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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 Baltasar 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 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

Nebuchadnezzar seems, in a sudden transport, to have looked upon Daniel as having something more than human in him, 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 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,) otherVOL. I.-NO. 11.

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 among the wild beasts;|| and that when he had lived in this manner in the desert for seven years, he should recover his dominion again. When wise 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.

God delayed the execution of his threats against this prince, and gave him a whole year's reprieve, chap. iv. 29. to see if he would repent, and turn unto him; but perceiving that he still persisted in his crimes, as soon as the measure of his iniquity was full, he smote and reduced him to the condition of a beast. This is Theodoret's notion of the matter; but St. Jerome rather thinks, that this king being terrified with the threats, and touched with the exhortations of the prophet, began to set about his reformation, and by acts of charity and mercy, to reconcile himself to God, for which he obtained a delay of his punishment for a year's space; but that instead of persevering in these good purposes, he suffered himself to fall into pride, upon the contemplation of the mighty works he had done, and so, by his vanity, lost what he had gained by his charity. Bonum misericordiæ perdidit malo superbiæ. Calmet's Commentary.

B.

§ Since Josephus here explains the seven prophetic times which were to pass over Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel iv. 16. to be seven years, we thence learn how he most

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he had seen this dream, he called the magicians together again; and inquired of them about it, desiring them to tell him what it signified. But when none of them could find out the meaning of the dream, nor discover it to the king, Daniel was the only person that explained it. And as he foretold, so it came to pass. For after he had continued in the wilderness the aforementioned interval of time, while no one durst attempt to seize his kingdom, during those seven years; he prayed to God that he might recover his throne; and be returned to it. But let no one blame me for writing down every thing of this nature, as I find it in our ancient books. For as to that matter, I have plainly assured those that think me defective in any such point, that I intended to do no more than translate the Hebrew books into the Greek language, and promised to explain those facts, without adding any thing to them of my own, or taking any thing away from them.

CHAP. XI.

THE DISSO

OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR, AND HIS SUCCESSORS;
LUTION OF THEIR GOVERNMENT BY THE PERSIANS, THE
PROPHECIES HE DE-
AFFAIRS OF DANIEL, AND THE
LIVERED IN MEDIA.

No reigned forty-three years,* he ended

TOW when king Nebuchadnezzar had

probably must have understood those other parallel phrases, of a time, times, and a half, VII. 25. and XII. 9. of so many prophetic years also. Though he lets us know, by his hint at the interpretation of the seventy weeks, as belonging to the fourth monarchy, and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, in the days of Josephus, chap. 2. that he did not think those years to be bare years; but rather days for years; by which reckoning, and by which alone, could seventy weeks, or four hundred and ninety days, reach to the age of Josephus. But as to the truth of those seven years' banishment of Nebuchadnezzar from men, and his living so long among the beasts, the very small remains we have any where else of this Nebuchadnezzar, prevent our expectation of any other full account of it. So far we know by Ptolemy's Canon, a contemporary record, as well as by Josephus's presently, that he reigned in all forty-three years that is eight years after we meet with any ac count of his actions. One of the last of which was the thirteen years' siege of Tyre, XI. 11. where yet the old Latin has three years and ten mouths. Yet were his actions before so remarkable, both in sacred and profane authors, that such a vacuity of eight years at the least, at the latter end of his reign, must be allowed to agree very well with Daniel's accounts; that after a brutal life of seven years' duration, he might return to his reason, and to the exercise of his royal authority for one whole year at least before his death.

his life. He was an active man, and more fortunate than the kings were before him. Berosus makes mention of his actions in the third book of his Chaldaic history, where he says, "When his father Nabuchodonosor [Nabopollassar] heard that the governor whom he had set over Egypt, and the places about Cole Syria and Phoenicia, had revolted from him, while he was not himself able any longer to undergo the hardships of war; he committed to his son Nebuchadnezzar, who was still but a youth, some parts of his army; and sent him against them. So when Nebuchadnezzar had given battle, and fought with the rebel, he defeated him, and reduced the country under subjection; and made it a branch of his own kingdom. But about that time it happened that his father fell ill, and ended his life in the city Babylon; when he had reigned twenty-one years. And when he was made sensible that his father was dead, he settled the af fairs of Egypt, and other countries, as also those that concerned the captive Jews, Phonicians, Syrians, and those of the Egyptian nations; and having committed the conveyance of them to Babylon to certain of his friends, together with the body of his army, and the rest of their ammunition and provisions; he went himself hastily, accompa

These forty-three years for the duration of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar are, as I have just observed, the same number as that in Ptolemy's Canon. Moses Chorenensisalso confirms this captivity of the Jews under Nebuchadnezzar; and adds, what is very remarkable, that one of those Jews that were carried by him into captivity, got away into Armenia; and raised the great family of the Bagratidæ there. See page 1, 58, 91, 98, 100, 109, 123, 124, 136, 180, 184.

This prince died in the year of the world 3442, and before Christ 562; after he had reigned, from the death of his father, according to the Babylonish account, three

and forty years. He was certainly one of the greatest princes that had appeared in the east for many ages before him, and according to Megasthenes, (as he is cited by Josephus, Antiq. lib. X. c. 11.) both for his enterprises and performances, far excelled even Hercules himself. The same historian, (as he is quoted by Eusebius, Præp. lib. IX. c. 41.) informs us, that a little before his death, he foretold his subjects of the coming of the Persians, and their subduing the kingdom of Babylon; but this he might gather from the prophet Daniel, and especially from the interpretation of his dreams. Prideaua's Connection, anno 562. B.

These twenty-one years here ascribed to Nabopollassar, the father of the great Nebuchadnezzar, are the same with those given him in Ptolemy's Canon. And note here, that what Dr. Prideaux says, Connection, at.

nied with a few others, over the desert, and came to Babylon. So he took upon him the management of the public affairs and of the kingdom, which had been kept for him by one that was the principal of the Chaldeans; and he received the entire dominions of his father; and appointed, that, when the captives came, they should be placed as colonies, in the most proper parts of Babylonia. He then adorned the temple of Belus, and the rest of the temples, in a magnificent manner, with the spoils he had taken in the war. He also added another city to that which was there of old, and rebuilt it: that such as would besiege it hereafter might no more turn the course of the river, and thereby attack the city itself. He therefore built three walls round about the inner city, and three others about that which was the outer; and this he did with burnt brick. And after he had walled the city, and adorned its gates, he built another palace before his father's palace; but so that they joined to it: to describe whose vast height and immense riches it would perhaps be too much for me to attempt. Yet as large and lofty as they were, they were completed* in fifteen days. He also erected elevated places for walking, of stone; and made it resemble mountains: and built it so that it might be planted with all sorts of trees. He also erected what was called a pensile paradise: because his wife was desirous to have things like her own country; she having been bred up in the palaces of Media.” Megasthenes also, in his fourth book of his the year 612, that Nebuchadnezzar must have been a common name of other kings of Babylon besides the great Nebuchadnezzar himself, is a groundless mistake of some modern chronologers only, and desutute of all proper original authority.

It

These fifteen days for finishing such vast buildings at Babylon, in Josephus's copy of Berosus, would seem too absurd to be supposed to be the true number; were it not for the same testimony extant also in the first book against Apion, with the same number. thence indeed appears, that Josephus's copy of Berosus had this small number; but that it is the true number, I still doubt. Josephus assures us, that the walls of so much a smaller city as Jerusalem were two years and four months in building by Nehemiah, who yet hastened the work all he could; XI. 5. I should think one hundred and fifteen days, or a year and twenty days, much more proportionable to so great a work,

+ Two years.

Four years,

Accounts of India, makes mention of these things; and thereby endeavours to shew that this king, Nebuchadnezzar, exceeded Hercules in fortitude, and in the greatness of his actions. For he saith, that "he conquered great part of Libya and Iberia." Diocles also, in the second book of the Accounts of Persia, mentions this king. As does Philostratus, in his accounts both of India and of Phoenicia say, that "this king besieged Tyre thirteen years: while at the same time Ethbaal reigned at Tyre." These are all the histories that I have met with concerning this king.

After the death of Nebuchadnezzar, EvilMerodact his son succeeded in the kingdom; who immediately set Jechoniah at liberty, and esteemed him among his most intimate friends. He also gave him many presents, and made him honourable above the rest of the kings that were in Babylon. For his father had not kept his faith with Jechoniah, when he voluntarily delivered up himself to him, with his wives and children, and his whole kindred, for the sake of his country: that it might not be taken by siege, and utterly destroyed; as we said before. When Evil-Merodach was dead, after a reign of feighteen years, Niglissar his son took the government, and retained it forty years: and then ended his life. And after him the succession in the kingdom came to his son Labosordacus, who continued in it, in all, but nine months, and when he was dead, it came to Baltasar;|| who by the Babylonians was called Naboandelus. Against him did

It is here remarkable, that Josephus, without the knowledge of Ptolemy's Canon, should call the same king, whom he himself here, Baruch i. 11. and Daniel v. 1, 2, 9, 12, 22, 29, 30. styles Baltasar, or Belshazzar, from the Babylonian god Bel; Naboandelus also; and in another place from the same citation out of Berosus, Nabonnedon; from the Babylonian god Nabo, or Nebo. This last is not remote from the original Babylonian pronunciation in Ptolemy's Canon, Nabonadius. For both the place of this king in that Canon, as the last of the Assyrian or Babylonian kings, and the number of years of his reign, seventeen, the same in both, demonstrate that it is one It is also and the same king that is meant by them all. worth noting, that Josephus knew that Darius, the partner of Cyrus, was the son of Astyages, and was called by another name among the Greeks: though it does not appear he knew what that name was; as having never seen the best history of this period, which is Xenophon's Κυρο παιδεια. But then, what Josephus's present copies say presently, that it was only within no lorg tin.e

Cyrus, king of Persia, and Darius, king of Media, make war. And when he was besieged in Babylon, there happened a wonderful and prodigious vision. He set down at supper in a large room, and there were a great many vessels of silver, such as were made for royal entertainments; and he had with him his concubines, and his friends. Whereupon he commanded that those vessels of gold, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of Jerusalem, and had not made use of, but had put them into his own temple, should be brought out of that temple. He also grew so haughty, as to proceed to use them in the midst of his cups, drinking out of them, and blaspheming against God. In the mean time he saw a hand proceed out of the wall, and writing certain syllables.* At this sight he was disturbed, and called the magicians and Chaldeans together, and all that sort of men that were among these after the hand-writing on the wall that Baltasar was slain, does not so well agree with our copies of Daniel; which say it was the same night; Daniel v. 30. But then it must be observed, that Theodoret directly quotes Josephus for the confirmation of our copies of Daniel, and particularly for affirming that he was slain the same night also. Whose testimony is here set down

at large by Dr. Hudson.

* Daniel v. 5.

The writing very probably might be in a character unknown to the Chaldeans, as the old Hebrew, Phoenician, and Samaritan were; or if they were acquainted with the character, yet such is the genius of most of the oriental languages, where so little use is made of vowels, and where the pronunciation and sequel of the discourse generally determine the signification of the letters, that a man may be a perfect master of a language, and yet not able to read and comprehend a word, when it stands alone, and without any context, as it is in the case of Mene. Tekel. Upharsin. A man, for instance, that understands the Hebrew tongue ever so well, were he to meet dbr standing alone, would have much ado to read them, because, according to the manner that we pronounce them, the letters will admit of many different significations; and it is much the same in the Chaldee language, wherein the words we are now speaking of were wrote. Calmet's Commentary on Daniel v. 7. B.

The king's words are these,-Whosoever shall read this writing, and shew me the interpretation thereof, shall be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom. Daniel v. 7. From whence it appears, that the kings of Babylon wore the same ornaments, and, in rewarding their favourites, gave the same marks of honour that the kings of Persia and their successors did. For purple, we find, in several Greek authors, was the ordinary habits of the kings of Persia, and of the princes of their court that were in the highest posts of honour. The chain or collar of gold was one of the greatest marks of distinction that

barbarians, and were able to interpret signs and dreams, that they might explain the writing to him.t But when the magicians said they could discover nothing, nor did understand it; the king was in great disorder of mind, and under great trouble at this surprising accident. So he caused it to be proclaimed through all the country, and promised that to him who could explain the writing, and give the signification thereof, he would give a golden chain for his neck, and permission to wear a purple garment, as did the kings of Chaldea; and would bestow on him the third part of his own dominions. When the proclamation was made, the magicians ran together more earnestly, and were very ambitious to find out the import of the writing, but still hesitated about it as much as before. Now when the king's grandmother saw him cast down at this accident, she began to encourage him, and the Persian kings could bestow upon their subjects; and to be the third ruler of the kingdom, was the same sublime office that Darius the Mede put Daniel in, chap. vi. 1, 2. when he constituted him one of the presidents over the hundred and twenty princes that he had made governors over provinces. Xenophon's Cyropædia, lib. viii. Diodorus, lib. xviii. Josephus's Antiquities, lib. xi. c. 6. Brisson, De Regno Persar. lib. i. B.

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This grandmother, or mother of Baltasar, the queen dowager of Babylon, (for she is distinguished from his queen, Daniel v. 10, 23.) seems to have been the famous Nitocris, who fortified Babylon against the Medes and Persians; and in all probability governed it under Baltasar, who seems to have been a weak and effeminate prince. Whether Baltasar were the son or grandson of the great Nebuchadnezzar, will be best understood by the following passage out of some observations I formerly made, when I carefully read over Mr. Hutchinson's excellent edition of Xenophon's Kugs Ilaideia, as follows: Xenophon, who made his Persian expedition not till one hundred and twenty-eight years after the death of Cyrus, and never seems to have been at Babylon, nor ever names any king of Babylon; (as perhaps not knowing their names; always and only calling each of them riv Accupiov, the Assyrian king, in agreement with Ptolemy's Canon ;) took the last king of Babylon to be the son of his predecessor, and the same that injured Gobryas and Gadates, page 307, 529. Berosus also, who lived still much later, took Niricassolassar for the sister's husband, and puts in Laborosoarchod, who is not in the Canon. Perhaps we had better follow the Scripture, and the Canon, as elder, and indeed contemporary records; and say, that Ilvarodamus or Evil-Merodach was the son, and Niricassolassar the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar; and that Baltasar or Nabonadius was the uncle of Niricassolassar, and the son of Nebuchadnezzar, by another wife, Nitocris. See Ba ruch i. 11. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 20. Jer. xxvii. 7. Daniel v. 18, 22. And perhaps Laborosoarchod was no more than a first minister under Baltasar at first; as the queen

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