[297] With the phraseology of this prayer comp. Psalm xxxvi. 9, xli., cxxxix. 12; Neh. ix. 5; 1 Sam. ii. 8; Jer. xxxii. 19; Job xii. 22. [298] Here the new title _Gazerîm_, "prognosticators," is added to the others, and is equally vague. It may be derived from _Gazar_, "to cut"--that is, "to determine." [299] Comp. Gen. xx. 3, xli. 25; Numb. xxii. 35. [300] Comp. Gen. xli. 45. [301] Dan. ii. 30: "For _their_ sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king" (A.V.). But the phrase seems merely to be one of the vague forms for the impersonal which are common in the _Mishnah_. The R.V. and Ewald rightly render it as in the text. [302] Here we have (ver. 31) _aloo!_ "behold!" as in iv. 7, 10, vii. 8; but in vii. 2, 5, 6, 7, 13, we have _aroo!_ [303] In the four metals there is perhaps the same underlying thought as in the Hesiodic and ancient conceptions of the four ages of the world (Ewald, _Hist._, i. 368). Comp. the vision of Zoroaster quoted from Delitzsch by Pusey, p. 97: "Zoroaster saw a tree from whose roots sprang four trees of gold, silver, steel, and brass; and Ormuzd said to him, 'This is the world; and the four trees are the four "times" which are coming.' After the fourth comes, according to Persian doctrine, Sosiosh, the Saviour." Behrmann refers also to Bahman Yesht (Spiegel, _Eran. Alterth._, ii. 152); the Laws of Manu (Schröder, _Ind. Litt._, 448); and Roth (_Mythos von den Weltaltern_, 1860). [304] Much of the imagery seems to have been suggested by Jer. li. [305] Comp. Rev. xx. 11: καὶ τόπος οὐχ εὑρέθη αὐτοῖς. [306] Psalm i. 4, ii. 9; Isa. xli. 15; Jer. li. 33, etc. [307] Isa. xiv. 4. [308] King of kings. Comp. Ezek. xxvi. 7; Ezra vii. 12; Isa. xxxvi. 4. It is the Babylonian _Shar-sharrâni_, or _Sharru-rabbu_ (Behrmann). The Rabbis tried (impossibly) to construe this title, which they thought only suitable to God, with the following clause. But Nebuchadrezzar was so addressed (Ezek. xxvi. 7), as the Assyrian kings had been before him (Isa. x. 8), and the Persian kings were after him (Ezra vii. 12). The expression seems strange, but comp. Jer. xxvii. 6, xxviii. 14. The LXX. and Theodotion mistakenly interpolate ἰχθύες τῆς θαλάσσης. [309] Pusey, p. 63. [310] Comp. Jer. xxxi. 27. [311] Bevan, p. 66. [312] The interpretation is first found, amid a chaos of false exegesis, in the Epistle of Barnabas, iv. 4, § 6. [313] See Bevan, p. 65. [314] On the distinction in the writer's mind between the Median and Persian Empires see v. 28, 31, vi. 8, 12, 15, ix. 1, xi. 1, compared with vi. 28, x. 1. In point of fact, the Persians and Medians were long spoken of as distinct, though they were closely allied; and to the Medes had been specially attributed the forthcoming overthrow of Babylon: Jer. li. 28, "Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes." Comp. Jer. li. 11, and Isa. xiii. 17, xxi. 2, "Besiege, O Media."