And a stone was brought, and laid upon the mouth of the
den,
&c.] Not a heap of stones, but a single one, a very large
one, sufficient to stop up the mouth of the den, that nothing
might enter in at it, or be cast into it: this stone was brought
by proper persons, and a sufficient number of them, according the
order of the king, or his princes, or both; for what Jarchi says,
of there being no stones in Babylon, only bricks, and of the
angels bringing this stone out of the land of Israel, is all
fabulous: but for what end it should be brought and laid is not
easy to say; if it was laid here by the order of the princes, it
could not surely be to keep any of his friends from going in to
deliver him, for who would venture himself there? nor to keep
Daniel in it, since it might be concluded, that, as soon as ever
he was cast in, he would be seized upon by the lions and devoured
at once; unless it can be thought, that these men saw, that when
he was thrown in, the lions did not meddle with him; which they
might attribute to their having been lately fed, and therefore,
that he might be reserved till they were hungry, they did this:
if it was by the order of the king, which is very likely, the
reason might be, he believed, or at least hoped, that God would
deliver him from the lions; but lest his enemies, seeing this,
should throw in stones or arrows, and kill him, the mouth of the
den was stopped, so Jarchi and Saadiah: no doubt but this was so
ordered by the providence of God, as well as the sealing of it,
that the miracle of the deliverance might appear the more
manifest: and the king sealed it with his own signet, and
with the signet of the
lords;
that none might dare to remove it; so the stone that was laid at
the door of Christ's sepulchre was sealed with a seal, ( Matthew
27:66 ) , the reason of sealing it follows, that the
purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel:
the view the lords had in it was, that the king might not change
the sentence passed on Daniel, or take any methods to deliver
him; and the view the king had in it might be, that should he be
saved from the lions, as he hoped he would, that no other
sentence might pass upon him, or he be delivered to any other
kind of death.