Daniel 10:8

Dan 10:8 Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength.

Ver. 8. Therefore I was left alone.] Daniel, though much frightened, keepeth his station, when the rest fled and hid themselves. Good is the counsel of the apostle, Heb 12:13, "Make straight steps unto your feet, lest that which is halting be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed."

For my comeliness, &c.] See Dan 7:15; Dan 7:28; Dan 8:27.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The word also signifieth comeliness, or beauty, so that for fear he was like a dead man for deformity.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

comeliness--literally, "vigor," that is, lively expression and color.

into corruption--"deadliness," that is, death-like paleness (Dan 5:6; Dan 7:28).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

This language all tends to the same purpose — to assure us that Daniel did not write his own comments with rashness, but was truly and clearly taught by the angel on all the points which he committed to writing, and thus all hesitation is removed as to our embracing what we shall afterwards perceive, as he is a faithful interpreter of God. He first states he saw a vision. He had said so before, but he repeats it to produce a due impression; he calls the vision great, to arouse our attention to its importance. He adds, he was deprived of all vigor; as if he had been rendered lifeless by the blast of the Spirit. Thus we gather the object of the exhibition of all these outward signs; they not only bring before us God speaking by the mouth of his angel, but they prepared the Prophet himself, and trained him to reverence. God, however, does not terrify his sons, as if our disquiet was with him an object of delight, but solely because it is profitable for us; for unless our carnal feelings were utterly subdued, we should never be fit to receive improvement. This necessarily requires violence, on account of our inborn perverseness; and this is the reason why the Prophet was reduced to this state of lifelessness. Even my comeliness, or beauty, or appearance, was turned to corruption; meaning, my deformity was similar to that induced by death. He adds lastly, I did not retain my vigor. He uses a variety of phrases to shew himself depressed by the heavenly blast, for but a slight amount of vitality remained, and he was scarcely preserved from actual death. We ought to learn to transfer this instruction to ourselves, not by the vanishing of our rigor or the changing of our appearance whenever God addresses us, but by all our resistance giving way, and all our pride and loftiness becoming prostrate before God. Finally, our carnal disposition ought to be completely reduced to nothing, as true docility will never be found in us until all our senses are completely mortified; for we must always remember how hostile all our natural thoughts are to the will of God. It afterwards follows; — but I cannot proceed further today; I must delay my comment on the next verses till to-morrow.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(8) This great vision.—Daniel again distinguishes this from former visions: The glory of the man who appeared to him was far in excess of what he had witnessed previously (Dan_8:17). The effects of the vision upon him are also mentioned. His “comeliness was turned,” or, he grew pale with terror at what he saw, and fainted.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8. And I (emph.) was left alone, and saw this great vision] ‘great,’ on account of the majestic appearance of the angel.

and there was left (Dan_10:17) no strength in me] Cf. 1Sa_28:20. The vision itself is more impressive than that of Gabriel in Dan_8:16-18, and its effects upon Daniel are more marked.

comeliness] The meaning is dignity of countenance. Majesty, glory, is the idea of the word: cf. (of God) Psa_8:1, Hab_3:3; (of a king), Psa_45:3, Jer_22:18 (‘Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!’); of the Israel of the future, compared to a nobly-spreading tree, Hos_14:6 (where ‘beauty,’ A.V., R.V., is inadequate).

was turned upon me into corruption] i.e. disfigured, or destroyed, by sudden pallor. The Hebrew word rendered ‘corruption’ is cognate with that rendered ‘marred’ in Isa_52:14 (also of the countenance). For ‘upon,’ cf. Dan_5:9, Dan_7:28; and see on Dan_2:1.

retained no strength] In the Heb., a late idiom, found otherwise only Dan_10:16, Dan_11:6; 1Ch_29:14; 2Ch_2:5; 2Ch_13:20; 2Ch_22:9.

8–9. Daniel was left alone, and fell motionless, as if stunned, upon the earth.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision,.... Which was great indeed, both with respect to the object now seen, and with respect to the subject matter, the things afterwards revealed, the nature, use, and importance of them; and it was so wisely ordered by the Lord, that the men with Daniel should be seized with a panic, and flee and leave him alone; that they being removed from him, he might have the secrets of the Lord revealed to him as a peculiar favourite of his, and hear and see the things he did:

and there remained no strength in me: either through the intenseness of his mind upon the object before him, and to what he said; or through the awe he was struck with at the sight of him; his blood running back to the heart to secure that; his nerves loosened; his hands weak and hanging down; his knees feeble, and spirits faint, just ready to sink and swoon away:

for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption; the form of his countenance was marred; his forehead wrinkled; his eyes sunk; the sprightliness and vivacity of them gone; his cheeks turned pale; his lips quivering; his joints trembling; his vigour and health impaired; all nature convulsed; and he lifeless and spiritless, like a dead carcass:

and I retained no strength; or, "restrained" (s) it not; his strength; could not keep it from going out of him, either of body or mind; he could not rally the powers of nature, so depressed was he with the vision: all which is observed, both to exaggerate the greatness of the vision, and the favour and goodness of God after shown him; as well as to observe the weakness of human nature, not being able to bear the sight of a divine Person, or such discoveries the Lord is sometimes pleased to make, without being strengthened and supported in an extraordinary manner.

(s) "non cohibui", Gejerus.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision - That is, I distinctly saw it, or contemplated it. He perceived, doubtless, that it was a heavenly vision; and as he had often been favored with similar manifestations, he remained to receive the communication which probably he understood was to be made.

And there remained no strength in me - He was completely overcome. A similar effect was produced on John when he was in Patmos: “And when I saw him I fell at his feet as dead,” Rev 1:17. That he should be overcome, and his strength taken away, was not an unnatural effect; and what occurred to Daniel and John may demonstrate that there may be such views of the Divine character and glory now as to prostrate our physical powers. It is certain that such visions as those which appeared to Daniel and John would have this effect; and, though we are not to expect that they will now be vouchsafed to men, no one can doubt that there may be such views of God, and heaven, and eternal realities presented to the eye of faith and hope; such joy in the evidence of pardoned sin; such a change from a sense of condemnation to the peace resulting from forgiveness, that the powers of the body may be prostrated, and sink from exhaustion. Indeed, it is not much of the revelation of the Divine character that in our present state we can bear.

For my comeliness - Margin, “vigour.” Hebrew, הוד hôd. The word means, properly, majesty or splendor; then beauty or brightness, as of the complexion. The meaning here is, that his “bright complexion” (Gesenius, Lexicon) was changed upon him; that is, that he turned pale.

Into corruption - The phrase used here means literally “into destruction.” The sense is, that by the change that came over him. his beauty - his bright or florid complexion was completely “destroyed.” He became deadly pale.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

This great vision; great in the appearance, and great in the great things revealed.

There remained no strength in me; by the recoiling of his spirits inward.

My comeliness was turned in me into corruption; his colour was changed into paleness, as one that is faint, and pining into a consumption, by terror and consternation.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

8. Daniel alone remained, but though accustomed to visions and angelic presences (Dan_7:10; Dan_7:16; Dan_9:21) he was almost prostrated by the awe which this dazzling, heavenly form inspired. (Compare Luk_9:32.)

For my comeliness was turned in me into corruption — Daniel’s natural “splendor” (Hebrews) of countenance faded before the splendor of this celestial messenger, and his face became ghastly with the pallor of death. (Compare Dan_7:28.)

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me; for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength. The versions do not call for much remark. The LXX renders "glory" by "spirit" or "breath;" and the Peshitta renders it by "body." The Massoretic is superior, as more difficult and more likely to be the source of the other two than either of them. Theodotion"s rendering, doxa, confirms this. Daniel explains how he alone had seen the vision, and narrates the effects contact with the spiritual had on him, "There remained no strength in me; And I retained no strength a redoubled statement of weakness not necessarily meaning, as Jephet-ibn-Ali would have it, that the one refers to his inability to flee like his attendants, and the other to his inability to stand upright. It is probably due merely to the great impression this sudden powerlessness made on him. For my comeliness was turned in me into corruption. From the natural brightness of the skin in life the face assumed the yellow pallor of death. (comp. Dan_7:28) "And my countenance was changed in me;" comp. also Hab_3:16, "When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones." While the ideas here are the same, the parallelism is made more striking by the difference of the terms.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Daniel here calls the appearance great with reference to the majesty displayed, such as had never hitherto been known to him. Its influence upon him is, therefore, also greater than that of the appearance of Gabriel, Dan 8:17. There remained in him no strength, i.e., he felt himself overwhelmed, and as if about to perish. His הוד, splendour - the same as the Chald. זיו, Dan 7:28; Dan 5:6, Dan 5:9 - i.e., the fresh colour of life which marked his countenance, was changed למשׁחית, properly, to destruction, to entire disfigurement, to corruption. The last clause, "and I retained no strength," gives greater force to the preceding statement.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

was turned in me into corruption Heb. לְמַשְׁחִית, lit. to a destroyer. To corruption, and it is customary for Biblical verses to speak in this manner, like (Jer. 5:8): “They were like armed stallions early in the morning.” מַשְׁכִּים is the equivalent of בְּהַשְׁכָּמַת הַבּקֶר, in the early morning.

I could not summon up strength i.e., I did not gather. All my strength left my innards.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.