determining him to dismiss the captives, we can only conjecture; it is certain that he gave the decree immediately on his return to Babylon, after the death of Darius, and it proved extremely advantageous to his empire; the Jews, when thus placed on the frontiers of the vast Persian monarchy, remained for 200 years contented and faithful tributaries, and were at once a barrier against the encroachments of Egypt, and a check upon the ever-changing policy of Syria and Phenice. : Daniel himself did not return with his released countrymen his advanced age, and the high offices he filled at the Persian court, would render it difficult, if not impossible, for him to quit Babylon, and his influence would be wanted at court, to facilitate the execution of a decree which involved such different interests, and roused up the opposition of many powerful enemies.* Daniel is supposed to have died soon after his last vision, which he saw in the third year of Cyrus, when he must have been ninety years old. Common tradition assigns Susa (Shusan) as the place of the prophet's burial. Josephus relates that he was buried in a beautiful tower, which he built in Ecbatana, (Susa?) and where the Persian and Parthian kings were afterwards interred: the tower remained a monument of architectural skill, and from the extreme *Some have asserted that Daniel did return to Judea with Ezra, but the received opinion is that he died in Persia. hardness of the stone, it preserved its beauty uninjured during many centuries. The character of Daniel requires no other delineation than that which the record of his eventful life affords: piety, early shown, and predominant over every worldly consideration,neither bending to persecution, nor lessening in fervour when prosperity smiled upon him, wisdom so pre-eminent, that to "be wise as Daniel" became a proverb,- -devoted to his own enslaved people, yet the favored minister of their Babylonian conquerors; and lastly, a prophet who foretold the fall and succession of mighty empires, interpreted dreams, saw visions, and was inspired to predict the coming of the Messiah, with a distinctness and vividness almost equal so Isaiah. All these distinguishing marks of divine favor, point out the great prophet as an object of reverence and admiration to his own and succeeding times. Yet has the circumstance of his living amidst the splendour of a court, been accounted by the Jews a reason for not regarding him as a prophet, although they class him among their inspired writers. But the real cause of this is thought to be, that the prophecies of Daniel relating to the Messiah, particularly that of the seventy weeks, (Dan. ix.,) so clearly fixed the time of the coming of Christ, that it was impossible for the Jews to receive that prophecy, whilst they rejected the express object of it; and indeed, it was not until after the rejection of Christ by the Jews, and the dis persion of the nation, that this futile distinction was attempted.* Yet was Daniel regarded by the Jewish historian Josephus, who lived in the latter half of the first century, as one of the greatest of the prophets: and as late as the second century, he is placed among the prophets in a Greek translation of them; nothing therefore seems clearer, than that the necessity of setting aside so decisive a prediction, induced the Jews to deny the right of Daniel to be regarded as a prophet. The style of Daniel is, says Bishop Gray, "clear, concise, simple, and historical, although the visions he describes, were themselves of a figurative and emblematical character." The historical portion, from the fourth verse of the second chapter, to the end of the seventh chapter, was written originally in Chaldean, or ancient Syriac: probably because the events concerned the nation and court of Babylon: or, it is supposed, parts might be extracted by Daniel from the public annals, and thus become an honorable and authentic testimony to the particulars he records, and a fitting introduction to his prophecies. The remaining chapters relate * Another reason assigned is, that Daniel speaks of his vision as “a dream,” which the Jews pretend was an inferior sort of communication of the Divine will. Also, that he lived out of the land of Judah, and that the prophetic office could not therefore be properly his. + See Bishop Gray on Daniel, page 409. chiefly to the Jewish people, and were written in Hebrew. Some Apocryphal books were in later times attributed to Daniel, but these are written in Greek, and are not received as his: none are acknowledged but those contained in the Book of Daniel, which are all written either in Chaldean or Hebrew, and about these no doubt has ever been expressed. Б. С. CHAPTER XXIX. EZEKIEL. EZEKIEL was one of those youths of 595. noble and sacerdotal extraction, who were carried captive to Babylon, with Jehoiakin, a few years after Daniel had been taken thither by Nebuchadnezzar. Ezekiel holds a high place among the prophets, ranking next in importance to Isaiah and Jeremiah. According to some, he was thirteen years of age when brought with his countrymen into Babylonia, and was settled with them on the banks of the river Chebar,* a small stream which flows into the eastern side of the Euphrates, near the ancient town of Carchemish, about two hundred miles north of Babylon. His father was a Levite, of a priestly family, being a descendant of Aaron. About eight or ten years later than Daniel, in the fifth year of Jehoiakin's captivity, Ezekiel was called to the prophetic office, and saw a vision of mysterious grandeur and significance, by which he was commanded to speak to the house of Israel, and not * Chebar, called Aboras by Strabo, and now Khabour. The age of Ezekiel on his removal to Babylon, and "the thirtieth year" in which he states himself to have commenced prophesying, are differently reckoned by commentators; the opinion of Bishop Gray is followed in the text. |