Commentary on Daniel Chapters 1-12 John Calvin (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
This wrath of the king is clearly furious, nay, Nebuchadnezzar in this respect surpassed all the cruelty of wild beasts. What fault could be imputed to the Chaldeans if they did not know the king's dream? — surely, they had never professed this, as we shall afterwards see; and no, king had ever demanded what was beyond the faculty of man. We perceive how the long manifested a brutal rage when he denounced death and every cruel torture on the Magi and sorcerers. Tyrants, indeed, often give the reins to their lust, and think all things lawful to themselves; whence, also, these words of the tragedian, Whatever he wishes is lawful. And Sophocles says, with evident truth, that any one entering a tyrant's threshold must cast away his liberty; but if we were to collect all examples, we should scarcely find one like this. It follows, then, that the king's mind was impelled by diabolic fury, urging him to punish the Chaldees who, with respect to him, were innocent enough. We know them to have been impostors, and the world to have been deluded by their impositions, which rendered them deserving of death, since by the precepts of the law it was a capital crime for any one to pretend to the power of prophecy by magic arts. (Leviticus 20:6.) But, as far as concerned the king, they could not be charged with any crime. Why, then, did he threaten them with death? because the Lord wished to shew the miracle which we shall afterwards see. For if the king had suffered the Chaldeans to depart, he could have buried directly that anxiety which tortured and excruciated his mind. The subject, too, had been less noticed by the people; hence God tortured the king's mind, till he rushed headlong in his fury, as we have said. Thus, this atrocious and cruel denunciation ought to have aroused all men; for there is no doubt that the greatest and the least trembled together when they heard of such vehemence in the monarch's wrath. This, therefore, is the complete sense, and we must mark the object of God's providence in thus allowing the king's anger to burn without restraint. 111 It follows — Daniel 2:6 6. But if ye shew the dream, and the interpretation thereof, ye shall receive of me gifts and rewards and great honour, therefore shew me the dream, and the interpretation thereof.
6. Et si somnium, et interpretationem ejus indicaveritis, donum, et munus, et honorem, vel pretium, magnum accipietis a facie mea: 112 propterea somnium, et interpretationem ejus indicate mihi.
Here the king, on the other hand, desires to entice them by the hope of gain, to apply themselves to narrate his dream. He had already attempted to strike them with horror, that even if they are unwilling he may wrest the 111Calvin is correct in preferring the sense of "pieces" to that of "blood;" for {,{הדםhedem, is a Chaldee word, and the {}יןis the Chaldee plural ending; his criticism, too, on ,{}מלהmeleh, is also correct; for it is the Chaldee equivalent for ,{}דברdeber, a ``word'' or thing, and justly rendered ``edict.'' As great light has been thrown upon the meaning and derivation of single words since Calvin's time, we may often find that modern knowledge has rendered his derivations untenable; still the soundness of his judgment is worthy of notice. It may be added, too, that the perplexity is increased when Chaldee forms are used, although there is a uniform change of single letters observable in the two languages. Thus ,{}שsh, becomes ,{}תth, as in Daniel 2:7 and Daniel 2:14; the Hebrew ,{}זz, becomes {}דd, in Daniel 2:26; so the ,{}ץtz, becomes ,{}עgn; the final,{}הh, is turned into ,{}אa, and the final ,{}םm, into ,{}ןn.
112That is, by me. — Calvin.