it did when he saw it (viz., in May), and that when it is full it overflows a salt marsh at its southern extremity of five miles broad. Of the pools left by the Dead Sea, Robinson says (p. 434) : “ The largest and most important of these is situated to the south of the spot which bears the name of Birket el-Kulil. This is a small bay, a cleft in the western rocks, where the water, when it is high, flows into the shallow basin, and then evaporates, leaving only salt behind." In the Dead Sea of the world the pools and marshes were also originally exactly like the sea itself, the only difference is that they have shut themselves off from the healing waters, which flow from the sanctuary and thus confirm themselves in their original corruption. In substance, the same thought is expressed in the words, "there is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked," in which Isaiah declares that the wicked are excluded from participating in the glorious promises, which he has just before described, chap. xlviii. 22, and lvii. 21; compare chap. lxvi. 24, and the threat in Jer. xxx. 23, 24. In Rev. xx. 10, the "lake of fire" corresponds to the sloughs and pools mentioned here. The salt is not introduced in this passage, as it frequently is, as an antiseptic, but as a foe to all fertility, life, and prosperity; thus Pliny says (h. n. L. 31, C. 7): omnis locus, in quo reperitur sal, sterilis est, nihilque gignit, compare Deut. xxix. 21; Jer. xvii. 6; Zeph. ii. 9; Ps. cvii. 34. We must not imagine the water gradually evaporating and leaving salt behind; but the continued power of the salt is contrasted with that deliverance from its corrosive influence, which would have been effected by the waters from the sanctuary, if they had been allowed to reach the pools: the waters remain given up to the salt. We may see how far a false habit of literal interpretation may go astray in dealing with such passages as this, from the remark of Hitzig : "The sloughs are of some use therefore; for the new theocracy also stood in need of salt, material salt." Ver. 12. "And by the river there will grow, on the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, all fruitful trees, their leaves will not wither and their fruits will not rot, every month they ripen, for their water cometh from the sanctuary, and their fruit serves for food and their leaves for medicine." The fact that the trees produce fresh fruit every month, is an indication of the uninterrupted enjoyment of the blessings of salvation. On the words "for their water" &c. Hitzig observes: "the reason is evident, namely, because this stream flows directly and immediately from the dwelling place of Him, who is the author of all life and fruitfulness." For the heathen world, so grievously diseased, it was especially necessary that salvation should be manifested in the form of gratia medicinalis. Hence not only are there nutritious fruits but healing leaves. It is very evident that (Sept. vyícia, Rev. xxii. 2, "and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations") is derived from, to heal; and the certainty of this is increased by the fact that, which is closely allied to is frequently רוף רפא used in the place of DANIEL. It is not a mere accident, that in the Hebrew canon Daniel is not placed among the prophets. He did not fill the office of a prophet among his own people like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, but from his youth upwards till he was very old he held the highest posts in a heathen state. Daniel passed through several political catastrophes. At the establishment of the Chaldean empire he was torn from his native land. He not only outlived the fall of that empire, but was commissioned to announce it as the herald of God; cf. chap. V. And in the new Medo-Persian empire he witnessed the transfer of the government from the Medes to the Persians. The peculiar circumstances, in which Daniel was placed, are stamped upon his prophecies. He might be called the politician among the prophets. "All the earlier prophets" says G. Menken, das Monarchieenbild Ed. 2, Bremen 41-"had foretold the universal prevalence and dominion of the theocracy at the time of the final consummation, but to none of them had it ever been revealed so distinctly as to Daniel, through what long intervening periods the promise would be drawn out, before the time of fulfilment arrived, or how the nation and kingdom of God would come into contact with three successive empires like the ChaldæoBabylonian, before it subdued all the kingdoms of the world and filled the earth as the universal theocracy." The fulness and distinctness of Daniel's political prophecies, and the extensive periods which they embrace, are in themselves a proof that the course of Old Testament prophecy is drawing to a close. His predictions, like those of Zechariah from another point of view, have all the marks of a conclusion about them. In this respect they are essentially different from those of a Jeremiah, for example, which only cover a short space of time, and have throughout the character of a connecting link. Daniel, on the contrary, had to conduct the church through long ages of endurance, in which the voice of living prophets would no more be heard. The especial object of Daniel's prophetic mission was twofold. First of all, he was to afford support and comfort to the covenant people during a fierce religious persecution, to which they would be exposed from a heathen tyrant, Antiochus Epiphanes ;-a persecution whose severity would be increased by the fact that it occurred at a time, when the extraordinary communications from God had altogether ceased. This object is effected by the prophecies in chap. viii. and chaps. x.-xii.,—the most minute and literal of all the prophecies in the sacred Scriptures,—in which everything shows, that they were intended to take the place of that direct interposition on the part of God, which was withheld from the age referred to. Secondly, Daniel had to revive the faith of his nation in Christ and his kingdom, and to warn the people against impatience, by impressing deeply upon their minds the words of Habakkuk (ii. 3,) "though it [the prophecy] tarry, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not tarry." For century after century the changes in the kingdoms of the world would bring nothing but a change of masters to Israel,-the nation which, at its very first commencement, had been designated "a kingdom of priests," called to universal supremacy on account of its inward connexion with God. To counteract the offence, which this was sure to cause, was one important design of prophecy. Let empire follow upon empire, and the world continue for ages to triumph and exalt itself; in the end comes Christ, and with him the world-wide dominion of the people of God. But let not the hope be abused so as to give support to false security. This is strongly urged by Daniel, after the example of Isaiah and Jeremiah, and in harmony with his immediate successors Zechariah and Malachi. The anointed one confirms the covenant with many, comes with forgiveness, righteousness, salvation, and brings the whole world into subjection to the kingdom of God; but his appearance brings with it at the same time a judgment upon those, who do not place themselves in the right attitude towards it. It is followed by a fresh destruction of the city and the temple. This announcement is made in chaps ii., vii., and ix. Chap. ii. and chap. vii. treat of the four monarchies. That the announcement contained in these chapters refers to the four successive empires, the Chaldean, Medo-Persian, Grecian, and Roman, has already been proved in part 1 of the Beiträge p. 199 sqq., (Dissertation on Daniel p. 161 sqq. translation), and also by Hävernick in his commentary, by Reichel in his treatise on "die vier Weltreiche Daniels" in the Studien und Kritiken p. 48, and by Auberlen, der Prophet Daniel und die Offenbarung Johannis, p. 171 sqq. We hope to be able on a future occasion to enter once more upon an investigation of this subject. The fourth kingdom is said to be eventually subdivided into ten kingdoms,-the ten toes of the image in chap. ii. and the ten horns in chap. vii. There is a peculiarity in the latter prophecy, namely the description of the little horn, which rises up after the ten horns, and, growing up in the midst of the horns, throws three of the large ones down. This little horn is explained by many commentators, and last of all by Auberlen, p. 40, as referring to an individual, "a king, in whom all the world's proud scorn and hatred of God, of the people of God, and of the worship of God are concentrated. We must, however, adhere to our opinion, that the little horn denotes a new phase of the world's enmity against the kingdom of God, and consequently that, if the ten horns in Daniel are to be understood as referring exclusively to kingdoms and not to persons,' the eleventh must be understood as denoting not an individual but a power. We must also persist in maintaining that, in other parts of the Bible, the antichrist is always introduced as simply an ideal person (see the commentary on Rev. ii. 1, p. 109); and lastly we still adhere to the parallelism of Rev. xx. 7-9 (see the exposition of that passage). The four empires are followed by the kingdom of Christ. In chap. ii. the image is described as broken in pieces by the stone, which grows to a mountain, and which denotes this kingdom. 1 Auberlen, p. 197, "The kings represent their kingdoms, as a comparison of chap. vii. with ver. 23 clearly shows.' |