Theodoret of Cyrus — Commentary on Scripture

Daniel 5:1

This man was the son of Nebuchadnezzar but did not directly succeed him.… After Nebuchadnezzar, then, Evil-merodach ruled, and after him Belshazzar. The most divine Daniel, however, omitted mention of the former man, since he was composing not history pure and simple but prophecy—hence his not recording everything done by Nebuchadnezzar, either, but only those things of which mention was required with a view to bringing benefit. So since also in the time of Belshazzar God gave evidence of a wonderful miracle capable of instilling reverence and dread not only in the people of that time but also in those of any later time and of leading them to the true religion, he did not think it right to conceal in silence such a great act of kindness, judging it instead a holy thing to put it in writing and leave for everyone a record of the teaching.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 5:1

Daniel 5:2-3

In other words, intoxication confused his thinking, and intemperance gave rise to this insane action against God: the vessels consecrated to the worship of God, which his father Nebuchadnezzar had seized when God surrendered them but had honored in the way he thought fit and had kept from human use, this man presumed to use like ordinary vessels, not only giving the order but giving effect to the order.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 5:2

Daniel 5:5

Since, you see, he had sung the praises of the idols, deprived as they were of any power to move, and had scorned the God of all, the Lord of all gives him a lesson in his invisible and incorporeal nature by letting him see only fingers writing, the purpose being to instruct him that he would not even see them were it not that he personally had provided the occasion of need.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 5:5

Daniel 5:9

From this it is clear that the Lord was concerned for the welfare of the others and did not take the king’s life on the spot, instead giving a glimpse of the writer’s fingers. But having startled him by this and instilled fear, he caused the wise men of the Chaldeans to be summoned and showed up their falsity and weakness while producing the need for Daniel’s wisdom so as through his tongue to accredit him and benefit the others, and with this happening to inflict punishment at that stage on the impious king.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 5:9

Daniel 5:10

This was probably an introduction offered at that time to kings by their subjects; even to this day this custom prevails.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 5:10

Daniel 5:10

“Amid the king’s and his nobles’ words the queen entered the banqueting hall,” that is, with them pondering what should be done and various people making various suggestions under pressure of fear, the queen entered. Now, in my view, this lady was his mother: the wives were attending the banquet along with the concubines, and drinking from the gold and silver vessels was himself and his nobles, his wives—that is, his spouses—and his concubines, partners of his not by law but in lust. Now, this lady entered after the hubbub, and being old she probably was not a party at that stage to the drunkenness and antics or dancing.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 5:10

Daniel 5:11

Now, by “alertness” she referred to vigilance of soul, and by “understanding” to a grasp of hidden things and an insight into what escaped many. “Your father King Nebuchadnezzar,” she went on, “made him chief of magicians, soothsayers, astrologers, and fortune tellers,” adding the reason, “because an extraordinary spirit was in him,” that is, he has the surpassing grace of the Spirit.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 5:11

Daniel 5:12

Daniel, having become a receptacle of the divine Spirit, gives wise advice on everything, makes intelligent utterances on everything, clarifies riddles in dreams, removes the obscurity from what is hidden in some obscurity and by setting free what is held in bondage in secret recesses, as it were.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 5:12

Daniel 5:18

Do not think it was by relying on his own strength that your father subjected the whole world and brought under one kingdom the countless races of the nations speaking various tongues. It was, in fact, the Lord of all, maker of everything, wise governor of all things, who gave him the kingdom, and it was as a result of the divine decree that fear of your father possessed his subjects.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 5:18-19

Daniel 5:20

“He was deposed from the throne of his kingdom: just as he elevated those he wanted and humbled those he wanted,” doing so not altogether by a right decision, so the King and Lord of all gave your father the kingdom as he wanted, but on perceiving him giving vent to an overweening sense of his own importance, running the kingdom in an arrogant and conceited manner, a victim of haughtiness, he deprived him of the royal throne and stripped him of the honor paid him by everyone. Instead of divesting him only of the kingdom, however, he drove him also from normal association, gave him over to insanity and derangement and caused him to live with wild asses and savage beasts, taking on the life of the animals whose ferocity he had imitated.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 5:20

Daniel 5:23

He did well to instruct those present to worship not visible things but their Creator and Lord. At the same time he also convicts the king of conceit and teaches him that the highest heaven has for its creator the unseen God. You, he is saying, made your heart more elevated not than heaven but than the God of heaven, the Lord of all creation; if you were not guilty of such awful conceit, you would not have ordered the vessels of his house to be brought in.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 5:23

Daniel 5:23

Now, [Daniel] did well and showed much wisdom in putting in parallel the idols and the God of all with a view to the benefit felt by the hearers; after emphasizing that the former neither see nor hear, instead of proceeding to say in regard to the God of all that he sees and hears and knows, he cited the more powerful fact of all, your life and your ways are in his hand, since providing life to others and in turn removing it at will is more important than having life. He brought out, then, that while the idols are deprived of life and all sensation, the Lord God of all is the source of all life and both gives it and takes it, governing as he wills. Nevertheless, [Daniel] is saying, despite his being of this stature, so great, with power of life and death, appointing kings and removing them, you not only did not sing his praises but rather even persisted in your drunken behavior, making fun of vessels dedicated to him.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 5:23

Daniel 5:26

By “interpretation,” he refers to the meaning. “Mane: God has measured your kingdom and brought it to an end,” that is, he has seen you are unworthy of kingship, and he decided to leave you bereft of it. “Thekel: he was weighed in the balance and found wanting.” In this the prophet taught not only him but also us the lesson that nothing goes unweighed by God; instead, mercy and longsuffering are shown to people according to a certain measure and weight. Since, then, [Daniel] is saying, you exceeded the limit of lovingkindness, receive the divine sentence. “Phares: your kingdom has been divided and has been given to the Medes and Persians.”

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 5:25-28

Daniel 5:30

Now, it is necessary to inquire why on earth the God of all corrected Nebuchadnezzar and in turn restored him to his kingdom but forthwith deprived this man of both kingdom and life. On consideration, then, we find, first, that Nebuchadnezzar had not observed another person paying the penalty for impiety, and hence God’s just sentence granted him pardon, whereas this other man, though observing his father’s heavy penalty, gained nothing from it. The just judge was therefore within his rights in confining punishment of the former to a specified time, whereas he granted the latter no pardon. In particular, God foresees all future events and thus knows them clearly as if already in the past; so he knew ahead of time the repentance of the former and arranged for his fate accordingly, whereas he knew ahead of time the latter’s incorrigible impiety and put a stop to the increase in impiety with death.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 5:28

Daniel 6:2

Normally, in fact, those entrusted with kingship or any other rule confide least in the people closest to their predecessors; but Daniel enjoyed the same trust from all, receiving equal privileges and being entrusted with the same governance—hence, of course, his becoming one of the three supervisors under Darius. Now, by “supervisors” I think there is reference to what are now called viceroys, and by “satraps” to the governors of the nations, Daniel being one of the supervisors.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 6:1-2

Daniel 6:3

[Daniel] had received from God a greater and more abundant grace. Now, from this we learn that to those also who are entrusted with conduct of earthly affairs, even if unsympathetic to religion, a grace of wisdom is given from God for their management of those they rule. Blessed Daniel implied as much in saying, “Because there was an extraordinary spirit in him,” that is, he had received the grace in keeping with his religious sentiments.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 6:3

Daniel 6:7

Nothing is more repugnant than envy: it pressured them into committing impiety and caused an impious decree to be published forbidding those intent on offering prayers to God; they prevented not only themselves from doing it but also all others subject to royal control.… In surrendering their mind’s eye to envy, they did not understand that the king could not supply everything to petitioners, like health, life, fathering children, abundance of rain and anything else that we receive when we ask it of God. Losing their senses, however, they ascribed to the king what belongs to God and persuaded the foolish king to reach the same verdict and ratify their request.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 6:6-9

Daniel 6:10

He did this not only to provoke his accusers but also to fulfill an ancient law: when Solomon built that famous temple and celebrated the festival of consecration, he prayed a prayer of supplication for divine grace and implored that the temple be filled with it, adding this in addition to other things, “If you surrender your people to their foes, and they take them as captives to a land distant or near, and they have a change of heart in the land where they are transported and pray to you in their exile in the words, We sinned, we did wrong, we broke the law, and they turn back to you with their whole heart and with their whole soul in the land of their foes where you transferred them, and they pray to you toward their land which you gave their ancestors, and the city that you chose and the house that I built to your name, may you hearken from heaven, forthwith from your dwelling place, and forgive their sins by which they have sinned against you and all the transgressions they have committed against you, and show them pity before their captors.” Instructed in this, Daniel faced Jer…

He did this not only to provoke his accusers but also to fulfill an ancient law: when Solomon built that famous temple and celebrated the festival of consecration, he prayed a prayer of supplication for divine grace and implored that the temple be filled with it, adding this in addition to other things, “If you surrender your people to their foes, and they take them as captives to a land distant or near, and they have a change of heart in the land where they are transported and pray to you in their exile in the words, We sinned, we did wrong, we broke the law, and they turn back to you with their whole heart and with their whole soul in the land of their foes where you transferred them, and they pray to you toward their land which you gave their ancestors, and the city that you chose and the house that I built to your name, may you hearken from heaven, forthwith from your dwelling place, and forgive their sins by which they have sinned against you and all the transgressions they have committed against you, and show them pity before their captors.” Instructed in this, Daniel faced Jerusalem in praying.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 6:10

Daniel 6:10

When blessed Daniel in Babylon prayed, he opened the windows facing Jerusalem, not under the impression that God was confined there but from his knowledge that the divine manifestation occurred there.

COMMENTARY ON PSALM 28:2

Daniel 6:10

Note how much this verse implied in a few words in mentioning the piety and courage of blessed Daniel. First, when Daniel learned that the decision has been reached, “he went into his house”—that is, when he got news of the passing of the law, he had great scorn for it and continued openly doing the opposite. It next mentions a further detail that reveals his courage: the windows were open, it says—in other words, he said his prayers not in secret but openly, with everyone watching, not for vainglory but in scorn for the impiety of the law.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 6:10