THE CAPTIVITY--DANIEL--BELSHAZZAR--DARIUS

THE CAPTIVITY--DANIEL--BELSHAZZAR--DARIUS
SURVEY OF ISRAEL'S FAILURE
Before we enter upon the historical details of the period which now opens, it is proper to take a rapid survey of the principles developed in the history through which we have passed, and to indicate the consequences which are exhibited in the portion that lies before us.
In the commencement of the work, we have stated, in general terms, the leading design of the selection of the Hebrew race, and of their settlement in the land of Canaan as a distinct and peculiar people, and separated from all other nations by the peculiar institutions which were given to them. That they were appointed to be “stewards of the mysteries of God,” is the substance of the considerations stated there andenforced in subsequent passages. The history itself shows under what forms and obligations the stewardship was imposed, and how unfaithfully its duties were discharged; and we are come to the punishments which that unfaithfulness incurred.
Collecting Dung for Fuel And did that unfaithfulness render the promises and designs of God of no effect? Nay, much otherwise; but rather tended to illustrate the more strongly his Almightiness, by the accomplishment of all his designs, in spite of, and even through, the reluctance, the improbity, and the treachery of the instruments he employed. They might have worked his high will with great happiness and honor to themselves; but since they did not choose this, they were compelled to work that will even by their misery and dishonor. It was not in the power of the instruments to frustrate the intentions of Jehovah; they only had power to determine whether that will should be accomplished with happiness or with misery to themselves, and, in consequence, somewhat to vary the mode in which those designs were exhibited and fulfilled.
ISRAEL'S DEPENDENCE ON MAN
The main cause of the personal and national failure of the Israelites, as instruments of a design which was accomplished notwithstanding their misdoings, is by no means of difficult detection. Politically considered, it may be resolved into what has been in all ages and countries the leading cause, of calamity and miscarriage--a reliance upon men and upon individual character, which at best is but temporary and fluctuating, rather than upon institutions which are permanent and unchanging. In these, every needful amelioration is an abiding good; whereas the existence of a good king, or judge, or priest, is at the most but “a fortunate accident,” contingent on that most feeble thing, the breath of man. Nothing had been wanting to fortify their peculiar position by institutions admirably suited to their destined object, and made more impregnable by numerous sanctions and obligations than any other institutions ever were, or ever can, indeed, with any propriety, be made, by any authority short of that infinite wisdom by which the Hebrew institutions were established. Thus the nation was placed in the peculiarly advantageous position--which many enlightened nations have struggled for and sought after in vain--that their happiness, their prosperity, their liberties, were not dependant on the will of any men or set of men, but rested on firm institutions which were as obligatory upon the chiefs of the land as upon the meanest of the people.
BLIND FOLLOWERS OF LEADERS
But this was a new thing on the earth, and the Hebrew nation seemed utterly incapable of appreciating its value; and, indeed, what oriental nation is there, at this advanced day, by which the value of so precious a gift would be duly appreciated? They rested always on men; they always wanted leaders. And as they were led they followed: if their leaders were good and just men, they did well; if evil men, not well. They turned their back upon institutions, and threw themselves upon the accidents of human character--and they fared accordingly. This preference occurs everywhere in the history of this people, and is with peculiar prominence evinced in their determination to have “a king to rule them like the nations;” in the ease with which Jeroboam was enabled to establish a schismatical worship in ten of the tribes; and in the facility with which, even to Judah, the people followed the examples offered by their kings.
With reference to this point, the character so frequently given to Jeroboam when the sacred writers have occasion to mention his name, as “Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who sinned, and made Israel to sin,” has always seemed to us frightfully emphatic and significant.
TENDENCY TO IDOLATRY AND PUNISHMENT
Had the ancient Hebrews adhered to their institutions, it was impossible for them, as a political body, not to have fulfilled their special vocation in the world. But having, by the neglect of those institutions (which, among other benefits, secured the absence of idolatry and its concomitant vices), done all that in them lay to frustrate the very objects for the promotion of which existence had been given to them, they made it necessary that God should accomplish his own objects, not, as desired, by their welfare and by the confusion of their enemies, but by their misery and destitution. It was left him to demonstrate his almightiness--his supreme power over all the “gods” which swarmed the world, not by overthrowing with his strong hand all the enemies who rose against them, and by maintaining them in the land he had given them, against the old conquerors by whom great empires were thrown down, but by making these very nations the instruments of his punishments, upon the chosen people. And this was accomplished under such peculiar circumstances of manifest intention and instrumentality, that the conquerors themselves were brought to acknowledge the supremacy of Jehovah, and that they had been but the blind agents of his will. The strong and marked interference to prevent “the great kings” from engrossing to themselves the merit or glory of their victories, and from despising the God of the people who, for their sins, had been abased at their footstool, even extorted from these proud monarchs the avowal that they had received all their crowns and all their kingdoms from “the most high God,” whom the Hebrews worshipped. Now this and other results of the destitution of the Hebrews as strongly, and perhaps more strikingly, sub-served the great object of keeping alive in the world the knowledge of a supreme and universal governor and creator, as by maintaining the Hebrews in Palestine. Indeed, that this great truth was diffused among, and impressed upon, the conquering nations by the captivity of the Hebrews--that “the Lord's song” was not sung utterly in vain in a strange land, by the captives who wept when they remembered Zion under the willows and beside the waters of Babylon--in short, that they received some salt which kept them from utter putrefaction, some leaven which wrought vitally in them and prepared them for the revelations which the “fulness of times” produced--is evinced by the history of Daniel, by the edicts of Nebuchadnezzar, of Darius, and, above all, of Cyrus, and may even be traced in the tradition which ascribes the doctrines and important reforms of Zoroaster to his intercourse with the Jewish captives and prophets at Babylon.
GOD'S WORD WAS PRESERVED
Thus, although they had forfeited the high destiny of preserving and propagating certain truths as an independent and sovereign people, the forfeiture extended only to their own position, for the truths entrusted to them were still preserved and diffused through the instrumentality of their bondage and punishment. This was true even in the times posterior to their restoration to their own land.
We have been anxious to make these remarks, lest the facts of the history should seem to intimate that the divine intention in the establishment of the Hebrew commonwealth was frustrated by the perversity of the people which rendered the subversion of that commonwealth necessary. Having, as we trust, shown that there is no room for this conclusion, it may seem better to reserve such further remarks as may tend to develop the spirit of the ensuing history, for the natural connection with the record of the circumstances in which they are involved. We now therefore proceed to record the captivities of Israel and of Judah.
CAPTIVITY IN PERSIAN PROVINCE
When Jerusalem was destroyed, one hundred and ninety-four years had elapsed since the Israelites of Galilee and Gilead had been led away captive into Assyria; one hundred and thirty-three years since Shalmaneser had removed the ten tribes to Halah, and Habor by the river Gozan, and to Hara and other cities of Media; and ten years since Nebuchadnezzar had banished some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem to the river of Chebar. The determination of the sites to which the Israelites were removed is a matter of some interest, but one which, in a work like the present, does not require any large investigation. The interest lies in the means thus given of determining the district to which the Israelites were expatriated; and it is sufficient for us to state that all the investigations which have yet been instituted, and all the information which has yet been acquired, concur in referring all these names (excepting, of course, the river Chebar) to that northwestern part of the present Persian empire which formed the ancient Media. It is, indeed, remarkable that the only other cities whose names occur in the history of the captivity of the ten tribes, are Rhages and Ecbatana, which we know to have been important cities of Media, in both of which it appears that the expatriated Israelites were settled in considerable numbers.
DISPLACED CITIZENS UNDER POLITICAL REGIMES
Even this much it is important to learn; because of itself it throws much light upon the policy of the Assyrian conquerors, and upon the position which the removed Israelites ultimately occupied. Media was then subject to the Assyrian empire, although still chiefly occupied by the native Medes; it seems, therefore, to have been the policy of the Medes to remove the inhabitants of one conquered country to another conquered country with the view of weakening the separate interest or nationality of both, and of promoting such a fusion of races and nations as might tend to realize tranquillity and permanence to the general empire. From this allocation of the expatriated Israelites in Media results the important fact that, whereas Judah was always subject to the conquering nation, Israel was only so for a short time, as the Medes, among whom they were placed, were not long in asserting their independence of Assyria, which empire they (with the Babylonians) ultimately subverted, and continued independent of the great Babylonian empire which succeeded, and to which the captives of Judah were subject, So, then, the relations of the ten tribes were with the Medes, not with the Assyrians or Babylonians, and their relations with the Medes were not, and were necessarily far better than, those between captives and conquerors. It does not appear how the Medes could regard them, or that they did regard them, otherwise than as useful and respectable colonists whom the common oppressor had placed among them, and whose continued presence it was desirable to solicit and retain. It is hard to call this a captivity; but since it is usually so described it is important to remark that the captivity of the ten tribes and that of Judah was under different, and independent, and not always friendly, states. There is a vague notion that since the Babylonians subverted and succeeded the Assyrians, the Israelites, who had been captives to the Assyrians, became such to the Babylonians, and were afterward joined in that captivity by their brethren of Judah; but this, as we have seen, was by no means the case.
The information we possess respecting the condition of the ten tribes, before and after the fall of Jerusalem, is exceedingly scanty. It is certain that during the long years which passed before Judah also was carried into captivity, the expatriated Israelites fully participated in all the extravagant hopes of their brethren in Judah, and were looking with sanguine expectations for a speedy restoration to their own land; and the adverse prophecies and declarations of Ezekiel were as little heeded by them as those of Jeremiah were at Jerusalem.
TOBIT'S ACCOUNT OF CAPTIVE LIFE
The apocryphal book of Tobit is the only source from which any information can be obtained as to the social position of the expatriated Israelites. We are certainly not among those who would like to repose much belief in “the stupid story of Tobias and his dog;” yet the framework of that story is so much in agreement with what we do know, and is so probable and natural in itself, that it would seem to have been “founded on facts,” and to have been concocted by one who was intimately acquainted with the condition and affairs of the Israelites under the Assyrians.
From this it would appear, that many of the captives were stationed at Nineveh itself, where they would seem to have lived much like other citizens, and were allowed to possess or acquire considerable wealth. Among these was Tobit, of the town and city of Naphtali, a man who feared God, as doubtless many other of the captives did, and who, as far as in his power, squared his conduct by the rules and observances of the Mosaical law, and acquired such a character for probity,[365] that the conqueror himself, Shalmaneser, took notice of him, and appointed him his purveyor. This promotion of one of the expatriated Hebrews is significant in its indications, as it shows that, as afterward with their brethren in Babylon, offices of importance and profit were, under the Assyrians, open to the ambition, or rewarded the good conduct of the Israelites. Tobit availed himself of his position to visit his brother Israelites in other cities, to cheer them and to encourage their reasonable hopes and enterprises. He must have acquired considerable wealth, as he was enabled to deposit ten talents of silver in the hands of Gabel of Rhages, in Media. That he did this may seem to imply that the captives stationed in Media were considered more securely circumstanced than those directly under the eye of the Assyrians. When Sennacherib returned from his signal overthrow in Palestine, he vented his ill-humor upon the Hebrew captives, and caused many of them to be put to death, and their bodies were cast forth to remain unburied beyond the walls of Nineveh. This was very shocking to the pious Tobit, who made it a practice to inter by night the bodies of his brethren whom he found unburied. The absence of the bodies occasioned inquiry, and the truth came to the knowledge of the tyrant, who would have put him to death; but the good man received timely warning, and made his escape from Nineveh. The tyrant himself was soon slain by his own sons; and (another marked instance of promotion) his successor, Esarhaddon, appointed Achiarcharus, Tobit's nephew, to be his “cupbearer, and keeper of the signet, and overseer of the accounts.” Through this person Tobit, received permission to return to Nineveh. But he was reduced to comparative poverty, and total blindness was soon after added to his misfortunes. His nephew, Achiacharus, was kind to the family under these circumstances, until Tobit thought proper to remove into Elymais. There poverty was still their lot; and they were supported chiefly by the wife, Anna, who took in “woman's work,” and some times obtained presents from her employers above her actual earnings.
[365] Complete and confirmed integrity
At last Tobit, who had returned to Nineveh, bethought him of the valuable property he had left with Gabel at Rhages, and he sent his son to reclaim it, after giving him such instructions as shows that travelling was then, as almost ever since, dangerous in those countries. The romantic adventures of young Tobias on the journey form the most suspicious part of the book--perhaps the only suspicious part; for which reason, as well as because it affords none of the illustration we require; we willingly pass it by. It may suffice to state that Tobias prospered in his journey. Tobit lived in Nineveh to the good old age of 158 years, and before his death foretold the approaching troubles of Assyria and the destruction of Nineveh, and that “for a time peace should rather be in Media,” to which country he advised his son to withdraw. Tobias was mindful of his counsel, and withdrew to Ecbatana, where, in due time, he heard of the destruction of Nineveh by the combined forces of the Medes and Babylonians.
We have already stated the inferences, as to the condition of the expatriated Israelites, which this narrative opens, although we have no information as to their condition after the fall of Nineveh and during the contemporary captivity of Judah. But there is every reason to conclude that their position under the Medes, when Media became an independent and well-governed state, was even less disadvantageous and unequal than it had been when that country was part of the Assyrian empire.
DANIEL AND OTHERS DEPORTED
We have brought the history of the kingdom of Judah down to the destruction of Jerusalem and the desolation, of the country. But the history of the captivity must take us back to an earlier date, even to the time when Nebuchadnezzar spoiled the temple of its costly utensils, and sent away to Babylon a number of young princes and nobles as hostages for the fidelity of the people and their new king. This was eleven years before the fall of Jerusalem.
Among these captives were Daniel, and his three friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. These, as tokens of their enslaved condition, received Chaldean names, more familiar than their own to the organs of the conquering people. Daniel was called Belteshazzar; Hananiah, Shadrach; Mishael, Meshach; and Azariah, Abednego. These were, among others of the most promising of the youths; selected to be educated in the palace for three years, under the charge of the chief of the eunuchs, in the learning and language of the Chaldeans, to qualify them for holding offices about the court and in the state. At the end of that time they were brought before the king to be examined as to their proficiency, when the young persons named were “found to be ten times better informed in all matters of wisdom and understanding than all the magi or astrologers that were in the whole realm.” They were accordingly admitted to a place to that learned body.
NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S DREAM
Seventeen years after the destruction of Jerusalem, and the second year after the devastation of Egypt, when all his enemies were subdued on every side, and when his rule extended over many nations, Nebuchadnezzar had a dream, which left a profound impression upon his mind, but the details of which he was unable to recover when he awoke. He therefore sent for all the magi and astrologers, requiring that by their occult skill and pretended influence with the gods, they should not only interpret but recover the dream he had lost. This they avowed themselves unable to do; whereupon the enraged and disappointed king commanded them to be massacred. Daniel and his friends were sought for, to be included in this doom; but Daniel, being informed of the cause, repaired to the royal presence, and promised that if further time were allowed, he would undertake that the dream and an interpretation should be found. To this the king willingly agreed; and the pious youths betook themselves to fasting and prayer, in the hope that God would enable them to satisfy the king's demand. Nor was their expectation disappointed. The matter was made known to Daniel in a vision. He was then enabled to remind the king that he had seen in his dream a compound image, and to inform him that this image represented “the things that should come to pass thereafter.” In this compound image, the head of pure gold denoted Nebuchadnezzar himself, and the succeeding kings of the Babylonian dynasty; the breast and arms of silver, indicated the succeeding but inferior empire of the Medes and Persians; the belly and thighs of brass, the next following empire of the Macedonians and the Greeks, whose arms were brass; the legs of iron, and the toes partly iron and partly clay, refer to the Roman empire, which should be as strong as iron, but the kingdoms into which it would ultimately subdivide, composed of heterogeneous materials, which should be partly strong and partly weak; and, lastly, the stone smiting the image and filling the whole earth, denoted the kingdom of Christ, which was to be set up upon the ruins of these temporal kingdoms and empires, and was destined to fill the whole earth, and to stand or continue for ever. “Thou art this head of gold,” said the prophet to the king; but he did not indicate the names and sources of the succeeding and then non-existing empires with equal distinctness. But we know them, not only from the order in which they succeed, and from the characters ascribed to them; but from the subsequent visions of Daniel himself, in which these empires are distinctly named, and by which the meaning of this primary vision is gradually unfolded, and which form, together, one grand chain of prophecy, extending to the end of time, and so clear and distinct, that as much of them (nearly the whole) as is already fulfilled, and which was once a shadowing forth of the future, reads like a condensed history of past ages.
From the first, Daniel had disclaimed any peculiar pretensions to wisdom “There is,” he said, “a God in heaven who revealeth secrets;” and to him he not only referred all the credit of the interpretation, but plainly told the king that it was to the appointments of this “God in heaven,” who had the supreme disposal of all events, that he owed all the kingdoms which he ruled. Here was a grand instance of that testimony for Jehovah to which, when introducing this chapter, we had occasion to advert. The king was much struck by it, so that, while he prostrated himself before Daniel as before a superior, he acknowledged that the God who could enable him to reveal this great secret was indeed the God of gods and Lord of kings. Who does not see that it was for the purpose of impressing this conviction that the dream was given to him, the forgetfulness inflicted, and the interpretation bestowed on Daniel?
DANIEL MADE RULER OVER BABYLON
Nebuchadnezzar was not slow in rewarding the distinguished qualities which the prophet exhibited. He appointed him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and, at the, same time, “chief governor over all the wise men of Babylon” (Rab-Mag, or Archimagus, Jeremiah 32:3), two of the highest civil and scientific offices in the state. At his request, also, his three friends were appointed to conduct under him in the affairs of his provincial government, while he himself took a high place, if not the first place, in the civil councils of the king.
THE IMAGE OF GOLD AND FURNACE
The services of Daniel and his friends proved too valuable to be dispensed with; but mature deliberation disgusted the king at his dream and its interpretation, and his pride disposed him to retract the acknowledgment he had made of the supremacy of the God of a conquered people. It was, as we apprehend; under this influence that he erected a great image, of which not the head only, but the whole figure was of gold,[366] to denote the continuance of his empire, in opposition to his dream; and it was dedicated to the tutelary god Bel, or Belus, whose power he now considered superior to that of the God of the Hebrews; whereby, in the most offensive manner, he revoked his former concession. All men were commanded to worship this, and no other god, on pain of death: in consequence of which, the three friends of Daniel, who continued their worship of Jehovah, with their faces turned toward Jerusalem, and took no notice of the golden, image, were seized, and cast into an intensely heated furnace. But by the special and manifest interposition of the God they served, they were delivered without a hair of their heads being injured: by which fact the king, who was present, was constrained to confess that the God of the Hebrews, who could after this sort deliver his people, was unquestionably superior to all others.
[360] This was probably the statue of solid gold, twelve cubits high, which, according to Herodotus, stood in the temple of Belus, until it was taken away by Xerxes. The height mentioned by Daniel, sixty cubits, probably included the pedestal or pillars on which it stood, as otherwise its height would have been disproportionate to its breadth, six cubits.
Nebuchadnezzar manifestly was endowed with many great and generous qualities but he was spoiled by prosperity, while, by the very aggrandizement which exalted his pride, he had been fixed into a position which made it necessary to the Divine glory that he should be brought to, and kept in, the acknowledgment that in all his acts he had been but an instrument in the hands of the God worshipped by one of the nations which had received his yoke, and whose superiority at least, if not his unity, he was required to acknowledge.
NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S PRIDE
In another dream he was forewarned of the consequences of his excessive pride. This dream Daniel unflinchingly interpreted; but whatever effect it might produce was of no long duration. Twelve months after, while contemplating his extensive dominion and the splendor to which he had raised the great city of Babylon, his heart swelled with kingly pride, and he exclaimed, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built for the capital of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty?” While these words were in his mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, “O king Nebuchadnezzar; to thee it is spoken: The kingdom is departed from thee. And they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field; they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times {years} shall pass over thee, until thou know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.” The thing was accomplished that very hour; and in this state he remained until “his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws.” The meaning of which seems to be that his proud mind was in that instant shattered, and fell into a kind of monomania, which made him fancy himself some animal; in consequence of which it was judged necessary by his physicians to humor his fancy by treating him as such, and by allowing him within certain limits to act as such. The sequel can not be more emphatically told than in his own words, as found in an edict, recounting these circumstances, which he issued on his recovery. “At the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him that liveth for ever and ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou? At the same time my reason returned; and for the glory of my kingdom, mine honor and brightness returned unto me; and my counsellors and lords sought unto me; and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto me. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, and extol, and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment; and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.” This noble acknowledgment demonstrates our former argument, that care was taken by Jehovah to maintain his own honor, and to secure his own great objects, notwithstanding, and indeed through, that bondage to which sin had reduced his people.
EVIL-MERODACH'S REIGN
After a long reign of forty-three years, Nebuchadnezzar died in 561, and was succeeded by his son, Evil-Merodach. A Jewish tradition[367] reports that this prince behaved so ill, by provoking a rupture with the Medes, during the distraction of his father, that Nebuchadnezzar, on his recovery, threw him into prison; and that he there became acquainted with, and interested in, Jehoiachin, the imprisoned king of Judah. However this may be, it is certain that one of the first acts of his reign was to release Jehoiachin from his long imprisonment of thirty-seven years; and during the remainder of his life he treated him with much distinction and kindness, giving him a place at his court and table above all the other captive kings then in Babylon. As, however, the text implies that he died before his benefactor, who himself survived but three years, the Hebrew king could not long have outlived his release. Evil-Merodach was slain in a battle against the united Medes and Persians, who by this time had become very powerful by their junction and intermarriages. The combined force was on this occasion commanded by young Cyrus, who had already begun to distinguish himself, and who had been appointed to this command by his uncle and father-in-law, Cyaxares--“Darius the Mede” of scripture--king of the Medes. This was in B.C. 558.
[367] Noticed by Jerome on Isaiah 14
BELSHAZZAR'S REIGN
Evil-Merodach was succeeded by his son Belshazzar. The end only of this monarch's reign is noticed in scripture; but Xenophon[368] gives instances of his earlier conduct in the throne, of which only a barbarous and jealous tyrant could have been capable. His last and most heinous offence was the profanation of the sacred vessels belonging to the Jerusalem temple, which his illustrious grandfather, and even his incapable father, had respected. Having made a great feast “to a thousand of his lords,” he ordered the sacred vessels to be brought, that he and his wassailers[369] might drink wine from them. That there was an intentional insult to the Most High in this act transpires in the narrative: “They praised the gods of gold, silver, brass, iron, and stone ; but the God in whose hand was their breath, and whose were all their ways, they praised or glorified not.” Indeed, to appreciate fully this act and its consequences, it is indispensably necessary that the mind should revert to the operations by which the supremacy of Jehovah was impressed upon Nebuchadnezzar--operations not hid in a corner; and which, together with the public confessions and declarations of this conviction which were extorted from that magnanimous king, must have diffused much formal acquaintance with the name and claims of Jehovah among the Babylonians, with which also the royal family must have been in a peculiar degree familiar, not only through these circumstances, but through Daniel, who had occupied high rank at court in the still recent reign of Nebuchadnezzar, and whose mere presence must constantly have suggested the means to which his advancement was owing. From this it will be seen, that, on the principle of operation which we have indicated in the early part of this chapter, the time was now come for another act whereby Jehovah might vindicate the honor of his own great Name, and enforce his peculiar and exclusive claims to the homage of mankind.
[368] Cyrop. i. 4.
[369] Alcoholics who love to have wild drinking parties
WRITING ON THE WALL
Suddenly a mysterious hand appeared, writing conspicuously upon the wall words of ominous import, but which no one could understand; for, although they were in the vernacular Chaldean language, the character in which they were written was the primitive old Hebrew, which differed totally from the Chaldee, and was the original from which that which is called the Samaritan character was formed. The king himself was greatly agitated, and commanded the instant attendance of the magi and astrologers. They came, but were utterly unable to divine the meaning of the portentous words upon the wall. This increased the terror of the impious king, which was at its height when the queen-mother, or rather grandmother[370] made her appearance. She soothed the troubled monarch, and reminded him of the services and character of Daniel; indicating him as one “in whom is the spirit of the holy God; and in the days of thy grandfather light, and understanding, and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods was found in him;” and therefore one who was likely to afford Belshazzar the satisfaction which he sought. It was probably the custom at Babylon (as with respect to the corresponding officer in other oriental courts) for the arch-magus[371] to lose his office on the death of the king to whose court he was attached; and that, consequently, Daniel had withdrawn into private life on the death of Nebuchadnezzar. This will explain how the king needed to be reminded of him, and how the prophet was in the first instance absent from among those who were called to interpret the writing on the wall.
[370] So she is called by Josephus, hJ mammh autou; indeed, the part she took on this occasion is so probable of no one as of the widow of Nebuchadnezzar.
[371] Chief of the magicians
DANIEL INTERPRETS THE WRITING
Daniel was sent for: and when he appeared, the king repeated what he had heard of him; stated the inability of the magicians to interpret the portentous words; and promised him as the reward of interpretation, that he should be clad in scarlet,[372] a chain of gold about his neck, and that he should rank as the third person in the kingdom. The venerable prophet modestly waived the proffered honors and rewards, as having no weight to induce his compliance--“Thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another; nevertheless I will read the writing to the king.” But, first, he undauntedly reminded the king of the experience, and resulting convictions of his renowned grandfather--adding, with emphasis, “And thou, his grandson, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thy heart, although thou knewest all this.” He then read the inscription--
[372] It is singular that in Persia scarlet is at this day the distinctive color of nobility. A khan, or noble, is known by the scarlet mantle which he wears on occasions of ceremony. with
“MENE|MENE|TEKEL|[PERES]|UPHARSIN.”|
Number|Number|Weight|[Division]|and Divisions|
and proceeded to give the interpretation--
“Mene, God hath numbered thy reign, and
“[Mene], hath finished it [373]
“Tekel, Thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting.
“Peres, Thy kingdom is divided.
“Upharsin, And given to the Mede and the Persian [Darius and Cyrus].”
The king heard this terrible sentence: but made no remark further than to command that Daniel should be invested with the promised scarlet robe and golden chain, and that the third rank in the kingdom should be assigned to him.
[373] The repetition merely giving emphasis to the signification, indicating its certainty and speedy accomplishment.
BELSHAZZAR DIES
The sacred historian adds, with great conciseness, “That same night was Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, slain.” How, we are not told: but we may collect from Xenophon (Cyrop. lib. vii.) that he was slain through the conspiracy of two nobles, on whom he had inflicted the greatest indignities which men could receive. This was in 553 B.C., in the fifth year of his reign.
BELSHAZZAR'S REPLACEMENT
He was succeeded by his son, a boy, named Laborosoarchod (Joseph. cont. Apion, i. 20); but as he was put out of the way in less than a year, he is passed over in Ptolemy's Canon, as well as in the sacred history, which relates that, as following the death of Belshazzar, “Darius the Mede took the kingdom.” In fact, the family of Nebuchadnezzar being extinct, Cyaxares, or (to give him his scriptural name) Darius, who was brother to the queen-mother, and the next of kin by her side to the crown, had the most obvious right to the vacant throne; and while his power was so great as to overawe all competition, the express indication of him by the prophet in his interpretation of the inscription was calculated to have much weight with all concerned, and indeed with the whole nation.
DANIEL DELIVERED FROM LIONS
Daniel, naturally, came into high favor with Darius, to whose accession he had so materially contributed. On making out new appointments of the governors of provinces, the prophet was set over them all: and the king contemplated a still further elevation for him. This excited the dislike and jealousy of the native princes and presidents, who determined to work his ruin. In his administration, his hands were so pure, that no ground of accusation could be found against him. They therefore devised a plan by which Daniel's known and tried fidelity to his religion should work his destruction. They procured from the careless and vain king a decree, that no one should for thirty days offer any prayer or petition to any god or man save the king himself, under pain of being cast into the lion's den. The king at once became painfully conscious of his weak and criminal conduct, when his most trusted servant, Daniel, was accused before him as an open transgressor of this decree, and his punishment demanded. Among the Medes and Persians there was a singular restraint upon despotism--which while at the first view it seemed to give intensity to the exercise of despotic power, really tended to deter the kings from hasty and ill-considered decisions, by compelling them to feel the evil consequences with which they were attended. The king's word was irrevocable law. He could not himself dispense with the consequences of his own acts. Of this Darius was reminded: and he saw at once that he was precluded from interfering in behalf of his friend. It is a beautiful illustration of the great truth, which appears as the main argument of this chapter, namely, that the glory of God was promoted among the heathen by the captivity of his people--that the king himself was already so well acquainted with the character and power of Jehovah, that he spontaneously rested himself upon the hope, that, although unable himself to deliver him from this well-laid snare, the God whom Daniel served would certainly not suffer him to perish. The prophet was cast into the lion's den; and the mouth thereof was closed with a sealed stone. The king spent the night sleepless and in sorrow. Impelled by his vague hopes, he hastened early in the morning to the cavern, and cried in a doleful voice, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, hath thy God, whom thou servest continually, been able to deliver thee from the lions?” To the unutterable joy and astonishment of the king, the quiet voice of Daniel returned an affirmative answer, assuring the king of his perfect safety. Instantly the cavern was opened, the servant of God drawn forth; and his accusers were cast in, and immediately destroyed by the savage inmates of the den. This striking interposition induced the king to issue a proclamation, to the same ultimate effect as that which Nebuchadnezzar had issued in a former time. He wrote unto “all peoples, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth,” charging them to “tremble and fear before the God of Daniel; for he is the God that liveth, and is steadfast for ever, and his kingdom shall not be destroyed, and his dominion shall be even unto the end.” It would not be easy to overrate the importance of the diffusion of such truths as these through the length and breadth of the Median empire.
CYRUS REIGNS
It was the established policy of the Medes and Persians to conciliate the good will of the subject states, by leaving the practical government in the hands of native princes. Darius, therefore, as we may collect from Berosus, appointed Nabonadius, a Babylonian noble, unconnected with the royal family, to be viceroy, or king under him. This appointment was confirmed or continued by Cyrus, when he succeeded to the general empire on the death of his uncle, in B.C. 551.
CYRUS TAKES BABYLON
During the first years of his reign, Cyrus was too much occupied in foreign wars to pay much attention to Babylon; and this gave Nabonadius an opportunity to assert his independence, and to maintain it until he was at leisure to call him to account. This was not until B.C. 538, when this great prince marched against Babylon, with the determination to crown his many victories by its reduction. Nabonadius, on his part, seems to have been encouraged by his diviners (Isaiah 44:25), to repose much confidence in his own resources, and in the stability of the kingdom he had established. He ventured to meet the Persian army on its advance toward the city; but was defeated in a pitched battle, and driven back to abide a siege within the walls of Babylon. Still all was not lost; for not only was the city strongly fortified, but a siege by blockage was likely to be indefinitely protracted, as the town not only possessed immense stores of provisions, but the consumption of them would be greatly lessened by means of the large open spaces within the city, in which all kinds of produce could be raised to a considerable extent. In fact, the siege continued for two years, and Babylon was then only taken by a remarkable stratagem. Cyrus observed that the town lay the most exposed on the side of the river, and therefore he caused a new bed to be dug for its waters; and at an appointed time, by night, the dikes were cut, and the Euphrates rolled its humbled stream into this new channel; and the old one, left dry, offered a free passage to the exulting Persians. Even yet, however, their condition, in the bed of the river, might have been perilous, and a vigilant enemy might have surprised them as in a net; but that night a public festival was celebrated in Babylon, and all there was confusion and drunkenness. From this, as well as from the little reason to apprehend danger on that side, the gates leading from the quays into the city were that night left open, so that an easy and unopposed access was offered to the army of Cyrus, and the king was horror-struck and paralyzed, as successive messengers arrived in haste from the various distant quarters of the city, to inform him that the Persians had entered there, and thus to learn, that, at both extremities at once, great Babylon was taken, B.C. 536.
Daniel was still alive, and there is evidence that Cyrus knew and valued his character. The apocryphal history of Bel and Dragon says that Cyrus conversed much with him, and honored him above all his friends. But we have better evidence in effects which, seeing Daniel still lived, may very safely be, in some degree, referred to the instruction and counsel which the now very aged prophet was able to give.
CYRUS MENTIONED BY NAME IN PROPHECY
There is an important and most striking prophecy by Isaiah (Isaiah 44:24 to Isaiah 45:6) in which Cyrus is mentioned by name, and his exploits predicted, more than a century before his birth. To him it is expressly addressed, and in terms of tenderness and respect, which was never, in any other instance, applied to a heathen--if it be just to apply that name to Cyrus. In this splendid prophecy Jehovah calls Cyrus “my shepherd, who shall perform all my pleasure;” and, “mine anointed.” His victories are foretold, and ascribed to Jehovah; and, in a particular manner, the taking of Babylon by him is foreshown, even to the indication of the very peculiar manner in which that conquest was achieved.[374]
[374] “Thus saith Jehovah of his anointed,
Of Cyrus, whose right hand I hold fast,
That I may subdue nations before him,
And ungird the loins of kings;
That I may open before him the valves,
And the gates shall not be shut;
I myself will march on before thee,
And will make the crooked places straight,
The valves of brass will I break asunder,
And the bars of iron will I hew down.
And I will give to thee the treasures of darkness,
And stores deeply hid in secret places;
That thou mayest know that I, Jehovah,
That call thee by name, am the God of Israel
For the sake of Jacob my servant,
And of Israel my chosen one,
I have even called thee by name
I have surnamed thee, yet Me thou knowest not
I am Jehovah, and there is none else;
There is no God besides me.
I girded thee though thou hast not known me;
That they may know, from the rising of the sun,
And from the west, that there is none beside me.
I am Jehovah, and there is none else:
I form the light, and create darkness,
I make peace, and create evil
I, Jehovah, do all these things.”
And the object of all this--of his existence of his acts, and even of this prophecy concerning him and them--is declared, with marked emphasis, to be, that he may be in a condition to restore the captivity of Judah, and that such convictions might be wrought in him as might incline to fulfill this his vocation, and to become acquainted with the supreme and sole power of Jehovah. And the careful reader will not fail to note in this sublime address to one destined to live in a future generation, not only a clear assertion of the unity of God, and his universal power and providence, but a distinct blow at the peculiar superstition of Cyrus and his people--which consisted in the adoration of two principles--the good and evil, represented by light and darkness. Hence the emphasis of--
“I form the light, and create darkness;
I make peace, and create evil.”
We can easily imagine the impression which the perusal of these prophecies would make upon the ingenuous mind of this great man, accompanied by the explanations which Daniel could pour into his willing ears, and with the further intimation, collected from the prophecies of Jeremiah respecting the seventy years of the captivity, that the time of the restoration was then arrived, and himself the long predetermined instrument of giving effect to the Divine intention. His consciousness of all this is evinced in the proclamation, which he issued the same year that Babylon was taken. This proclamation is to be regarded as the final acknowledgment from the conquering foreign kings of the supremacy of Jehovah, and it was most interesting from the distinctness with which this acknowledgment is conveyed--“Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia--Jehovah, the God of the heavens, hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build for himself a temple in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.” In this he manifestly alludes to the charge conveyed in the prophecy--
“Who [Jehovah] saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd!
And he shall perform all my pleasures;
Even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built;
To the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.”
CYRUS COMMANDS LIBERTY TO THE JEWS
Accordingly, the proclamation proceeded not only to grant free permission for such of the seed of Abraham as thought proper to return to their own land, but also commanded the authorities of the places in which they lived to afford every facility to their remigration.
Before accompanying them on their return, it may be well to contemplate the results of the circumstances which have been related, as affecting the position of the captive Jews during the period through which we have passed.
There is certainly nothing to suggest that their condition was one of abject wretchedness. This is in some degree shown by the high offices enjoyed by Daniel and his three friends; and by the distinction conferred upon King Jehoiachin by Evil-Merodach. He not only enjoyed the first rank over all the kings then at Babylon, but ate at the table of the monarch, and received allowances corresponding to his rank. While these circumstances of honor must have reflected a degree of dignity on the exiles, sufficient to protect them from being ill-treated or despised; we see that there was always some person of their nation high in favor and influence at court, able to protect them from wrong, and probably to secure for them important and peculiar privileges. They, most likely, came to be considered as respectable colonists, enjoying the peculiar protection of the sovereign. Although Jehoiachin did not long survive his release from prison, his son Salathiel, and his grandson Zerubbabel undoubtedly partook in and succeeded to the respect which he received. If the story in the apocryphal book of Esdras (1 Esdras 3-4) of the discussion before Darius, in which Zerubbabel won the prize, be a mere fiction, it is still at least probable that the young prince, although he held no office, had free access to the court; which privilege must have afforded him many opportunities of alleviating the condition of his countrymen. It is even not improbable that (as is implied in the apocryphal story of Susannah, and as the tradition of the Jews affirm) the exiles had magistrates and a prince from their own number. Jehoiachin, and after him Salathiel and Zerubbabel, might have been regarded as their princes, in the same manner as Jozadak and Jeshua were as their high-priests.
At the same time it can not be denied that their humiliation, as a people punished by their God, was always extremely painful, and frequently drew on them expressions of contempt. The peculiarities of their religion afforded many opportunities for the ridicule and scorn of the Babylonians and Chaldeans--a striking example of which is given in the profanation of the sacred vessels by Belshazzar. By such insults they were made to feel so much the more sensibly the loss of their houses, their gardens, and fruitful fields; the leaving of their capital and temple, and the cessation of the public solemnities of their religion. (See Jahn, theil ii. band 1, sect. 45, 'Zustand der Hebraer in dem Exilium.')