Daniel 1:1

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah,.... At the close of it, and at the beginning of the fourth, which was the first of Nebuchadnezzar, Jeremiah 25:1.

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim - cf.

DANIEL CHAPTER 1 Jehoiakim's captivity, Daniel 1:1,2. By the king of Babylon's order the master of the eunuchs taketh Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, to instruct them, and changeth their names, Daniel 1:3-7. They refusing to eat of the king's meat thrive upon pulse and water, Daniel 1:8-16. Their proficiency in wisdom, Daniel 1:17-21. Comparing this with 2 Kings 24:1, and with 2 Chronicles 36:6, the meaning is, after the Lord had taken away that good king Josiah for the sins of Judah and Manasseh, which were very great, by Pharaoh-necho king of Egypt, the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and made him king; he reigned but three months, wherein he did so much evil in the sight of the Lord, that the said Pharaoh-necho put him in bands at Riblah, and afterwards carried him to Egypt, where he died, and made Eliakim his brother king in his stead, and turned his name to Jehoiakim; he became Nebuchadnezzar's servant three years, for that king of Babylon had overthrown Pharaoh's army at Carchemish by the river Euphrates. Jehoiakim rebelling against Nebuchadnezzar, made him come up from Babylon and take Jehoiakim, and bind him in fetters to carry him to Babylon; of whom, and his death and burial, you have a sad account, Jeremiah 22:17-19.

Daniel 1:1 In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it. The Book of Daniel Written by himself (not by another of his name, in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes, as wicked Porphyry, that professed enemy of Christianity, blaterateth), like as Xenophon and Julius Caesar wrote their own acts so wisely and impartially, as none have been so upright in writing the histories of others. This divine book is, for the matter of it, partly historic and partly prophetic. The historical part we have in the first six chapters, sc., a continuation of the history of the book of Kings during the whole time of the captivity and after it. Hence Jerome calleth Daniel multiscum et totius mundi polyhistorem, a general historian. The prophetic part, beginning at the seventh chapter, foretelleth future things in the several monarchies but very obscurely, according to that of the angel, "Go thy way, Daniel; for the words are closed up, and sealed till the end of the time," &c; and according to that hieroglyphic of prophecy, which hangs, they say, among other pictures, in the Vatican Library at Rome, like a matron with the eyes covered, for the difficulty. Whence it was that Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, though able, would never be drawn to write commentaries; Cajetan and Calvin would set no notes upon the Revelation; and Piscator, after he had commented upon the other prophets, when he came to Daniel, met with so many dark and difficult passages, ut parum obfuerit, saith he, quin in medio commentandi cursu subsisterem, et calamum e manu deponerem, that he was even ready to lay down his pen, and to lay aside the business. But this he did not, as considering that the best, while here, "know but in part, prophesy but in part," &c.; and that the promise is, though none of the wicked understand this prophecy, yet the wise shall. Jerome well saith, that a prophecy is therefore obscure, because it is said at one time and seen at another. And one thing that causeth a cloud in Daniel is the transposing of the history here often used; as the prophecies contained in the seventh and eighth chapters, which were shown unto Daniel under the reign of Belshazzar, in order should be set before the sixth chapter, &c. He seemeth indeed to have been laid aside in the days of Belshazzar, that drunken sot, till the handwriting on the wall brought him more in request again. That cock on the dunghill knew not the worth of this peerless pearl, highly prized both by his predecessor and successor, to whom he was a secretis of their privy council. Famous he was grown, and worthily, for his extraordinary wisdom and holiness, so that the angel Gabriel styleth him "a man of desires," or a desirable man. Seneca calleth Cato virtutum vivam imaginem, a lively picture of virtues.

(1) In the third year.—Two questions are involved in this verse. (1) Is it historically true that Jerusalem was taken by Nebuchadnezzar in the third year of Jehoiakim’s reign? (2) Does the language of the verse imply that he did so? The second question is rightly answered in the negative. The word came means went, as Genesis 45:17; 2 Kings 5:5, and it is the natural word for a Hebrew to use who wrote from Babylon, and may be translated marched. It is therefore implied in this verse that Nebuchadnezzar started from Babylon in the third year of Jehoiakim. The rest of the history is easily supplied from other portions of Scripture. In the fourth year of Jehoiakim he conquered Pharaoh at Carchemish (Jeremiah 46:2), and then advanced upon Jerusalem. (See marginal reference.) The name Nebuchadnezzar is sometimes more correctly spelt Nebuchadrezzar, but no argument can be based upon the different modes of spelling the name, as the difficulties of transliteration of Babylonian names into Hebrew characters are considerable.

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 1.

1. In the third year &c.] Whether this is historically correct is doubtful. Jehoiakim’s reign lasted eleven years (b.c. 608–597); and the Book of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 25:1) equates his fourth year with the first year of Nebuchadnezzar. Early in the same year (if the date in Jeremiah 46:2 is correct[171]) there had taken place the great defeat of the Egyptians by Nebuchadnezzar at Carchemish on the Upper Euphrates, the effect of which was to transfer the whole (virtually) of Western Asia from the power of Egypt to that of Babylon (cf. Jeremiah 25:9-11; Jeremiah 25:18-26; Jeremiah 46:25 f.; 2 Kings 24:7). We learn, now, from Berosus (ap. Josephus, Ant. x. xi. 1) that in this campaign Nebuchadnezzar was acting on behalf of his father, Nabopolassar, who was too infirm to conduct the war himself: ‘hearing soon afterwards of his father’s death, and having arranged the affairs of Egypt and the remaining country (i.e. Coele-Syria and Phoenicia, mentioned just before), and committed the Judaean, Phoenician, and Syrian prisoners, as well as those of the nations in Egypt, to some of his friends to convoy to Babylon with the heavy part of his army, he himself hastened home across the desert accompanied only by a few attendants.’ Although Judahite captives are here mentioned, nothing is said of any siege of Jersalem; and the terms in which Jeremiah speaks, not only in the fourth year of Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 25:9 ff.), but also in his fifth year (Jeremiah 36:29, see Daniel 1:9), seem to imply that a Chaldaean invasion of Judah was still in the future (Ewald, Hist., iv. 257, n. 5, Keil), and that Jehoiakim had not already, in his third year, fallen into Neb.’s hands[172]. [171] See the Introduction, p. xlix. [172] The invasion of Judah by Neb., and the three years’ submission of Jehoiakim, mentioned in 2 Kings 24:1-2, are also certainly to be placed after Jehoiakim’s fourth year—most probably, indeed, towards the close of his reign (cf. Ewald, l. c.). According to Josephus (Ant. x. vi. 1) Neb., after the battle of Carchemish, ‘acquired possession of the whole of Syria, as far as Pelusium, except Judah’; and only made Jehoiakim tributary four years afterwards (2 Kings 24:1).On the other hand, in the summary of Jehoiakim’s reign which, in 2 Chronicles 36:6-7, takes the place of 2 Kings 24:1-4, we read, ‘Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and bound him in fetters to carry him to Babylon. And some of the vessels of the house of Jehovah brought Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon; and he put them in his palace in Babylon’: but the year in which this invasion took place is not specified; and a statement which rests on the authority of the Chronicler alone, and is not supported by contemporary testimony, is of slight value.

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem - This event occurred, according to Jahn (“History of the Hebrew Commonwealth”), in the

Introductory — Daniel Prepared for His Work.1. De Wette, Kuenen, etc., have called the date given in this verse “obviously false,” “a striking and characteristic misstatement,” because it makes the