The language, as in Nebuchadrezzar's decrees, is purely Scriptural.[486] What the Median mages and the Persian fire-worshippers would think of such a decree, and whether it produced the slightest effect before it vanished without leaving a trace behind, are questions with which the author of the story is not concerned.
He merely adds that Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and of Cyrus the Persian.
[460] The word is a cabalistic cryptogram--an instance of _Gematria_--for Babel.
[466] _Sanhedrin_, f. 93, 1. See another story in _Vayyikra Rabba_, c. xix.
[468] The LXX. says 127, and Josephus (_Antt._, X. xi. 4) says 360 (comp. Esther i. 1, viii. 9, ix. 3). Under Darius, son of Hystaspes, there were only twenty divisions of the empire (Herod., iii. 89).
[469] Dan. vi. 2: "Of whom Daniel was"--not "_first_," as in A.V., but "_one_," R.V.
[472] Dan. vi. 6, _char'ggishoo_; Vulg., _surripuerunt regi_; A.V. marg., "came tumultuously." The word is found in the Targum in Ruth i. 19 (Bevan).
[473] The den (_goob_ or _gubba_) seems to mean a vault. The Hebrew word for "pit" is _boor_.
[474] See Layard, _Nin. and Bab._, i. 335, 447, 475; Smith, _Hist. of Assur-bani-pal_, xxiv.
[475] The chamber was perhaps supposed to be a ὑπερῷον on the roof. The "kneeling" in prayer (as in 1 Kings viii. 54; 2 Chron. vi. 13; Ezra ix. 5) is in the East a less common attitude than standing. See 1 Sam. i. 26; Mark xi. 25; Luke xviii. 11: but see Neh. viii. 6; Gen. xxiv. 26.
The Temple, and Jerusalem, was the _Kibleh_, or sacred direction of devotion (1 Kings viii. 44; Ezek. viii. 16; Psalm v. 7, xxviii. 2, lv. 17, etc.).
[479] "Courage, till to-morrow" (ἕως πρωῒ θάῤῥει), adds the LXX.
[480] Comp. Lam. iii. 53. Seal-rings are very ancient (Herod., i. 195). It is useless to speculate on the construction of the lion-pit. The only opening mentioned seems to have been _at the top_; but there must necessarily have been side-openings also.
[481] Theodot., ἐκοιμήθη ἄδειπνος. Daniel, on the other hand, in the apocryphal _Haggada_, gets his dinner miraculously from the Prophet Habakkuk.
[482] Heb., _dachavān_; R.V., "instruments of music"; R.V. marg., "dancing-girls"; Gesenius, Zöckler, etc., "concubines."
[484] Comp. Dan. iii. 8; Psalm xxxiv. 7-10; Acts xii. 11.