ruins of the Chaldean, but inferior to the Chaldean in its duration at least, if not in its extent. That of brass is the Grecian, founded by Alexander, upon the ruins of the Persian, and its character is, that it should bear rule over all the earth, Daniel ii. 39. which was verified in its great founder; for, upon his return from India to Babylon, the ambassadors of almost all the known parts of the world resorted thither, to pay their homage and acknowledgment of his dominion. That of iron is the Roman empire, which is extinguished by its breaking in pieces, and subduing all things, verse 40. For whilst it was in its full strength and vigour, under its consuls and first emperors, it brought under its dominion all the kingdoms and states that were then subsisting in Europe, Africa, and a great part of Asia; but, from that time, it became a mixture of iron and clay. Its emperors proved most of them vicious and corrupt, either by their tyranny making themselves hateful to their subjects, or, by their follies and vices, contemptible. Lastly, that of the stone out of the mountain, is the fifth monarchy, or the kingdom of the Messiah's; which against all the power and policy of the Roman empire, prevailed, not by an external force, but by the powerful preaching of the gospel, to the suppression and defeat of wickedness and impiety, idolatry, and superstition, and it shall stand for ever, and never be destroyed, Daniel ii. 44. which can be said of no other kingdom but that of Jesus Christ, which, for these seventeen hundred years and upwards, has withstood the violence of persecutions, and all other contrivances formed against it, and has the sure promises of its Almighty Founder on its side, that the gates of hell should not prevail against it, Mat. xvi. 18. Calmet's Commentary. B.

er of the former, and shall have dominion over all the earth; on account of the nature of iron, which is stronger than that of gold, of silver, and brass." Daniel also declared the meaning of the* stone to the king; but I do not think it proper to relate it; since I have only undertaken to describe things past, or things present: but not the things that are future. Yet if any one be so desirous of knowing truth, as not to wave such points of curiosity, and cannot curb his inclination for understanding the uncertainties of futurity, and whether they will happen or not, let him diligently read the book of Daniel, which he will find among the sacred writings.

When Nebuchadnezzar heard this, and recollected his dream, he was astonished at the nature of Daniel:† and fell upon his face, and saluted Daniel in the manner that men worship God; and gave command that he should be sacrificed to as a god. He also imposed the name of his own god Baltazar upon him, and made him and his kinsmen, rulers of the whole kingdom. These kinsmen, however, happened to fall into danger by the envy and malice of their enemies: for they offended the king upon the following occasion. The king made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits, and its breadth six cubits; and set it in the great plain of Babylon ; and when he was going to dedicate the image, he invited all the principal men that were

* This is a most remarkable passage in Josephus, concerning the stone cut out of the mountain, and destroying the image, which he intimated to be a prophecy of futurity; and probably not safe for him to exclaim, as belonging to the destruction of the Roman empire, by Jesus Christ, the true Messiah of the Jews. Take here also the words of Havercamp. "The place referred to by Josephus," says he, is "chap. 10. Nor is this to be wondered at, that he would not meddle with things future. For he had no mind to provoke the Romans, by speaking of the destruction of the city, which they called the eternal city." Note v. on X. 11.

+ Nebuchadnezzar seems, in a sudden transport, to have looked upon Daniel as having something more than human in bim, just as the barbarians thought of St. Paul, Acts xxviii. 6. and therefore it is said, that he fell on his face and worshipped him; because the doing of reverence, by way of prostration, is not only an act of worship paid to God, but frequently given to kings and great men in the Old Testament, according to the custom of eastern countries, 2 Sam. ix. 6. and sometimes even to prophets, on account of the sanctity of their office, 1 Kings xviii. 7. nor was it usually refused by them, except such circumstances were added to it, as made it look like divine worship, and then it was always rejected, as in the case of St. Peter, Acts x. 26. Lowth's Commentary on Daniel ii. 43. B.

Grotius is of opinion that the image which Nebuchadnezzar set up was the figure of his father Nebopolassar, whom, by this means, he intended to deify; but others think, that it was his own statue which he erected, to gain the adorations of

under his dominion, and commanded, that when they should hear the sound of the trumpet, they should then fall down and worship the image; and he threatened that those who did not

do so, should be cast into a fiery furnace.* When therefore all the rest, upon hearing the sound of the trumpet, worshipped the image; Daniel's kinsmen did not do it, because they would not transgress the laws of their country. So these men were convicted, and cast immediately into the fire; but were saved by Divine Providence, and after a surprising manner escaped death for the fire did not touch them. And I suppose it touched them not, as if it reasoned with itself, that they were cast into it without any fault of theirs; and that therefore it was too weak to burn the young men when they were in it. This was done by the power of God, who made their bodies so far superior to the fire, that it could not consume them. This it was which recommended them to the king as righteous men, and men beloved of God: on which account they continued in great esteem with him.

A little after this, the king saw in his sleep another vision: intimating that he should fall from his dominion, and feed

his people in this form. We cannot, however, in what we find Nebuchadnezzar saying to Daniel's friends, perceive that he any where upbraids them with contempt offered to his person, or his statue, but only that they would not serve his gods, nor worship the image which he had set up, Daniel iii. 14. And therefore others have imagined, that this was neither his own nor his father's statue, but that of Jupiter, which was afterward found in the temple of Belus, when Xerxes plundered it of its immense riches, among which were several images of massy gold, but one more especially fifty feet high, which might be the same that Nebuchadnezzar consecrated in the plains of Dura. For though that is said to have been sixty cubits, i. e. ninety feet high, yet we may suppose that it stood upon a pedestal of forty feet high, and so the image and the pedestal together, might make ninety, (vide vol. i page 310, in the notes,) otherwise there would be no proportion between its height and its breadth, according to the description we have of it in Daniel iii 1. Prideaux's Connection, anno 573. B.

* This kind of punishment was pretty common in these parts of the world, so that some will have it, that Abraham, before he departed from Chaldea, was made to undergo it, but escaped by a miraculous preservation, founding their opinion on Gen. xi. 31. Of this furnace, in particular, it is related, that the king's servants having received the command to heat it seven times hotter, ceased not to make the oven hot with rosin, pitch, tow, and small wood; so that the flame streamed forth above the furnace forty and nine cubits; and passed through and burnt the Chaldeans it found about the furnace. The song of the Three Holy Children, ver. 23, &c. B.