In the two Passages of Daniel posted below you will find that both are EXACTLY the SAME identical Hebrew word (maoz). However, in the KJV, in verse 38, it is accurately translated as a 'plural' while in verse 39 the exact same word is translated by the KJV inaccurately as a 'singular' - this seems odd?
38 But in his estate [jurisdiction] shall he honor the God of forces [H4581]: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honor with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things [ornaments].
39 Thus shall he do in the most strong(s) [H4581] holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain. Daniel 11:38-39 (KJV)
What is being suggested in relation to these two Passages above?
Notice, in the two passages below, it appears that Daniel 11:37 and Daniel 11:38 are in complete contrast with each other.
37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all. Daniel 11:37 (KJV)
38 But in his estate shall he honor the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honor with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things. Daniel 11:38 (KJV)
We must understand that in ancient times kings thought themselves deity and became one with their deity, just as the Anti-Christ will become one with the God of Forces, the demonic spirit of the Abyss, Abaddon, or Apollyon.
The glory of the Anti-Christ will be treasures of gold, silver, precious stones and coveted things. He will sit secure in the Stronghold of Fortresses that we know to be the beast system of New World Order, a pagan temple structure.
Let us look at what some of the biblical commentaries say:
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
God of forces—probably Jupiter Capitolinus, to whom Antiochus began to erect a temple at Antioch. Translate, "He shall honor the god of fortresses on his basis," that is, the base of the statue. Newton translates, "And the god 'Mahuzzim' (guardians, that is, saints adored as 'protectors' in the Greek and Roman churches) shall he honor." Compare Revelation 17:4 as to Antiochus' anti-type, Antichrist., the foreshadowing of which occurs in every generation.
The rendering proposed by Lengerke is the true rendering, "But the god of forces (firm places, fastnesses - der Vesten) he shall honor in their foundation" (auf seinem Gestelle). The Vulgate renders this, "But the god Maozim shall he honor in his place." So also the Greek.
The phrase "in his estate" - על־כנו 'al-kanô - means, properly, "upon his base," or foundation. It occurs in Daniel 11:20-21, where it is applied to a monarch who would succeed another - occupying the same place, or the same seat or throne. See the notes at Daniel 11:2. Here it seems to mean that he would honor the god referred to in the place which he occupied, or, as it were, on his own throne, or in his own temple.
The margin is, "or stead;" but the idea is not that he would honor this god instead of another, but that he would do it in his own place. If, however, as Gesenius and De Wette suppose, the sense is, "in his place, or stead," the correct interpretation is, that he would honor this "god of forces," in the stead of honoring the god of his fathers, or any other god. The general idea is clear, that he would show disrespect or contempt for all other gods, and pay his devotions to this god alone.
The Winking Eye of the Demon Anti-Christ
We have entered the time spoken of by the prophet Daniel, where corrupt government espouses barbarism and declare itself divine providence. We are witnessing the birth-pangs that are crowing this wicked and lawless ruler and man. This world-wide government, global fascism, will pay homage to the god of fortresses.
Looking into ancient history, especially the prophecies of the Old Testament it is recorded that Daniel describes future time where there would be a corrupt government that would espouse barbarism and declare it blessed by divine providence. It is to be a worldwide government that has at its helm a prince that pays homage to the god of fortresses.
We, Christians, call him the Anti-Christ:
While many speculate the origin of this man, Catholic, Semitic, or a wild card man. David Flynn believed that the God Of Fortresses is a god from Mars. The war-like Extraterrestrial God. The Hebrew word for the God Of Fortresses is Mahozim. In Hebrew, the root word for fortresses is mahoz, Mars, meaning the “place of strength” or “stronghold”. When the Anti-Christ brings homage and the wealth robbed from the peoples of the earth he pays tribute to his god, lord of the sky and space, Baal.
As we dig deeper, we see that the full name for Baal is Baalhazor or Lord of Fortresses. There is a provocative link between the god Mahozim and the god Melkart who was worshiped on the island of Tyre. This god was thought to be brought to the island by Astarte after he had fallen from the heavens. His name means, King of Fortresses. This may have been some form of alien invasion . We also see the cult of Diana in Ephesius worshiping stones from the sky.
Throughout time many interpret god of fortresses as the fortress for war and that the warrior gods come from Mars-Mahozim.
When one refers to the Mahozim or the god of fortresses, they may also be referring to human warriors, warlike leaders, or synthetic armies possibly humanoid-or not, that declare themselves gods. They all seem to have the same characteristics. Many of them have connections to Mars, Egypt, Sumer, Sirius, and the constellations of Canis and Ursa Major.
We need to be aware that there are some unique planetary alignments this fall that have ancient roots. Consider, Syria, which stems from the Dog Star Sirius, the faithful hunting companion to Orion the Hunter god of the heavenly realm. Persia or Iran stems from Perseus, the one who hides the secrets of Algol the winking eye of the demon star.
In 1920, a film was released in Germany called Algol: Tragedy of Power. The plot dealt with an evil alien creature named ALGOL. ALGOL was a visitor from the demon star of the same name. He appears to a poor miner and gives him a free energy device with indescribable power. It was told to the man that anyone who possessed it could become master of the world.
The occult film was released two years after World War I. The story was the first of its kind anywhere revealing secret technology to enslave the peoples of earth, a precursor to what we see unfolding today. It was probably the first time a story about alien invasion and secret technologies that eventually are used as war machines to terrorize peoples watching the silver screen.
Occult historians reveal that the film was to promote an occult global fascist order who were members of Vril who met under a veil of mystery and secrecy, plotting the course for the new age using the spear of destiny and a magical black stone to make contact with ancient peoples, beings from distant worlds, and their fallen angel masters. There are occult books entwined with this conspiracy describing a race of Vril-ya who are uber-terrestrials resembling aliens. This cult has received communications from "Aryan aliens" living on Alpha Tauri, in the Aldebaran system saying they had visited earth in Sumeria with the word Vril translated to mean "like god". The cult, including the Nazi's, participated in exercises to awaken spaceflight which we can see manifested with the obsession "to reach the stars".
The Mars connections to Egypt, the connections to the blue blooded “gods’ of Syria and the cosmic Persian secret are only part of the equation.
Governments and occultists have managed to rewrite the origins of man believing man not to be created by God, but rather through panspermia, the seeding of planet earth by aliens. In preparation for disclosure, they discarded the historical Linneaus Classification of Life and adopted the PhyloCode that rewrites our family tree with an organizational chart that includes room for spirits, synthetic life forms, hybrids, aliens and other "forms of life". The panspermia cult believes that we are seeded from Mars by way of meteor showers, making us Martians, and not really human at all. Many of these cultist offshoots believe that man was formed from the red dust from Mars by the god Marduk. I will let you do your own homework on that one.
Could the entire creation story be an account of an exodus from Mars?
For the longest time, there were astronomers who would look upon Mars with great interest in the Cydonia region. There, it was proposed that a great city similar to what we see in Egypt was there and that near what appears to be Martian pyramids is a “face.” The face of course resembles a man with the mane of a lion.
The Egyptian capital of Cairo derives its name from Al Qahira meaning “City of Mars.”
It is also interesting to note, that recently, the University College Petrie Museum in London has reported that they have now realized that a lot of the Egyptian jewelry in their museum – thought to be hammered out of iron ore – was actually fashioned from materials from outer space.
“Researchers are proving that the beads are actually cosmic jewelry, hammered from pieces of” space rocks. Scientists are now saying that trace elements such as cobalt and germanium present in the jewelry. Levels of these elements only occur in meteoric iron.
In 2008, “Stephen Hawking called for a massive investment in establishing colonies on the Moon and Mars in a lecture in honor of NASA’s 50th anniversary. He argued that the world should devote about 10 times as much as NASA’s current budget – or 0.25% of the world’s financial resources – to space.”
He believed that if we are facing an extinction level catastrophe, then our plan should be an exodus to the Moon or Mars.
When we look at the sky, many of us have the mounting sense of foreboding. We know what may be coming and wonder if our fate will be going back to where we began.
If Mars continues to give up its secrets in the coming years, there will be no doubt, that if we do not report the findings with great care, then “the bringer of war” will live up to its reputation. The slightest indication of a proposed changing of attitudes in religious thought could cause the inhabitants of the earth to rise up and become warlike.
Cosmic blasphemy can trigger outrage in those that believe that there cannot be a different look at biblical history and ancient astronomy.
Two thousand years of conditioning by religious clerics will definitely yield the theory that the Anti-Christ is using Mars as a way to prove the existence of alien “Gods.” This could lead to a psychological upheaval and possible war that has been in the realms of prophecy for millennia.
This gives new meaning to “the war in heaven.”
It will become “the war for heaven.”
But in his estate — Or jurisdiction. The LXX (Septuagint). render it, επι τοπου αυτου, in his place shall he honor the god of forces — Literally, the god Mahuzzim. This seems to be either Jupiter Olympus, never introduced among the Syrians till Antiochus did it, or, as others rather suppose, Mars, the god of war, whom Antiochus ordered to be worshiped in his dominions: which latter opinion seems the more likely, as Antiochus was almost always engaged in some war or other, and appears to have depended most upon his sword for raising himself to power and dignity.
The Greek version, the Vulgate, and several other translations, retain the original word, without interpreting it. The word imports protection, or a protector, and is often rendered by the LXX., υπερασπιστης, a defender, or champion. A god whom his fathers knew not — Nor worshiped; because he wished to be thought to excel his fathers in wisdom; shall he honor with gold, and silver, and pleasant things — The word חמדות, rendered pleasant things, is used by the Prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 44:9) to signify the costly ornaments with which the heathen decked their idols; and of such ornaments it is to be understood here. And the god spoken of here, as honored and ornamented by Antiochus, seems to have been Baal-Semon, the chief god of the Phoenicians, who is with propriety said to be a god whom Antiochus’s father knew not; because there was no god of such name, nor supposed with the same power and attributes, among the Greeks, till (probably by Antiochus’s means) they followed the example of the Phoenicians in worshiping such a god.
Shall he honor - Pay respect to; worship; obey. This would be his god. He would show no respect to the god of his fathers, nor to any of the idols usually worshipped, but would honor this god exclusively.
The God of forces - Margin, Mauzzim, or gods protectors; or, munitions. Hebrew, מעזים mâ‛uzym; Latin Vulgate, Maozim; Greek, Μαωξεὶμ Maōxeim; Syriac, "the strong God;" Luther, Mausim; Lengerke, der Vesten - fastnesses, fortresses. The Hebrew word מעוז mâ‛ôz means, properly, a strong or fortified place, a fortress; and Gesenius (Lexicon) supposes that the reference here is to "the god of fortresses, a deity of the Syrians obtruded upon the Jews, perhaps Mars." So also Grotius, C. B. Michaelis, Staudlin, Bertholdt, and Winer. Dereser, Havernick, and Lengerke explain it as referring to the Jupiter Capitolinus that Antiochus had learned to worship by his long residence in Rome, and whose worship he transferred to his own country. There has been no little speculation as to the meaning of this passage, and as to the god here referred to; but it would seem that the general idea is plain.
It is, that the only god which he would acknowledge would be force, or power, or dominion. He would not set up the worship of the god of his fathers, and all the usual obligations and restraints of religion; he would discard and despise all the pleadings of humanity and kindness, as if they were the weaknesses of women, and he would depend solely on force. He would, as it were, adore only the "god of force," and carry his purposes, not by right, or by the claims of religion, but by arms. The meaning is not, I apprehend, that he would formally set up this "god of forces," and adore him, but that this would be, in fact, the only god that he would practically acknowledge. In selecting such a god, as would properly represent his feelings he would choose such an one as would denote force or dominion. Such a god would be the god of war, or the Roman Jupiter, who, as being supreme, and ruling the world by his mere power, would be a fit representative of the prevailing purpose of the monarch.
The general sentiment is, that all obligations of religion, and justice, and compassion, would be disregarded, and he would carry his purposes by mere power seems to be implied in the remainder of the verse, that he would set up and adore such a foreign god as would be a suitable representation of this purpose.
This is true of Antiochus Epiphanes; and it may be equally said to be true of all the great heroes and conquerors of the world. Mars, the god of war, was thus adored openly in ancient times, and the devotion of heroes and conquerors to that idol god, though less open and formal, has not been less real by the heroes and conquerors of modern times; and, as we say now of an avaricious or covetous man that he is a worshiper of mammon, though he in fact formally worships no god, and has no altar, so it might be affirmed of Antiochus, and may be of heroes and conquerors in general, that the only god that is honored is the god of war, of power, of force; and that setting at nought all the obligations of religion, and of worship of the true God, they pay their devotions to this god alone.
Next to mammon, the god that is most adored in this world is the "god of force" - this Mauzzim that Antiochus so faithfully served. In illustration of the fact that seems here to be implied, that he would introduce such a god as would be a fit representative of this purpose of his life, it may be remarked that, when in Rome, where Antiochus spent his early years, he had learned to worship the Jupiter of the Capitol, and that he endeavored to introduce the worship of that foreign god into Syria. One of the characteristics of Antiochus that he imitated the manners and customs of the Romans to a ridiculous extent (Diod. Sic. Frag, xxvi. 65); and it was a fact that he sent rich gifts to Rome in honor of the Jupiter worshiped there (Livy, lxii. 6), and that he purposed to erect a magnificent temple in honor of Jupiter Capitolinus in Antioch - Livy, xli. 20.
This temple,was not completed. It will be remembered, also, that he caused an altar to Jupiter to be erected over the altar of burnt-sacrifice in Jerusalem. It should be added, that they who apply this to Anti-Christ, or the Pope, refer it to idol or image worship. Elliott (Apocalypse, iv. 153) supposes that it relates to the homage paid to the saints and martyrs under the Papacy, and says that an appellation answering to the word Mahuzzim was actually given to the departed martyrs and saints under the Papal apostasy. Thus he remarks: "As to what is said of the willful king's honoring the god Mahuzzim (a god whom his fathers knew not) in place of his ancestors' god, and the true God, it seems to me to have been well and consistently explained, by a reference to those saints, and their relics and images, which the apostasy from its first development regarded and worshipped as the Mahuzzim, or fortresses of the places where they were deposited." - Apoc. iv. 157. But all this appears forced and unnatural; and if it be not supposed that it was designed to refer to Ant-Christ or the Papacy, no application of the language can be found so obvious and appropriate as that which supposes that it refers to Antiochus, and to his reliance on force rather than on justice and right.
And a god whom his fathers knew not - This foreign god, Jupiter, whom he had learned to worship at Rome.
Shall he honor with gold, and silver, and with precious stones ... - That is, he shall lavish these things on building a temple for him, or on his image. This accords with the account which Livy gives (xli. 20) of the temple which he commenced at Antioch in honor of Jupiter. Livy says that, although in his conduct he was profligate, and although in many things it was supposed that he was deranged - "Quidam hand dubie insanire aiebunt" - yet that in two respects he was distinguished for having a noble mind - for his worship of the gods, and for his favor toward cities in adorning them: "In duabus tamen magnis honestisque rebus vere regius erat animus, in urbium donis, et deorum cultu." He then adds, in words that are all the commentary which we need on the passage before us: "Magnificentiae vero in deos vel Jovis Olympii ternplum Athenis, unum in terris inchoatum pro magnitudine dei, potest testis esse. Sed et Delon aris insignibus statuarumque copia exornavit; et Antiochiae Joyis capitolini magnificum templum, non laqueatum auro tantum, sed parietibus totis lamina inauratum, et alia multa in aliis locis pollicita, quia perbreve tempus regni ejus fuit, non perfecited."
And pleasant things - Margin, "things desired." That is, with ornaments, or statuary, or perhaps pictures. Compare the notes at Isaiah 2:16. which meant that the temple should be beautified and adorned in the highest degree. This temple, Livy says, he did not live to finish.
He shall honor the god of forces; Mauzzim, of strengths or strong holds. The Phoenicians worshiped Mars the God of wars, which Antiochus did worship; but we are come to the Romans; and though many have conjectured several senses of this, Mynem translated god of forces, yet none comes nearer than Mr. Mede, who interprets it of demons, or tutelar gods, which the Romans should worship with Christ, supposing them to be angels or saints. This is not to be thought a novel opinion, for many of the fathers say that this Mauzzim, is the idol that Anti-Christ should worship. So the meaning is, that in Christ’s seat, or place, the temple, they should worship saints and angels with Christ, as the preposition imports, together with Christ; which it is notorious they do. That which, made this place obscure was, that men generally took this strange god for an idol, which indeed the Jews call the Gentiles’ gods, and so doth the Old Testament often, because foreign to the true God, which was their God; but the true God was foreign and strange to the Romans, because their gods were idols. Therefore the philosophers called Christ Xenon daimonion, a strange god. This god they should honor with gold, and silver, and precious stones. The Vulgate translates Mauzzim, protector, and we know too well how the Romanists adorn the churches and shrines of these their patrons and tutelar saints, Psalm 27:1 28:8 31:3. And the fathers sometimes fatally hit upon this expression at the first setting and honoring of martyrs, calling them strong holds, and strong towers of defense; but the Council Of Constantinople called them the devil’s strong holds; thus they called their images also.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
But in his estate shall he honour the god of forces,.... Or god Mahuzzim (q); departed saints and their images, whom the Papists make their protectors, defenders, and guardians: the word signifies towers, strong holds, fortresses; and by these titles the martyrs, saints departed, are called by the ancient fathers, who first introduced the worship of them: So Basil (r), speaking of the forty martyrs, says,
"these are they, who obtaining our country, like certain towers, afford us a refuge against the incursion of enemies:''
and a little after thus addresses them,
"O ye common keepers of mankind, the best companions of our cares, the suffragans of our prayers and wishes, "most powerful" ambassadors with God, &c.:''
and elsewhere (s) he prays:
"that God would keep the church unmoved, and fortified with the great towers of the martyrs;''
Chrysostom (t) calls them patrons and protectors. Or, "with God he shall honor" (u); these along with him, or besides him; these shall be the objects of religious worship and honor, as they are: and that "in his estate"; or in his room and stead, that is, of the true God, our Lord Jesus Christ, the only Mediator between God and man; and yet angels and departed saints are set up as mediators in his stead:
and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honor; the host, the wafer, the bread god, made a god by the words of a muttering priest; this is such a god as the apostles, and Peter particularly, from whom the popes of Rome pretend to, derive their succession, never knew, nor once dreamed of; and yet this is received as a god, bowed unto, and worshiped, and honored:
with gold, silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things; with rich and costly ornaments, with which the pyxis or box, in which it is carried in procession, is adorned.
(q) "deum Mahuzim", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus. (r) Homil. in 40. Martyr. p. 151. (s) Homil. de Martyr. Mamant. p. 167. (t) Sermo in Berenice, Homil. l. in 1 Thess. See Mede's Works, B. 3. p. 673, 674. (u) "Ad, vel juxta deum Mahuzzimos in sede ejus honorabit", Medus, p. 667, 671.
But in his estate shall he honor the {y} god of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honor with {z} gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.
(y) That is, the god of power and riches: they will esteem their own power above all their gods and worship it.
(z) Under pretense of worshiping the gods, they will enrich their city with the most precious jewels of all the world, because by this all men would hold them in admiration for their power and riches.
EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
-
But in his place he will honor the god of strongholds] it is not certain who is meant by the ‘god of strongholds’: possibly the reference is to some deity (? Mars) of whose worship by Antiochus we have no other notice; more probably, however, the name is simply an alternative designation of Jupiter Capitolinus.
No doubt, Zeus or Jupiter (cf. on Daniel 11:37). It is true, the first three Seleucidae, as their coins testify, recognized Zeus Olympios,—not, as Behrmann (misunderstanding a sentence of G. Hoffmann, Einige Phön. Inschr., p. 29) states, Zeus Polieus,—as their patron; but Zeus was not, of course, a native Syrian deity.
pleasant things] better, costly things: lit. things desired. Cf. on Daniel 11:8 (‘precious’ cannot be used here; as the word is needed for yěḳârâh, in ‘precious stones’).
Verse 38. - But in his estate shall he honor the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honor with gold, and silver, and with precious stores, and pleasant things. As we have said above, the last clause of the preceding verse according to the LXX. really belongs to this, "Strong nations shall be subject to him," reading לְאמִּים עְזִּים instead of לֶךאלהּ מָעֻזִים. There is ה in the Massoretic, where י has been in the reading followed by the Septuagint. After this clause the Septuagint proceeds, "And to his place he shall move, and a god whom his fathers knew not he shall honor with gold, and silver, and precious stones." It is possible that נדד (nadad)," to flee or move," was read instead of כבד (kabad)," to honor;" for though κινέω is usually active and transitive, there is no object here. Theodotion has, "And the God of Maozeim he shall honor in his place, and a god whom his father knew not he shall honor with gold, silver, and precious stones, and with offerings." The Aramaic Peshitta rendering is freer, "The mighty god he shall honor in his possession, and a god whom his fathers have not known shall he honor with gold and with silver, with precious gems and desirable things." The Vulgate adopts the transliteration Maozim. In his estate shall he honor the god of forces. There are a number of questions here. To whom does the suffix refer? The English translators have arranged the words so that we cannot escape the view that "the estate" is the king's, but the natural meaning of the Hebrew order is that it is "on the place" or "pedestal" of the god. The word translated "estate" is used in Genesis 40:13 for "office." It is used of the "base" of the "laver." It may mean "place."
What deity is meant by "the god of strong holds"? There is absolutely nothing to guide us in the matter. Some have supposed that the reference is to Jupiter Olympius, whose statue Antiochus is reported to have set np in the temple. Others, that the reference is to Jupiter Capitolinus. Were there any evidences that Antiochus worshiped the genius of Rome, something might be urged for this; but we have no evidence of this. In the absence of anything to fix a definite meaning on this word, we feel inclined to suggest that Jehovah is meant by the slosh mauzzeem. Repeatedly, in the Psalms, God is declared to be the Strength of the saint; e.g. Psalm 27:1; Psalm 43:2 Of Jehovah it might be said that the ancestors of Antiochus - Greek and Syrian - knew him not. Honor with gold, etc. The repeated defeats of the armies of Antiochus and the spoiling of their camps by the followers of Jehovah, was giving honor to Jehovah, however unwittingly and unwillingly it was done. God "gave him honor upon Pharaoh," and so now he was honored upon Epiphanes.
Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament
After Daniel had been thrown into the lions' den, its mouth was covered with a flat stone, and the stone was sealed with the king's seal and that of the great officers of state, that nothing might change or be changed (בּּדּניּאל צבוּ) concerning Daniel (צבוּ, affair, matter), not that the device against Daniel might not be frustrated (Hv., v. Leng., Maur., Klief.). This thought required the stat.es emphatically צנוּתא, and also does not correspond with the application of a double seal.
The den of lions is designated by גּבּא, which the Targg. use for the Hebr. בור, a cistern. From this v. Leng., Maur., and Hitzig infer that the writer had in view a funnel-shaped cistern dug out in the ground, with a moderately small opening or mouth from above, which could be covered with a stone, so that for this one night the lions had to be shut in, while generally no stone lay on the opening. The pit also into which Joseph, the type of Daniel, was let down was a cistern (Genesis 37:24), and the mouth of the cistern was usually covered with a stone (Genesis 29:3; Lamentations 3:53). It can hence scarcely be conceived how the lions, over which no angel watched, could have remained in such a subterranean cavern covered with a stone. "The den must certainly have been very capacious if, as it appears, 122 men with their wives and children could have been thrown into it immediately after one another (v. 25 [Daniel 6:24]); but this statement itself only shows again the deficiency of every view of the matter," - and thus the whole history is a fiction fabricated after the type of the history of Joseph! But these critics who speak thus have themselves fabricated the idea of the throwing into the den of 122 men with women and children - for the text states no number - in order that they might make the whole narrative appear absurd.
We have no account by the ancients of the construction of lions' dens. Ge. Hst, in his work on Fez and Morocco, p. 77, describes the lions' dens as they have been found in Morocco. According to his account, they consist of a large square cavern under the earth, having a partition-wall in the middle of it, which is furnished with a door, which the keeper can open and close from above. By throwing in food they can entice the lions from the one chamber into the other, and then, having shut the door, they enter the vacant space for the purpose of cleaning it. The cavern is open above, its mouth being surrounded by a wall of a yard and a half high, over which one can look down into the den. This description agrees perfectly with that which is here given in the text regarding the lions' den. Finally, גּבּא does not denote common cisterns. In Jeremiah 41:7, Jeremiah 41:9, גּוּבא (Hebr. בור) is a subterranean chamber into which seventy dead bodies were cast; in Isaiah 14:15, the place of Sheol is called גּוב. No reason, therefore, exists for supposing that it is a funnel-formed cistern. The mouth (פּוּם) of the den is not its free opening above by which one may look down into it, but an opening made in its side, through which not only the lions were brought into it, but by which also the keepers entered for the purpose of cleansing the den and of attending to the beasts, and could reach the door in the partition-wall (cf. Hst, p. 270). This opening was covered with a great flat stone, which was sealed, the free air entering to the lions from above. This also explains how, according to Daniel 6:20 ff., the king was able to converse with Daniel before the removal of the stone (namely, by the opening above).
Daniel 6:19-21 (Daniel 6:18-20)
Then the king went to his palace, and passed the night fasting: neither were any of his concubines brought before him; and this sleep went from him. The king spent a sleepless night in sorrow on account of Daniel. טות, used adverbially, in fasting, i.e., without partaking of food in the evening. דּחוה, concubina; cf. The Arab. dahâ and dahâ equals, subigere faeminam, and Gesen. Thes. p. 333. On the following morning (v. 20 [Daniel 6:19]) the king rose early, at the dawn of day, and went to the den of lions, and with lamentable voice called to him feebly hoping that Daniel might be delivered by his God whom he continually served. Daniel answered the king, thereby showing that he had been preserved; whereupon the king was exceeding glad. The future or imperf. יקוּם (Daniel 6:19) is not to be interpreted with Kranichfeld hypothetically, he thought to rise early, seeing he did actually rise early, but is used instead of the perf. to place the clause in relation to the following, meaning: the king, as soon as he arose at morning dawn, went hastily by the early light. בּנגהא, at the shining of the light, serves for a nearer determination of the בּשׁפרפּרא, at the morning dawn, namely, as soon as the first rays of the rising sun appeared. The predicate the living God is occasioned by the preservation of life, which the king regarded as possible, and probably was made known to the king in previous conversations with Daniel; cf. Psalm 42:3; Psalm 84:3; 1 Samuel 17:36, etc.
Daniel 6:22-24 (Daniel 6:21-23)
In his answer Daniel declares his innocence, which God had recognised, and on that account had sent His angel (cf. Psalm 34:8; Psalm 91:11.) to shut the mouths of the lions; cf. Hebrews 10:33. ואף, and also (concluding from the innocence actually testified to by God) before the king, i.e., according to the king's judgment, he had done nothing wrong or hurtful. By his transgression of the edict he had not done evil against the king's person. This Daniel could the more certainly say, the more he perceived how the king was troubled and concerned about his preservation, because in Daniel's transgression he himself had seen no conspiracy against his person, but only fidelity toward his own God. The king hereupon immediately gave command that he should be brought out of the den of lions. The Aph. הנסקה and the Hoph. הסּק, to not come from נסק, but from סלק; the נis merely compensative. סלק, to mount up, Aph. to bring out; by which, however, we are not to understand a being drawn up by ropes through the opening of the den from above. The bringing out was by the opened passage in the side of the den, for which purpose the stone with the seals was removed. To make the miracle of his preservation manifest, and to show the reason of it, v. 24 (Daniel 6:23) states that Daniel was found without any injury, because he had trusted in his God.
Who do you serve? The god of forces or the God of all Forces?
____________________________________________________________
Celeste Solum is a broadcaster, author, former government, organic farmer and is trained in nursing and environmental medicine. Celeste chronicles the space and earth conditions that trigger the rise and fall of modern & ancient civilizations, calendars, and volatile economies. Cycles are converging, all pointing to a cataclysmic period between 2020 to 2050 in what many scientists believe is an Extinction Level Event.
Tracking goods and people will be a part of managing the population during this convergence.
-
Backstories on tracking
- Technologies
- Infrastructure
- Diseases, Testing, Vaccinations, and Sensors (including nCov and the new Phytophthora ~the plant-destroyer
-
Experiences
Website:
https://shepherdsheart.life/blogs/news/
GenSix, Keynote Speaker, True Legends, Ancient Cataclysms & Coming Catastrophes
https://celestialreport.com
https://www.facebook.com/ShepherdessCeleste
Books:
Electromagnetic Radiation Protection Solutions
Inspirational Homestead Recipes
Videos: Celestial Report, Special Broadcasts, Breaking News by Subscription