A.M. 3401. in preference to others to be imputed to him as a merit, it being B.C. 603. communicated solely, he said, "for their sakes that shall make

known the interpretation to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart." Josephus imputes to Daniel the following speech on this critical occasion, which, to say the least, is certainly in unison with his character, as represented in the inspired page. "It is not any high conceit of my own wisdom, as if I understand more than the Chaldeans do, or any designed reproach upon them for not being able to resolve a question which I am able to unriddle, that I engage in this matter; for I am not a person that pretends to more skill and knowledge than my neighbours; but it is purely the work of God, in pity to the miserable, and in mercy to my prayers for the life and safety of myself and my friends, that has now laid open this dream to me, and explained the meaning of it. Nor have I been so solicitous for the safety of myself and my companions under your displeasure, as for your honour and glory, lest you should tarnish them by putting to death, contrary to all right and justice, so many worthy men, merely because they were not able to do a thing that is impossible for flesh and blood to perform."

The exact coincidence between his forgotten dream and Daniel's representation, and the authoritative manner in which the predictions of future times were delivered, filled Nebuchadnezzar with the utmost astonishment and admiration. He was ready to pay him divine honours as a god, commanding an oblation and sweet odours to be presented to him, which the pious Jew no doubt declined as a piece of insufferable idolatry; but he did not refuse the presents of Daniel's ad- great value which the king gave him, nor the station of high dignity vancement. and honour to which he was immediately advanced. Daniel was

A.M. 3424.
B.C. 580.

accordingly made ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and
superintendent over all the wise men, or magicians of the empire.
While exalted to distinction himself, he did not forget the interests
of his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who, at his
request, were placed under him, in stations of distinguished impor-
tance and trust, probably as deputy-governors.
De Dieu is of
opinion, from the use of the term in the Chaldee language, and
from the corresponding word in the Arabic, that these men had the
superintendence of agriculture, and of the revenue arising out of it.
It has been already observed, that the name of Daniel is not
introduced in the account of the remarkable preservation of Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abed-nego. That he was one in spirit with the three
worthies who sacrificed (in purpose, at least) life to the claims of
duty and of God, cannot for a moment be doubted; and that both
his firmness and the king's displeasure would have been equally
manifest as in the instance recorded, is unquestionable. How then
does it arise that he is wholly overlooked in the affair? The chasm
of information here cannot easily be filled up; we must be satisfied

with conjectural probability, and perhaps shall not materially err in a.m. 3424. supposing that he was absent on some important affair of state, in B.C. 580. a remote province of the empire; the peculiar sagacity which he had already displayed, and the confidence reposed in him, rendering it natural that he should have been so employed.

a second

Daniel again becomes prominent in the inspired story, on the A.M. 3434. occasion of another dream of the king, which, although Nebuchad- B.C. 570. nezzar could distinctly remember, he was unable to interpret. As in the former instance, the astrologers and magicians of every class who were regarded as constituting the learned body of the empire, were again summoned into the royal presence; but they were utterly confounded; when recourse was had to Daniel. This faithful servant of the living God was so struck with awe and terror at the judgment indicated by the dream, that he stood in silence for an hour: but upon being encouraged to expound its meaning, he at length explained it as we have already detailed; and, having given Daniel the interpretation, he dismissed the character of the mere expositor interprets of mysterious prognostications, and assumed that of the counsellor dream. and the friend. With a faithfulness which may well excite our astonishment, while it cannot fail of securing our approbation, he proceeded to admonish the king to abandon his iniquitous courses, to practise a holy life, and especially to manifest compassion to the poor; of which, probably, he had been notoriously negligent; and thus to secure prosperity and peace. After the delay of a year, which, it may be supposed, was given as a space for repentance, the ambition and vanity of this monarch occasioned the infliction of the threatened chastisement of seven years' deposition from his imperial dignity, and from the exercise of his reason; after which, at his restoration, he published a decree, expressive of the reverence he felt for the God of heaven, and the just sense with which adversity had inspired him of his own insignificance and guilt.

Nebuchad

nezzar.

The death of Nebuchadnezzar occurred soon after his restoration, A.M. 3443. and he was succeeded in his dominions by his son Evil-Merodach, в C. 561. whose reign was marked with wickedness, and was of short duration. Death of Neriglassar, who was the head of the conspiracy by which EvilMerodach died, took the vacant throne. This latter perished in battle against Cyrus, nephew to Cyaxares, the king of Media, who came out of Persia with 30,000 men, to afford assistance to his uncle. Laborosoarchod, the son of Neriglassar, sat upon the throne only nine months; his odious character having excited a conspiracy against him; when Belshazzar, probably the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, took the reins of government, which again introduces us to the story of Daniel. With regard, however, to the succession in question, it may be proper previously to state the sentiments of the intelligent chronologist Dr. Hales, which occur in the second volume of his Analysis. This writer does not admit that Evil-Merodach was cut off in a conspiracy, but slain in battle by Cyrus, when commanding

A.M. 3443. the armies of Cyaxares, whose territories he had prepared to attack. B.C. 561. He was succeeded by his son Neriglassar, the Belshazzar of Daniel,

Reign of
Belshazzar.

Cyrus.

and grandson of Nebuchadnezzar; and it was Belshazzar, or Neriglassar, the cruelty of whose government was so insupportable to his subjects, as to provoke them to a conspiracy, in which he was slain. The inquiry may be pursued by consulting Dr. Hales, already mentioned, and Prideaux's Connection, anno 555.

It was in the reign of Belshazzar, whoever he was, that Daniel, who still continued to occupy his extraordinary rank, had his two celebrated visions of the four beasts; and the ram, and the he-goat; the one in the first year of his reign, and the other in the third. By the former was signified the Assyrian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman empires; and in the latter, Darius Codomannus, the last of the successors of Cyrus, by the emblem of the ram; and Alexander the Great, by that of the he-goat.

Cyrus, the founder of the Persian monarchy, had frequent engageA.M. 3466. ments with the armies of Belshazzar, and at length succeeded in B.C. 538. shutting him up in the city of Babylon, against which he commenced a regular siege. While in this situation, so inappropriate to merriment, a great festival was celebrated, which, since, according to Xenophon and Herodotus, it was foreknown by Cyrus, was, most likely, an anniversary feast; either, perhaps, in commemoration of the king's birthday, or in honour of his gods. The Sachæan feast, or one celebrated in honour of the god Shach, is more than once alluded to by the prophets, and might possibly be the very festival in question, as, during its observance, the utmost licentiousness was practised every one, in short, did as he pleased.

Belshazzar's feast.

The courtiers, and principal persons of the empire, to the number of a thousand, were, it appears, present upon this occasion; and Belshazzar, in the excess of his revelry and impiety, commanded the vessels of gold and silver which his grandfather had taken out of the temple at Jerusalem, to be brought into the hall of festivity, in order that he, his nobles, and his concubines might drink out of them. This seems to have been intended as a profane defiance of the God of Israel, and to throw contempt upon the religious services of the Jews; it was therefore probably accompanied with many blasphemous jests, and certainly with praises of the different gods of silver and gold, of brass, wood, and stone, whom they were addicted to worship. But the delirium of intoxication was soon at an end; and by a very remarkable, and yet simple interposition of his power, the God of heaven, whom these inebriated sensualists ventured to ridicule, changed their merriment into sadness; a sadness which was the prelude of a tremendous calamity. The fingers of a man's hand were distinctly perceived upon the wall, writing upon the plaster a brief sentence of condemnation. The characters, however, were foreign and unintelligible, and the king, in the utmost trepidation, immediately summoned together his astrologers and sooth

sayers, to furnish him with an interpretation of the mysterious A.M. 3466. sentence. The excessive terror of his mind, and which, as he was B.C. 538. unable to read the writing, nothing but the power of conscience could have occasioned, is apparent in the great promises he made to any interpreter of this sentence, declaring that he should be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about his neck, and be the third ruler in the kingdom. None of the wise men, however, could read the inscription, or comprehend its purpose; and the king continued in a state of extreme agitation.

In this dilemma, the queen-mother entered, and after pronouncing the highest eulogium upon the sagacity of Daniel, to whose former interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream she particularly adverted, recommended him to be called for upon this difficult and distressing occasion; to which the king eagerly consented. Belshazzar now offered to bestow upon Daniel the distinguished rewards which he had promised in vain to his own magicians, in case of his giving the interpretation he required. The latter disclaimed any views to such marks of royal favour, saying, "Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another; but assured him of his readiness to explain the mysterious inscription, which had produced so much uneasiness. But to do so was no easy task, since it materially affected the king himself, and contained a most awful denunciation. Daniel, however, was unmoved by any sense of personal danger, in discharging his duty to God and man, and having introduced his interpretation, by reproving the king for his ingratitude and profanity, he added, "This is the writing that was written; Daniel Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin. This is the interpretation of the interprets thing: Mene; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. on the wall. Tekel; thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. Peres; thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians." It seems not a little remarkable, that notwithstanding the terrible aspect of this statement, and the pointed appeal against the king's conduct, with which it was introduced, Daniel should immediately receive all the promised tokens of distinction that awaited the successful interpreter. Yet such was the case, the apparel and the proclamation of his advancement were at once, and without hesitation, bestowed.

the writing

The Cyrus takes
Babylon.

Every circumstance of the prediction was soon verified. city, which had been so long besieged, was taken. When Cyrus was informed of the approach of the great Babylonish festival, he determined upon a measure of surprise, and having ordered a body of troops to the point where the river ran into the city, and another to the place where it issued out, they were to attempt the passage as soon as they should perceive the river fordable; in the mean time others were employed to turn the stream into another direction. This was accordingly done, and the gates being open, no doubt, in consequence of the carelessness superinduced by the excessive fes

A.M. 3466. tivity of the time, Cyrus marched his army into Babylon, and took B.C. 538. possession. Belshazzar was slain, and the kingdom transferred to

Darius.

A.M. 3467.

Cyaxares, denominated in scripture, Darius the Mede. Xenophon, in the Cyropædia, (Lib. VII.,) states, that the king was slain in the following manner: two deserters named Gadates and Gobryas, having assisted some of the Persian army to kill the guards, and seize upon the palace, they entered into the room where the king was, whom they found standing up in a posture of defence, but they soon despatched him, and those that were with him.

According to the usual policy of the Medes and Persians, with B.C. 537. regard to conquered nations, it appears from Berosus, that the victorious Mede appointed a Babylonian nobleman, of the name of Nabonadius, as viceroy of Babylon, and a hundred and twenty princes as superintendents of the different provinces of the empire. Over these were placed three presidents, of whom Daniel, for obvious reasons a favourite of the conqueror, was the principal. He was naturally supposed to have contributed to the success which he had predicted, and the reputation he had acquired by his sagacity and discretion, together with his long acquaintance with the affairs of the government, pointed him out as a proper person to occupy the very highest station of trust and influence.

Daniel envied.

Ordinary minds easily admit and cherish envious sentiments, and cannot endure the good fortune of others, even when it is most merited. The favourites of great princes are indeed certain of incurring considerable obloquy, either in the discharge of their official duties, or on account of some private peculiarity. So it happened to Daniel, whose character, however, shines with the more glory and brightness in consequence of the infamous machinations of his adversaries. No sooner did he come into power, than every engine was set at work to degrade him, and by those who hoped to acquire the ascendancy on his removal. He appears to have been accused long before they were able to fix upon him any charge which seemed likely to accomplish their purpose. In his administration of public affairs he was unimpeachable: his capacity and integrity were alike conspicuous, and the utmost vigilance which malice was able to exercise could not discover any thing upon which to found an indictment that should operate his ruin. After conferring with each other, therefore, upon the subject, the presidents and princes determined that the only method of proceeding against "this Daniel" was, to impeach him for his religion, which he maintained with great scrupulousness, notwithstanding the very peculiar circumstances in which he was placed, and the innumerable temptations to idolatrous compliances with which he must constantly have been surrounded. Having laid the snare, they resolved upon a plan to lead him into it, and their arrangement was certainly not destitute of political sagacity. A solemn deputation was sent to the king, in the name of all the presidents of the kingdom, the governors and