Daniel 2:48

made Daniel a great man made Daniel great, i.e. advanced, promoted him.

made him to rule, &c. i.e., probably, made him administrator of the principal province of the empire, in which the capital was; opp. to the local -provinces," Daniel 3:2.

and(appointed him) chief of the praefects over, &c. The idea appears to be (Hitz., Keil, Pusey, p. 20) that each division, or class (Daniel 2:2), of the -wise men" had its own head; and Daniel was promoted to have the supervision of them all. Cf. Daniel 4:9; Daniel 5:11 (-made him chief of the magicians, enchanters, Chaldeans, and determiners of fates"). -Praefect" (segan, Heb. sâgân) recurs Daniel 3:2-3; Daniel 3:27; Daniel 6:7; and is found also in Jeremiah 51:23; Jeremiah 51:28; Jeremiah 51:57; Ezekiel 23:6; Ezekiel 23:12; Ezekiel 23:23; Isaiah 41:25 (A.V. in Jer., Ez. rulers, in Is. princes; R.V. always deputyor ruler). It is a Hebraized form of the Assyrian shaknu(from shakânu, to appoint), a word used constantly in the inscriptions of the -praefect" appointed by the Assyrian king to govern a conquered district, or a city. Here the term is used more generally, as it is also in Ezra 9:2; Nehemiah 2:16; Nehemiah 4:14; Nehemiah 4:19; Nehemiah 5:7; Nehemiah 5:17; Nehemiah 7:5; Nehemiah 12:40; Nehemiah 13:11, of certain civic officials in Jerusalem (A.V., R.V., -ruler").

On the historical difficulty arising out of this statement respecting Daniel, see the Introd. p. lv, not[212].

[212] oteCf. Ryle, Canon of theO. T., p. 104 ff.