[433] A word of uncertain origin. The Talmud uses it for the word למפדס (the Greek λαμπάς). [434] "Hollow." Heb., _pas_; Theodot., ἀστραγάλους; Vulg., _articulos_. The word may mean "palm" of the hand, or sole of the foot (Bevan). [435] Psalm lxix. 23. "Bands"--lit. "fastenings"; Theodot., συνδεσμοί; Vulg., _compages_. [436] Comp. Ezek. vii. 17, and the Homeric λύτο γούνατα, _Od._, iv. 703; Ov., _Met._, ii. 180, "genua intremuere timore." [437] Doubtless suggested by Gen. xli. 42 (comp. Herod., iii. 20; Xen., _Anab._, I. ii. 27; _Cyrop._, VIII. v. 18), as other parts of Daniel's story recall that of Joseph. Comp. Esther vi. 8, 9. The word for "scarlet" or red-purple is _argona_. The word for "chain" (_Q'rî. ham'nîka_) is in Theodotion rendered μανιάκης, and occurs in later Aramaic. The phrase rendered "third ruler" is very uncertain. The inference drawn from it in the _Speaker's Commentary_--that Nabunaid was king, and Belshazzar second ruler--is purely nugatory. For the Hebrew word _taltî_ cannot mean "third," which would be תְּלִיתַי. Ewald and most Hebraists take it to mean "rule, as one of the board of three." For "triumvir" comp. vi. 2. [438] 1 Kings xv. 13. She is precariously identified by the apologists with the Nitocris of Herodotus; and it is imagined that she may have been a daughter of Nebuchadrezzar, married to Nabunaid before the murder of Neriglissar. [439] Isa. xliv. 25. [440] The word _Qistrîn_, "knots," may mean "hard questions"; but Mr. Bevan (p. 104) thinks there may be an allusion to knots used as magic spells. (Comp. Sen., _Œdip._, 101, "_Nodosa_ sortis verba et _implexos_ dolos.") He quotes Al-Baidawi on the Koran, lxiii. 4, who says that "a Jew casts a spell on Mohammed by tying knots in a cord, and hiding it in a well." But Gabriel told the prophet to send for the cord, and at each verse of the Koran recited over it a knot untied itself. See _Records of the Past_, iii. 141; and Duke, _Rabb. Blumenlehre_, 231. [441] So Elisha, 2 Kings v. 16. [442] The _Menê_ is repeated for emphasis. In the _Upharsîn_ (ver. 25) the _u_ is merely the "and," and the word is slightly altered, perhaps to make the paronomasia with "Persians" more obvious. According to Buxtorf and Gesenius, _peras_, in the sense of "divide," is very rare in the Targums.