Ezekiel 14 Footnotes

14:14,20 The identity of Daniel (Hb Dan’el) has occasioned considerable debate, though there is agreement on the identities of Noah (Gn 6:8–10:1) and Job (Jb 1–42) as well-known figures of the OT patriarchal period. Some scholars have equated Ezekiel’s Dan’el in vv. 14 and 20 with Dnil, a hero in Ugaritic tablets found at Ras Shamra, on the coast of Syria. That “Daniel” would have been a contemporary of Noah and Job, whereas the biblical Prophet Daniel would not yet have attained the eminent reputation Ezekiel attributes to Dan’el (28:3). However, it is unlikely that Ezekiel, unalterably opposed to the worship of false deities, would have upheld the Ugaritic Dnil—a devotee of Baal—as a paradigm of righteousness. Such use of a pagan hero as an example is unknown elsewhere in Scripture (Dt 18:14-22). Daniel the prophet was in captivity from 605 BC and had ample time to establish his reputation as a wise and righteous man (Dn 1:1–2:49; 5:12). It is most likely, then, that Ezekiel was referring to the biblical Daniel—like him, a firm opponent of idolatry (Dn 2:8-20).