Then the king, when he heard these words, was sore
displeased
with himself
Or "at it" F5; or "with him"; with Daniel, not so
much for what he had done, but that he had not done it with more
caution, or more privately, that it might not have been known: or
rather, as we render it, "with himself", that he should so rashly
sign the decree, without considering the consequences of it; for
he now found that he was circumvented by his princes, and that
their design was not his honour and glory, but the destruction of
Daniel: or the sense in general is, that what he heard was very
disagreeable, afflictive, and distressing to him: and set
his heart on Daniel to deliver him;
he resolved, if possible, to do it; he applied his mind to it; he
turned his thoughts wholly that way, and contrived all ways and
means to effect it: R. Mattathiah, in Saadiah, interprets the
phrase of his offering money as a ransom for his life: and
he laboured till the going down of the sun to save
him;
from the will of the princes, and from the jaws of the lions:
very probably it was early in the morning these princes found
Daniel at prayer, who went immediately to the king with their
accusation; so that he was all day labouring with all his might
and main to find out ways and means to save his darling
favourite; he studied to put such a sense upon his decree, that
it might not reach Daniel's case; he strove to make the princes
easy, and to persuade them to drop the affair, and not insist on
the execution of the decree.
F5 (yhwle) "super eo", Montanus; "super ipsum", De Dieu.