[305] Comp. Rev. xx. 11: καὶ τόπος οὐχ εὑρέθη αὐτοῖς.
[306] Psalm i. 4, ii. 9; Isa. xli. 15; Jer. li. 33, etc.
[308] King of kings. Comp. Ezek. xxvi. 7; Ezra vii. 12; Isa. xxxvi. 4. It is the Babylonian _Shar-sharrâni_, or _Sharru-rabbu_ (Behrmann). The Rabbis tried (impossibly) to construe this title, which they thought only suitable to God, with the following clause. But Nebuchadrezzar was so addressed (Ezek. xxvi. 7), as the Assyrian kings had been before him (Isa. x. 8), and the Persian kings were after him (Ezra vii. 12). The expression seems strange, but comp. Jer. xxvii. 6, xxviii. 14. The LXX. and Theodotion mistakenly interpolate ἰχθύες τῆς θαλάσσης.
[312] The interpretation is first found, amid a chaos of false exegesis, in the Epistle of Barnabas, iv. 4, § 6.
[314] On the distinction in the writer's mind between the Median and Persian Empires see v. 28, 31, vi. 8, 12, 15, ix. 1, xi. 1, compared with vi. 28, x. 1. In point of fact, the Persians and Medians were long spoken of as distinct, though they were closely allied; and to the Medes had been specially attributed the forthcoming overthrow of Babylon: Jer. li. 28, "Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes." Comp. Jer. li. 11, and Isa. xiii. 17, xxi. 2, "Besiege, O Media."
[315] See Isa. ii. 2, xxviii. 16; Matt. xxi. 42-44. "Le _mot_ de Messie n'est pas dans Daniel. Le mot de _Meshiach_, ix. 26, désigne l'autorité (probablement sacerdotale) de la Judée" (Renan, _Hist._, iv. 358).
[317] No kings have been mentioned, but the ten toes symbolise ten kings. Comp. vii. 24.
[320] It may be paralleled by the legendary prostrations of Alexander the Great before the high priest Jaddua (Jos., _Antt._, XI. viii. 5), and of Edwin of Deira before Paulinus of York (Bæda, _Hist._, ii. 14-16).
[321] Isa. xlvi. 6. The same verbs, "they fall down, yea they worship," are there used of idols.
[322] Comp. Isa. lx. 14: "The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet."
[323] Comp. Rom. xiv. 23; Acts xv. 29; Heb. xiii. 9; 1 Cor. viii. 1; Rev. ii. 14, 20.
[324] So Jerome: "Non tam Danielem quam in Daniele adorat Deum, qui mysteria revelavit." Comp. Jos., _Antt._, XI. viii. 5, where Alexander answers the taunt of Parmenio about his προσκύνησις of the high priest: οὐ τοῦτον προσεκύνησα, τὸν δὲ Θεόν.