Daniel 10

Daniel 10:1-21 . DANIEL COMFORTED BY AN ANGELIC VISION.

The tenth through twelfth chapters more fully describe the vision in the eighth chapter by a second vision on the same subject, just as the vision in the seventh chapter explains more fully that in the second. The tenth chapter is the prologue; the eleventh, the prophecy itself; and the twelfth, the epilogue. The tenth chapter unfolds the spiritual worlds as the background of the historical world ( Job 1:7 , 2:1 , &c. Zechariah 3:1 Zechariah 3:2 , Revelation 12:7 ), and angels as the ministers of God's government of men. As in the world of nature ( John 5:4 , Revelation 7:1-3 ), so in that of history here; Michael, the champion of Israel, and with him another angel, whose aim is to realize God's will in the heathen world, resist the God-opposed spirit of the world. These struggles are not merely symbolical, but real ( 1 Samuel 16:13-15 , 1 Kings 22:22 , Ephesians 6:12 ).

1. third year of Cyrus--two years after Cyrus' decree for the restoration of the Jews had gone forth, in accordance with Daniel's prayer in Daniel 9:3-19 . This vision gives not merely general outlines, or symbols, but minute details of the future, in short, anticipative history. It is the expansion of the vision in Daniel 8:1-14 . That which then "none understood," he says here, "he understood"; the messenger being sent to him for this ( Daniel 10:11 Daniel 10:14 ), to make him understand it. Probably Daniel was no longer in office at court; for in Daniel 1:21 , it is said, "Daniel continued even unto the first year of
but the time appointed was long--rather, "it (that is, the prophecy) referred to great calamity" [MAURER]; or, "long and calamitous warfare" [GESENIUS]. Literally, "host going to war"; hence, warfare, calamity.

2. mourning--that is afflicting myself by fasting from "pleasant bread, flesh and wine" ( Daniel 10:3 ), as a sign of sorrow, not for its own sake. Compare Matthew 9:14 , "fast," answering to "mourn" ( Daniel 10:15 ). Compare 1 Corinthians 8:8 , 1 Timothy 4:3 , which prove that "fasting" is not an indispensable Christian obligation; but merely an outward expression of sorrow, and separation from ordinary worldly enjoyments, in order to give one's self to prayer ( Acts 13:2 ). Daniel's mourning was probably for his countrymen, who met with many obstructions to their building of the temple, from their adversaries in the Persian court.

3. no pleasant bread--"unleavened bread, even the bread of affliction" ( Deuteronomy 16:3 ).
anoint--The Persians largely used unguents.

4. first month--Nisan, the month most suited for considering Israel's calamity, being that in which the feast of unleavened bread reminded them of their Egyptian bondage. Daniel mourned not merely for the seven days appointed ( Exodus 12:18 ), from the evening of the fourteenth to the twenty-first of Nisan, but thrice seven days, to mark extraordinary sorrow. His mourning ended on the twenty-first day, the closing day of the passover feast; but the vision is not till the twenty-fourth, because of the opposition of "the prince of Persia" ( Daniel 10:13 ).
I was by . . . the . . . river--in waking reality, not a trance ( Daniel 10:7 ); when younger, he saw the future in images, but now when old, he receives revelations from angels in common language, that is, in the apocalyptic mode. In the patriarchal period God often appeared visibly, that is, theophany. In the prophets, next in the succession, the inward character of revelation is prominent. The consummation is when the seer looks up from earth into the unseen world, and has the future shown to him by angels, that is, apocalypse. So in the New Testament there is a parallel progression: God in the flesh, the spiritual activity of the apostles and the apocalypse [AUBERLEN].
Hiddekel--the Tigris.