Daniel 1:1

THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET DANIEL

Chronological Notes relative to the commencement of Daniel's prophesying

-Year from the Creation, according to Archbishop Usher, 3397.

-Year of the Jewish era of the world, 3154.

-Year from the Deluge, 1741.

-Second year of the forty-third Olympiad.

-Year from the building of Rome, according to the Varronian or generally received account, 147.

-Year from the building of Rome, according to Cato and the Fasti Consulares, 146.

-Year from the building of Rome, according to Polybius the historian, 145.

-Year from the building of Rome, according to Fabius Pictor, 411.

-Year of the Julian Period, 4107.

-Year of the era of Nabonassar, 141.

-Year from the foundation of Solomon's temple, 397.

-Year since the destruction of the kingdom of Israel by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, 114.

-Fourth year after the first Sabbatic year after the seventeenth Jewish jubilee, according to Helvicus.

-Year before the birth of Christ, 603.

-Year before the vulgar era of Christ's nativity, 607.

-Cycle of the Sun, 19.

-Cycle of the Moon, 3.

-Tenth year of Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth king of the Romans.

-Nineteenth year of Cyaxares or Cyaraxes, the fourth king of Media.

-Forty-fourth year of Archidamus, king of Lacedaemon, of the family of the Proclidae.

-First year of Leon, king of Lacedaemon, of the family of Eurysthenidae.

-Thirteenth year of Alyattes II., king of Lydia, and father of the celebrated Croesus.

-Thirty-fourth year of Philip, the sixth king of Macedon.

-Eleventh year of Pharaoh-necho, called Necus by Herodotus. This king was the immediate predecessor of Psammis; and Psammis was succeeded by the celebrated Pharaoh-hophra, called also Apries.

-Eighth year of Ithobalus, king of the Tyrains, according to Helvicus.

-Third year (ending) of Jehoiakim, king of Judah; for the principal part of A.M. 3397 corresponded to the fourth year of this prince.

CHAPTER I

This chapter begins with giving a short account of

Nebuchadnezzar's conquest of Judea, when Jehoiakim became

tributary to him; and consequently the seventy years' captivity

and vassalage began, 1, 2.

On this expedition (taking Egypt in his way) the king of Babylon

set out towards the end of the third year of Jehoiakim, but did

not take Jerusalem before the ninth month of the year following.

Hence the seeming discrepancy between Daniel and Jeremiah,

(Jeremiah 25:1,)

the one computing from the time of his setting out on the

expedition, and the other from the time in which the purpose of

it was accomplished. We have next an account of the manner in

which Daniel and his companions were brought up at the king's

court, 3-7.

They reject the daily provision of meat granted by the king,

lest they should be defiled, and are allowed to live on pulse,

8-16.

Their great proficiency in the wisdom of that time, 17-20.

Daniel flourishes till the reign of Cyrus the Persian, 21.

NOTES ON CHAP. I

Verse Daniel 1:1. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim] This king was raised to the throne of Judea in the place of his brother Jehoahaz, by Pharaoh-necho, king of Egypt, 2 Kings 23:34-12, and continued tributary to him during the first three years of his reign; but in the fourth, which was the first of Nebuchadnezzar, Jeremiah 25:1, Nebuchadnezzar completely defeated the Egyptian army near the Euphrates, Jeremiah 46:2; and this victory put the neighbouring countries of Syria, among which Judea was the chief, under the Chaldean government. Thus Jehoiakim, who had first been tributary to Egypt, became now the vassal of the king of Babylon, 2 Kings 24:1.

At the end of three years Jehoiakim rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, who, then occupied with other wars, did not proceed against Jerusalem till three years after, which was the eleventh and last of Jehoiakim, 2 Kings 23:36.

There are some difficulties in the chronology of this place. Calmet takes rather a different view of these transactions. He connects the history thus: Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, finding that one of his lords whom he had made governor of Coelesyria and Phoenicia had revolted from him, and formed an alliance with the king of Egypt, sent Nebuchadnezzar his son, whom he invested with the authority of king, to reduce those provinces, as was customary among the easterns when the heir presumptive was sent on any important expedition or embassy. This young prince, having quelled the insurrection in those parts, marched against Jerusalem about the end of the third or beginning of the fourth year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah. He soon took the city, and put Jehoiakim in chains with the design of carrying him to Babylon; but, changing his mind, he permitted him to resume the reins of government under certain oppressive conditions. At this year, which was A.M. 3398, the seventy years of the Babylonish captivity commence. Nabopolassar dying in the interim, Nebuchadnezzar was obliged to return speedily to Babylon, leaving his generals to conduct the Jewish captives to Babylon, among whom were Daniel and his companions.