[315] See Isa. ii. 2, xxviii. 16; Matt. xxi. 42-44. "Le _mot_ de Messie n'est pas dans Daniel. Le mot de _Meshiach_, ix. 26, désigne l'autorité (probablement sacerdotale) de la Judée" (Renan, _Hist._, iv. 358). [316] See Kuenen, _The Prophets_, iii. [317] No kings have been mentioned, but the ten toes symbolise ten kings. Comp. vii. 24. [318] Dante, _Inferno_, xiv. 94-120. [319] Milton, _Paradise Lost_, ii. 575. [320] It may be paralleled by the legendary prostrations of Alexander the Great before the high priest Jaddua (Jos., _Antt._, XI. viii. 5), and of Edwin of Deira before Paulinus of York (Bæda, _Hist._, ii. 14-16). [321] Isa. xlvi. 6. The same verbs, "they fall down, yea they worship," are there used of idols. [322] Comp. Isa. lx. 14: "The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet." [323] Comp. Rom. xiv. 23; Acts xv. 29; Heb. xiii. 9; 1 Cor. viii. 1; Rev. ii. 14, 20. [324] So Jerome: "Non tam Danielem quam in Daniele adorat Deum, qui mysteria revelavit." Comp. Jos., _Antt._, XI. viii. 5, where Alexander answers the taunt of Parmenio about his προσκύνησις of the high priest: οὐ τοῦτον προσεκύνησα, τὸν δὲ Θεόν. [325] Acts xiv. 14, 15. [326] Esther iii. 2. Comp. 1 Chron. xxvi. 30. This corresponds to what Xenophon calls αἱ ἐπὶ τὰς θύρας φοιτήσεις, and to our "right of _entrée_." CHAPTER III _THE IDOL OF GOLD, AND THE FAITHFUL THREE_ "Every goldsmith is put to shame by his molten image: for his molten image is vanity, and there is no breath in them. They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the time of their visitation they shall perish."--JER. li. 17, 18. "The angel of the Lord encampeth around them that fear Him, and shall deliver them."--PSALM xxxiv. 7. "When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee."--ISA. xliii. 2. Regarded as an instance of the use of historic fiction to inculcate the noblest truths, the third chapter of Daniel is not only superb in its imaginative grandeur, but still more in the manner in which it sets forth the piety of ultimate faithfulness, and of that "Death-defying utterance of truth"