Holman Old Testament Commentary - Daniel

By Kenneth Gangel and Max Anders

One in a series of twenty Old Testament verse-by-verse commentary books edited by Max Anders. Includes discussion starters, teaching plan, and more. Great for lay teachers and pastors alike.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BH Publishing Group
• Release date: Jan 2, 2002
• ISBN: 9781433674242

Book preview

To those whose classes and books

taught me about prophecy and the

importance of the Lord's return—

Alva J. McClain

J. Dwight Pentecost

John F. Walvoord

John C. Whitcomb Jr.

Contents

Editorial Preface

Holman Old Testament Commentary Contributors

Holman New Testament Commentary Contributors

Introduction to Daniel

Daniel 1:1–21

Lessons from Kidnapped Children

Daniel 2:1–23

Monarchical Monument

Daniel 2:24–49

Dreamworks, Inc.

Daniel 3:1–30

Nebuchadnezzar's Ragtime Band

Daniel 4:1–18

The Green King

Daniel 4:19–37

A Man Outstanding in His Field

Daniel 5:1–16

Oddity at the Orgy

Daniel 5:17–31

Heavenly Hermeneutics

Daniel 6:1–28

The Lions' Den

Daniel 7:1–14

The Ancient of Days

Daniel 7:15–28

The Everlasting Kingdom

Daniel 8:1–27

How the West Won

Daniel 9:1–19

Daniel's Prayer

Daniel 9:20–27

The Seventy Sevens

Daniel 10:1–21

Angels in the Outfield

Daniel 11:1–45

Wars and Rumors of Wars

Daniel 12:1–13

Back to the Future

Glossary

Bibliography

Editorial Preface

Today's church hungers for Bible teaching, and Bible teachers hunger for resources to guide them in teaching God's Word. The Holman Old Testament Commentary provides the church with the food to feed the spiritually hungry in an easily digestible format. The result: new spiritual vitality that the church can readily use.

Bible teaching should result in new interest in the Scriptures, expanded Bible knowledge, discovery of specific scriptural principles, relevant applications, and exciting living. The unique format of the Holman Old Testament Commentary includes sections to achieve these results for every Old Testament book.

Opening quotations stimulate thinking and lead to an introductory illustration and discussion that draw individuals and study groups into the Word of God. In a Nutshell summarizes the content and teaching of the chapter. Verse-by-verse commentary answers the church's questions rather than raising issues scholars usually admit they cannot adequately solve. Bible principles and specific contemporary applications encourage students to move from Bible to contemporary times. A specific modern illustration then ties application vividly to present life. A brief prayer aids the student to commit his or her daily life to the principles and applications found in the Bible chapter being studied. For those still hungry for more, Deeper Discoveries take the student into a more personal, deeper study of the words, phrases, and themes of God's Word. Finally, a teaching outline provides transitional statements and conclusions along with an outline to assist the teacher in group Bible studies.

It is the editors' prayer that this new resource for local church Bible teaching will enrich the ministry of group, as well as individual, Bible study, and that it will lead God's people truly to be people of the Book, living out what God calls us to be.

Holman Old Testament

Commentary Contributors

Holman New Testament

Commentary Contributors

Holman Old Testament

Commentary

Twenty volumes designed for Bible study and teaching to enrich the local church and God's people.

Introduction to

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Daniel

On October 30, 1992, the Associated Press reported a story from Seoul, Korea. Reverend Chang Man-Ho, a pastor in Seoul, had predicted that the world would end on Wednesday, October 28, 1992. When it did not, Pastor Chang calmly announced to his followers, many of whom had sold possessions and given up everything because of his predictions, Nothing has happened. Sorry. Let's go home.

Pretentious ignorance still prompts well-meaning but ill-advised people to predict the return of the Lord and other end-time events. The New Testament clearly warns against this kind of dangerous behavior, but perhaps some are encouraged by the accuracy of prophecy in Old Testament books like Daniel. Although the shortest of the major prophets, Daniel is referred to in New Testament prophetic passages more than any other Old Testament book. It also contains more fulfilled prophecies than any other book in the Bible.

A prophet of the exile, Daniel wrote from the heart of Babylon. The Northern Kingdom, Israel, had been captured by Assyria in 722 B.C. Just over one hundred years later the Babylonians took the Southern Kingdom, including its capital Jerusalem. God had put up with disobedience and rebellion from Israel for five hundred years, but now judgment had fallen. Although Daniel deals often with history throughout these chapters, his book primarily focuses on prophecy and the prediction of future events. Remember, too, that chronological arrangement is not a major concern of either the historical or predictive sections of this book.

Before we look at some keys to the Book of Daniel, let's remember that this commentary series emphasizes expository and practical treatment of the text. For scholarly foundational material readers are referred to Gleason Archer's fine work in The Expositor's Bible Commentary series or Stephen R. Miller's excellent introduction to Daniel in The New American Commentary. Both deal with canonicity, languages, and other special problems, matters on which we will touch only lightly.

AUTHORSHIP

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Like most ancient authors, Daniel frequently refers to himself in the third person. Nevertheless, throughout the book he clearly identifies himself (9:2,20; 10:2) and Jesus talks about the prophet Daniel in Matthew 24:15. Ezekiel also comments on Daniel (his contemporary) by saying, Even if these three men—Noah, Daniel and Job—were in [the rebellious land], they could save only themselves (Ezek. 14:14,20).

Virtually no one put forth significant attack on the authorship of Daniel until more than two thousand years after the book was written. Even then it arose largely from those who question the integrity and inspiration of Scripture. Many have argued that the book is actually fictional, a claim which rests on the rejection of the miracles and predictive prophecy so essential to Daniel's work. They attempt to get around the obvious historicity of the book by claiming that since no one can predict future events, the book must have been written much later, years after everything Daniel describes had already happened.

But since several of the prophecies in Daniel (and their fulfillment) could not have taken place by the second century B.C., the prophetic dynamic of the book cannot be denied. As Miller points out: Furthermore, if the writer of Daniel could not have foretold events in the second century B.C., he could not have predicted the person and work of Jesus Christ in the first century; and he certainly could have had nothing to say concerning Christ's second coming. Such a position would, of course, be contrary to the plain teaching of the New Testament and Christ Himself (e.g., Luke 24:25–27,44–46) (Miller, p. 32).

DATE OF WRITING

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The question of dating is important because it affirms the prophetic reality of Daniel's work. Gleason Archer speaks to this with authority and clarity: As to the date of the composition of Daniel, the narrative of the prophet's earliest experiences begins with his capture as a hostage by Nebuchadnezzar back in 605–604 B.C. And according to 1:21, he continues certainly until the first year of Cyrus (about 537 B.C.), in relation to his public service, and to the third year of Cyrus (535 B.C.), in relation to his prophetic ministry (Dan. 10:1). Daniel seems to have revised and completed his memoirs during his retirement sometime about 532 or 530 B.C., when he would have been close to 90 years old (assuming his birth about 620 B.C.). The appearance of Persian-derived governmental terms, even in the earlier chapters composed in Aramaic, strongly suggests that these chapters were given their final form after Persian had become the official language of government (Archer, p. 6).

PURPOSE

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Although historical and moral in content and tone, Daniel is primarily a book of prophecy. As we have seen, Jesus himself referred to Daniel the prophet (Mark 13:14, KJV). The theme of Daniel clearly centers in the sovereignty of God. Perhaps more than any other Old Testament writer, Daniel clarifies for us a basic proposition of truth—there are no heroes in the Bible except God. This is not a biography of Daniel's life, not a book about the history of Israel, and not a theology of the Hebrews. It purposes to predict future events and, as such, was surely of great hope and encouragement to the Jews who returned to restore the temple and rebuild the city some years later. But it also contains great encouragement and hope because it holds the key to understanding the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24–25 and serves as a sister book to Revelation. Neither book can be properly understood without the other.

Both Daniel and Revelation are apocalyptic books, so called because of their use of supernatural visions. The Greek word apokalupsis means the unveiling of truth which had been previously unknown or deliberately concealed by God. Most evangelical scholars would place the following books in that category: portions of Ezekiel (notably chs. 40–48); most of Daniel; most of Zechariah; and Revelation.

As Walvoord reminds us: The fact that a book is apocalyptic does not necessarily mean that its revelation is obscure or uncertain, and conservative scholarship has recognized the legitimacy of apocalyptic revelation as a genuine means of divine communication. If close attention is given to the contextual interpretive revelation, apocalyptic books can yield solid results to the patient exegete (Walvoord, Daniel, p. 14).

LANGUAGES

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Daniel offers his book in two languages—Hebrew (chs. 1; 8–12) and Aramaic (chs. 2–7). These two languages are also used in Ezra, but that does not answer the key question—why would these men write in two languages? Actually, the answer is more simple than one might first imagine. In Daniel the Hebrew sections deal with concerns unique to God's people of the old covenant, the Jews; the Aramaic chapters deal with matters related to the wider populations of the Babylonian and Persian empires.

We should remember too that though the Jews of the early Old Testament spoke Hebrew, by the time of Jesus they were speaking Aramaic (also called Chaldee or Syriac). Interestingly, in dialogues which appear in Genesis, Jacob speaks Hebrew, but his uncle Laban speaks Aramaic.

Actually, identification of the Aramaic is helpful in deciding the date of Daniel. If Daniel used official Aramaic, the book would come from the sixth or fifth centuries B.C. A later form of Aramaic would date the book around the second century, which is what critics insist upon. The Dead Sea Scrolls are very helpful in this analysis, and much has been written about their impact. The Job Targum found in Cave 11 at Qumran offers Aramaic language even younger than that of Daniel. The editors of the Job Targum date it some time in the second half of the second century.

Significant time passed between the earlier Aramaic of the Book of Daniel and the Job Targum, pointing to an earlier date for this prophecy than critical scholarship has been willing to acknowledge. Conservative scholars clearly place the writing sometime before 500 B.C., possibly a completion date of about 530 B.C. after the capture of Babylon by Cyrus in 539 B.C.

CANONICITY

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Critics of Daniel like to point out that the old Masoretic arrangement of Old Testament books included Daniel with the Writings and not the Prophets. Evangelical scholars have taken the position that this interesting phenomenon occurred because Daniel's book is of a different character, the proclamations of a pagan government official rather than a preacher commissioned to proclaim God's message to Israel. We must remember that the Writings were hardly considered any less inspired than other Scripture, nor was their collection identified with any particular date. By the time of the Septuagint (LXX), Daniel was included with the prophets.

Almost all the arguments against Daniel—its date, its authenticity, its arrangement in collections of Old Testament books—arise from the efforts of critics to deny the credibility and reality of predictive prophecy. When one can cross that hurdle, the details fall comfortably into place.

THEME AND THEOLOGY

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The Book of Daniel centers in the sovereignty of God. Daniel writes at a time when Israel had every reason to think that all the old promises had been broken and all the old covenants shattered. Paganism had triumphed twice (Assyria and Babylonia), and the cause of the Jews was clearly lost.

Arising from those ashes comes the clarion call that the affairs and outcomes on earth, the deliberations of kings and the victories or defeats of their armies, rest in the hands of God. If Daniel could have gotten his hands on the music, he might have spent a great deal of time singing He's Got the Whole World in His Hands.

In addition to Daniel's central character—the omnipotent God—he also teaches us about angels, naming both Gabriel and Michael in his book. Clearly the doctrine of human depravity arises in Daniel, and the constant need to make moral choices appears to both Daniel and the pagan kings he served. The doctrine of the resurrection (as old as Job 19) appears in Daniel 12, reminding us of Isaiah 26 and Ezekiel 37. Daniel, finds complete harmony with the rest of the Old Testament in focusing on the general progressive revelation of Scripture and laying a foundation for the eschatology of the New Testament.

As Walvoord observes: In many respects, the Book of Daniel is the most comprehensive prophetic revelation of the Old Testament, giving the only total view of world history from Babylon to the Second Advent of Christ and inter-relating Gentile history and prophecy with that which concerns Israel. Daniel provides the key to the overall interpretation of prophecy, is a major element in premillennialism, and is essential to the interpretation of the Book of Revelation. Its revelation of the sovereignty and power of God has brought assurance to Jew and Gentile alike that God will fulfill His sovereign purposes in time and eternity (Walvoord, Daniel, p. 27).

STRUCTURE

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Those who would attempt to impose a rigid structure (such as one finds in Romans) on the historical/prophetic work of Daniel will likely find only frustration. With some minor exceptions the only proper way to look at this book is in its twelve separate but related chapters. This commentary appears in more than twelve chapters because it attempts to provide a more reader-friendly approach; we do not suggest that the division of the chapters in this work reflects some specific division in Daniel.

We have already noted the linguistic distinction in the book, but we can also observe a dividing line right down the middle in terms of content. In chapters 1–6 Daniel interprets the visions of others, while in chapters 7–12 he receives his own. The first six chapters are primarily historical, the last six primarily prophetic. Apart from that, no good can come from forcing some kind of external structure on this vibrant and dynamic book. As we tackle the task before us, we will look first at the chapters and then at the paragraphs within the chapters, usually making our way along the path verse by verse.

Some merit can be found in the outline utilized by the NIV Study Bible which calls chapter 1 the prologue and notes that chapters 2 through 7 deal with the destinies of the nations of the world and 8 through 12 with the destiny of the nation of Israel. Others will appreciate Miller's ten-point outline complete with multiple subpoints (Miller, p. 52).

INTERPRETATION

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The interpretation (hermeneutic) used in the approach to Daniel will determine not only the handling of the text but also the way the text is applied. We have already assumed an early date, authenticity in the canon, and the authorship by Daniel, a prophet/statesman in Babylon. We have noted that the work is somewhat historical, mainly prophetic, and distinctly eschatological. These matters all deal with our interpretation of the book.

Furthermore, Daniel offers us some keys to interpretation by internal connections such as the confirmation of chapter 2 in chapter 7. We face little problem in recognizing Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and even Rome in this book. The problem comes in the extension of the Roman Empire to deal with events yet future, including the coming of Christ and the final days, particularly Israel's role in God's prophetic plan.

This commentary approaches Daniel with a premillennial perspective. It assumes that an earthly kingdom of Christ still awaits the future and that this promise rests squarely on Old Testament texts (particularly in Isaiah and Daniel) and the promises of Christ himself (Matt. 11:2–6; Luke 1:31–33). The millennium, however, is only a part of the kingdom age, not the kingdom itself. The millennium lasts only one thousand years, but the kingdom, already present in the hearts of those who trust the King, lasts forever.

Here is a helpful paragraph from the work of Robert D. Culver:

Premillennialists believe that at the second coming of Christ there will be a resurrection of the saints only, that at His coming He will destroy the wicked living, that the righteous will enter the Millennium to people the earth during the Millennium and that the glorified saints of former ages shall join with the restored Israel in ruling the world during the Millennium. At the close of the Millennium the resurrection and final judgment of the wicked will take place (Culver, p. 46).

All readers understand that a work of this extent requires strong support for the author. My sincere appreciation, therefore, flows to my wife Betty for manuscript reading and to Ginny Murray my faithful and competent manuscript typist. This is now my third Holman Commentary volume and working with Max Anders and Steve Bond has been a genuine delight.

Daniel 1:1–21

Lessons from Kidnapped

Children

I. INTRODUCTION

Emergency Interruption

II. COMMENTARY

A verse-by-verse explanation of the chapter.

III. CONCLUSION

Courage for Public Service

An overview of the principles and applications from the chapter.

IV. LIFE APPLICATION

Prioritizing Parenting

Melding the chapter to life.

V. PRAYER

Tying the chapter to life with God.

VI. DEEPER DISCOVERIES

Historical, geographical, and grammatical enrichment of the commentary.

VII. TEACHING OUTLINE

Suggested step-by-step group study of the chapter.

VIII. ISSUES FOR DISCUSSION

Zeroing the chapter in on daily life.

"Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,

lest we forget—lest we forget!"

Rudyard Kipling

PERSONAL PROFILE: JEHOIAKIM

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Son of Josiah who reigned in Jerusalem from 607 to 597 B.C.

An oppressive and wicked king whose name was changed from Eliakim by the king of Egypt

Died in disgrace while a captive (Jer. 22:19)

Followed by Jehoiachin his son (2 Kgs. 24:8)

PERSONAL PROFILE: NEBUCHADNEZZAR

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Ruled the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 605 to 562 B.C.

Mentioned in Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel

His name means Nabu, protect the boundary and is sometimes seen with the spelling Nebuchadrezzar

One of the greatest monarchs of the ancient world whose empire extended over Egypt, Syria, and Palestine

GEOGRAPHICAL PROFILE: BABYLON

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The name, likely derived from the Akkadian, means gate of God

Most important city of the Babylonian Empire

Situated in central Mesopotamia on the Euphrates River about fifty miles south of the contemporary city of Baghdad in Iraq

May have been twenty-four hundred years old before Daniel arrived

GEOGRAPHICAL PROFILE: JERUSALEM

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According to the Roman historian Pliny, By far the most famous city of the ancient Orient

The name is built on the Hebrew word salem which means peace

The name Jerusalem occurs six hundred times in the Old Testament

Captured by David approximately one thousand years before the birth of Christ, it became David's capital

GEOGRAPHICAL PROFILE: JUDAH

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The fourth son of Jacob from whom a tribe of the same name descended

A member of the tribe of Judah, David united the entire Israeli kingdom, a union that stayed in place during the reign of Solomon

After Solomon the nation split into two parts, commonly called the Northern Kingdom, Israel, and the Southern Kingdom, Judah

The Southern Kingdom, Judah, was approximately half the size of the Northern Kingdom and also held approximately half the population (about three hundred thousand)

Wherever life takes us, whatever it brings us, however difficult our problems, we must remain faithful to God.

Lessons from

Kidnapped Children

I. INTRODUCTION

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Emergency Interruption

When I agreed to write this commentary on Daniel, I had no idea that the opening verses of the first chapter would be prepared in the surgical waiting room of our local hospital. But here I sit, separated from the Coke machine by about twenty yards of pale gray carpet, the outdated magazines arranged neatly on a table to my right. Down the hall and around the corner a team of surgeons and nurses perform major surgery on my wife of forty-four years—a large mass in her uterus must be removed, and we will learn today whether it is malignant and how that will change our lives. Four days ago she was a vibrant, healthy woman, busily preparing a dinner party for eighteen people from our church which was scheduled for this evening. Then a 3:00 A.M. rush to the emergency room realigned all the priorities in our lives.

How could this happen so quickly? Why did we not see symptoms earlier? What does one say to one's wife as the anesthesia is injected and she begins to drift slowly out of consciousness? Her last words before closing her eyes formed a question: Do you have anything to say to me before I go to surgery? Such a moment calls for no platitudes or plaque rhymes, no Christian clichés or technical theology. I simply said, Yes, I do. I love you, and God is in control of everything.

The Book of Daniel is not about Daniel. Like Abraham, Moses, and Joshua, Daniel was God's vessel, a tool in his hands to accomplish his eternal purpose on earth. In the Pentateuch and historical books, God's sovereignty appears as the backdrop, an assumption about the God of the universe. In Daniel it becomes the central theme, a message to be shouted to God's people Israel and to the pagan nations surrounding them: There is a God, and he is in charge of his world. We'll explore sovereignty in greater theological depth later in this book, but here let's just define it very simply by saying God knows what he's doing, and he's doing it.

II. COMMENTARY

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Lessons from Kidnapped Children

MAIN IDEA: God's people, whether Israel or the church, always stand as the countercultural opponents of the systems of this world. Never was that reality more poignantly lived out than in the Old Testament captivity and exile, and particularly the dominance by Babylon. That national struggle will emerge early in our book, but the first chapter primarily teaches us that righteousness begins with a firm commitment to God.

Attack by Babylon (1:1–2)

SUPPORTING IDEA: God's plan is often accomplished in ways his people do not understand such as through oppression, suffering, and captivity.

1:1. Throughout this book we should expect a high level of scholarly writing since Daniel was one of the most educated people of the Bible. When we think about the New Testament, the apostle Paul rises to the surface among intellectual Christians. In the Old Testament we think of Moses and Solomon, but Daniel would probably hold no lower than third place in the ranks of those thoroughly trained for God's role for them in history and ministry.

Daniel begins by telling us when he first went to Babylon—in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah. Scholars agree that this was 605 B.C., and we see parallel accounts in 2 Kings 24:1–2 and 2 Chronicles 36:5–7. It helps us to remember that there were three distinct deportations— this first one in 605 when Daniel and a few others were taken captive to Babylon; the second in 598 B.C. when Jehoiachin and the royal family were captured along with Ezekiel and all the treasures of the temple (2 Kgs. 24:10–17); and the third in 587 B.C. when Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed and Judah ceased to be the Southern Kingdom (2 Kgs. 25:1–21).

Critics love to point out what appears to be a discrepancy between Daniel's account and a statement of Jeremiah (Jer. 25:1) which seems to indicate the first year of Nebuchadnezzar was in the fourth year of Jehoiachin. But this problem is easily solved by observing that Daniel used Babylonian reckoning whereas Jeremiah used Egyptian reckoning. The Babylonians considered the first year of a king's reign the year of accession and the second year would be the official first year.

Indeed, there are many more elaborate arguments and even different options offered for this explanation (see Leupold and Keil). Walvoord reminds us that the evidence makes quite untenable the charge that the chronological information of Daniel is inaccurate. Rather, it is entirely in keeping with information available outside the Bible and supports the view that Daniel is a genuine book (Walvoord, Daniel, 32).

Because of his prominence throughout this book, we must explore further this giant ruler, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. Some years later this name was spelled Nebuchadrezzar, but we find it with the n in Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, and parts of Jeremiah. Different spellings of ancient names hardly present a stumbling block, especially when one considers the transliteration of Babylonian cuneiform into either Hebrew or Aramaic. Actually his name was Nabu-kudurri-usur, which means something like, Nabu, protect the boundary.

But some will ask, was Nebuchadnezzar really king at this time? After all, his father Nabopolassar was not yet dead. Both Jeremiah 27:6 and extra-biblical sources call him king, and almost every reputable scholar agrees that the two men shared the throne for some years before Nabopolassar's death.

To get a better handle on the kingdom of Babylon, let's go back to the year 625 B.C., likely the year of Daniel's birth (though Archer chooses 620 B.C.). In that year Ashurbanipal, the last great king of Assyria, died, and his son Ashuruballit attempted to continue the kingdom. But the power of Assyria passed to the king's viceroy, and Nabopolassar took all of Babylonia out of the Assyrian Empire. Daniel was a young teenager during the fall of Nineveh in 612 B.C., an event which gave Babylon control of western Asia. At the end of his teen years, Daniel was taken captive to Babylon, and the great story of our book begins.

But before we leave this first verse, let's remember that the godly influence on Daniel took place very early in his life. The great and good king Josiah had already reigned for fifteen years when Daniel was born, and for the next sixteen the revivals he brought to Judah surely touched the young man's life. We can assume the godliness of Daniel's parents, and history shows us the godliness of the national leadership he enjoyed.

W. A. Criswell captures the downward spiral after that fateful day of Josiah's death at the hands of Pharaoh-Necho at Megiddo in the Valley of Jezreel: Following Josiah's death and the plunging of the nation into rampant idolatry, he [Daniel] formed attitudes of faithfulness to God that never changed. The sudden and extreme contrast now introduced into his political and moral surroundings made the decision to serve God the more meaningful in his life. As the kingdom of Judah reeled dizzily in want and idolatry and wickedness, Daniel girded himself to withstand rather than to drift with the current of his time. The great revival may have been lost upon the wicked Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim and Zedekiah and Jehoiachin, but the revival found a glorious response in the hearts of Daniel and Hananiah and Mishael and Azariah (Criswell, p. 111).

1:2. Daniel wastes no time getting to his theme—the sovereignty of God. How was the nation of Israel lost? The Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand. Most commentators do not elaborate this phrase, primarily because they seem to be caught up in the historical detail and the battle over authenticity and authorship. But I propose that Daniel introduces the primary theme of his book right here. The captivity of 605 B.C. was not a victory for Nebuchadnezzar any more than the crucifixion was a victory for Satan. The God of creation decided that year that a new chapter would open in his personal world book, so he sent Jehoiakim to defeat and Daniel to Babylon.

Daniel's mention of some of the articles from the temple of God lays the foundation for the reappearance of these and other vessels (2 Chr. 36:18) in the fascinating story of Belshazzar's feast in chapter 5. Carrying worship vessels from one nation to another, from one god to another, was common practice