Daniel 10:16

16 And behold, ¹one in the likeness of the children of man ²touched my lips. Then I opened my mouth and spoke. I said to him who stood before me, “O my lord, by reason of the vision pains have come upon me, and ³I retain no strength.

Daniel 10:16 Meaning and Commentary

Daniel 10:16

And, behold, one like the similitude of the sons of men
Not the man clothed with linen, or Christ; but either the same angel, Gabriel, who appeared more manifestly to him in a human form; or another of the attendants of Christ, who also had the similitude of a man: touched my lips;
with his hand, as the Prophet Isaiah's were, by a seraph, with a live coal from the altar, ( Isaiah 6:7 ) , thereby restoring him to his speech, and giving him freedom and boldness to make use of it; and removing from him his impurity, and a sense of it, which occasioned his silence: then I opened my mouth, and spake
freely, and yet with all becoming modesty: and said unto him that stood before me, O lord;
the angel that appeared in the likeness of a man, and stood before the prophet, and touched his lips, whom he calls "lord"; not because of sovereignty and dominion over him, which belong to Christ, as the Creator of all things, and Head of the church; but for honour's sake, being a noble and exalted creature: by the vision my sorrows are turned upon me;
on sight of the glorious object represented to him in the vision, pains seized his body in all parts of it, sharp and pungent, like those of a woman in travail. Gussetius ^F25 interprets it of the knuckle bones, which turned in the pan of them, like the hinges of a door, of which the word is used, ( Proverbs 26:14 ) , and this through the tendons being loosed by the dissipation of the spirits; and this sense the Vulgate Latin version gives countenance to, my joints are dissolved;
the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, are, "my inward parts or bowels are turned in me: and I have retained no strength"; (See Gill on Daniel 10:8).

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FOOTNOTES:

F25 Comment. Ebr. p. 713.

Daniel 10:16 In-Context

14 and came to make you understand what is to happen to your people in the latter days. For the vision is for days yet to come. ”

15 When he had spoken to me according to these words, I turned my face toward the ground and was mute.

16 And behold, one in the likeness of the children of man touched my lips. Then I opened my mouth and spoke. I said to him who stood before me, “O my lord, by reason of the vision pains have come upon me, and I retain no strength.

17 How can my lord’s servant talk with my lord? For now no strength remains in me, and no breath is left in me. ”

18 Again one having the appearance of a man touched me and strengthened me.

Cross References

• 1. 10:16 See ch. 8:15
• 2. 10:16 Isa. 6:7
• 3. 10:16 ver. 8