Wherefore king Darius signed the writing and the decree.
Wherefore king Darius signed the writing and the interdict.
Therefore king Darius hath signed the writing and interdict.
Therefore king Darius signed the writing and the decree.
Daniel — A Hebrew exile at Babylonian and Persian courts sees empires rise and fall, a Son of Man coming with clouds, and seventy weeks locating Messiah in time. The canon's densest apocalyptic text — and its most interpretively contested.
Voices2
Wherefore King Darius signed the writing and the decree. Moved to it by the number and importunity of his principal men; and chiefly through affectation of deity, which this law gave him; and that he might have an opportunity of ingratiating himself into his new subjects by his munificence and liberality, not being aware of the snare laid for his favourite, Daniel.
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)reformed
Such a despotic decree is quite explicable by remembering that the king, as the incarnation of Ormuzd, might demand such an act of religious obedience as a test of loyalty. Persecuting laws are always made on false pretenses.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871reformed
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread — the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The verses this one reaches7
It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes.
Put not your trust in princes, in mortal man, who cannot save.
Lowborn men are but a vapor, the exalted but a lie. Weighed on the scale, they go up; together they are but a vapor.
if you have been trapped by the words of your lips, ensnared by the words of your mouth,
Put no more trust in man, who has only the breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?
So the decree went out that the wise men were to be executed, and men went to look for Daniel and his friends to execute them.
He who answers a matter before he hears it— this is folly and disgrace to him.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first — the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Psalms 146:3Put not your trust in princes, in mortal man, who cannot save.
leads to
It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man.
This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, who makes the flesh his strength and turns his heart from the LORD.
Put no more trust in man, who has only the breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?
Give us aid against the enemy, for the help of man is worthless.
Through
Isaiah 2:22Put no more trust in man, who has only the breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?
leads to
This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, who makes the flesh his strength and turns his heart from the LORD.
Put not your trust in princes, in mortal man, who cannot save.
Through
Proverbs 6:2if you have been trapped by the words of your lips, ensnared by the words of your mouth,
leads to
A fool’s mouth is his ruin, and his lips are a snare to his soul.
An evil man is trapped by his rebellious speech, but a righteous man escapes from trouble.
The whole web at once: see the Arc.
