[475] The chamber was perhaps supposed to be a ὑπερῷον on the roof. The "kneeling" in prayer (as in 1 Kings viii. 54; 2 Chron. vi. 13; Ezra ix. 5) is in the East a less common attitude than standing. See 1 Sam. i. 26; Mark xi. 25; Luke xviii. 11: but see Neh. viii. 6; Gen. xxiv. 26. The Temple, and Jerusalem, was the _Kibleh_, or sacred direction of devotion (1 Kings viii. 44; Ezek. viii. 16; Psalm v. 7, xxviii. 2, lv. 17, etc.). [476] Comp. Mark vi. 26. [477] Theodot., ἀγωνιζόμενος. [478] Esther i. 19, viii. 8. [479] "Courage, till to-morrow" (ἕως πρωῒ θάῤῥει), adds the LXX. [480] Comp. Lam. iii. 53. Seal-rings are very ancient (Herod., i. 195). It is useless to speculate on the construction of the lion-pit. The only opening mentioned seems to have been _at the top_; but there must necessarily have been side-openings also. [481] Theodot., ἐκοιμήθη ἄδειπνος. Daniel, on the other hand, in the apocryphal _Haggada_, gets his dinner miraculously from the Prophet Habakkuk. [482] Heb., _dachavān_; R.V., "instruments of music"; R.V. marg., "dancing-girls"; Gesenius, Zöckler, etc., "concubines." [483] Theodot., τὸ πρωῒ ἐν τῷ φωτί. [484] Comp. Dan. iii. 8; Psalm xxxiv. 7-10; Acts xii. 11. [485] Comp. Esther ix. 13, 14; Josh. vii. 24; 2 Sam. xxi. 1-6. The LXX. modifies the savagery of the story by making the vengeance fall only on the _two_ young men who were Daniel's fellow-presidents. But comp. Herod., iii. 119; Am. Marcell., xxiii. 6; and "Ob noxam unius omnis propinquitas perit," etc. [486] Psalm xxix. 1, x. 16, etc. Professor Fuller calls it "a _Mazdean_ colouring in the language"! PART III _THE PROPHETIC SECTION OF THE BOOK_ CHAPTER I _VISION OF THE FOUR WILD BEASTS_ We now enter upon the second division of the Book of Daniel--the apocalyptic. It is unquestionably inferior to the first part in grandeur and importance as a whole, but it contains not a few great conceptions, and it was well adapted to inspire the hopes and arouse the heroic courage of the persecuted Jews in the terrible days of Antiochus Epiphanes. Daniel now speaks in the first person,[487] whereas throughout the historic section of the Book the third person has been used. In the form of apocalypse which he adopts he had already had partial precursors in Ezekiel and Zechariah; but their symbolic visions were far less detailed and developed--it may be added far more poetic and classical--than his. And in later apocalypses, for which this served as a model, little regard is paid to the grotesqueness or incongruity of the symbols, if only the intended conception is conveyed. In no previous writer of the grander days of Hebrew literature would such symbols have been permitted as horns which have eyes and speak, or lions from which the wings are plucked, and which thereafter stand on their feet as a man, and have a man's heart given to them.