Daniel 6:14

14 Quod verbum cum audisset rex, satis contristatus est: et pro Daniele posuit cor ut liberaret eum, et usque ad occasum solis laborabat ut erueret illum.

Daniel 6:14 Meaning and Commentary

Daniel 6:14

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.

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FOOTNOTES:

F5 (yhwle) "super eo", Montanus; "super ipsum", De Dieu.

Daniel 6:14 In-Context

12 Et accedentes locuti sunt regi super edicto: Rex numquid non constituisti, ut omnis homo, qui rogaret quemquam de diis, et hominibus usque ad dies triginta, nisi te, rex, mitteretur in lacum leonum? Ad quos respondens rex, ait: verus est sermo iuxta decretum Medorum, atque Persarum, quod praevaricari non licet.

13 Tunc respondentes dixerunt coram rege: Daniel de filiis captivitatis Iuda, non curavit de lege tua, et de edicto, quod constituisti: sed tribus temporibus per diem orat obsecratione sua.

14 Quod verbum cum audisset rex, satis contristatus est: et pro Daniele posuit cor ut liberaret eum, et usque ad occasum solis laborabat ut erueret illum.

15 Viri autem illi intelligentes regem dixerunt ei: Scito rex, quia lex Medorum, atque Persarum est ut omne decretum, quod constituerit rex, non liceat immutari.

16 Tunc rex praecepit: et adduxerunt Danielem, et miserunt eum in lacum leonum. Dixitque rex Danieli: Deus tuus, quem colis semper, ipse liberabit te.