Daniel 6:13

Dan 6:13 Then answered they and said before the king, That Daniel, which [is] of the children of the captivity of Judah, regardeth not thee, O king, nor the decree that thou hast signed, but maketh his petition three times a day.

Ver. 13. That Daniel.] He was principal president, and deserved a better attribution than that Daniel. But ill-will never speaketh well of any.

Which is of the captivity.] This also is terminus diminuent - q.d., This royal slave, whom thou hast preferred above us all, and hast moreover some thoughts to set him over the whole realm. {Dan 6:3} New men shall be much spited. It was therefore no ill counsel,

“ Fortunam reverenter habe quicunque repente

Dives ab exili progrediere loco. ” - Auson.

Regardeth not thee, O king.] Chald., Putteth no respect on thee. This is common, falsely to accuse God’s most faithful servants as antimagistratical, because they refuse to obey unlawful and impious decrees.

But maketh his petition three times a day.] They say not to whom he made it, which might have helped him greatly; for the king might conceive that he made it to some other man. It is an evil office to omit such circumstances as may help the accused. {2Sa 16:3}

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.

Dan 6:13. Then answered they, That Daniel — Thus they expressed themselves by way of contempt; which is of the children of the captivity of Judah — This was added to aggravate his fault; that one who was a foreigner, and brought thither a captive, should offer a public affront to the laws of the king, whose favour and protection he enjoyed. One cannot easily find a more striking instance than this relation affords of the power of inveterate malice and bitter envy. He regardeth not thee, O king, say they, nor the decree that thou hast signed — Thus it often happens, that what is done faithfully, and out of conscience toward God, is misrepresented as done obstinately, and in contempt of the civil powers. In other words, the best saints are frequently reproached as the worst men. Daniel regarded God, and therefore prayed, and doubtless prayed for the king and government; and yet this is construed as not regarding the king. And the excellent spirit with which Daniel was endued, and that established reputation which he had gained, could not protect him from these poisonous darts. They do not say, He makes his petition to his God, lest Darius should interpret that to his praise, but only, He makes his petition; which was the thing forbidden by the law.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

That Daniel--contemptuously.

of . . . captivity of Judah--recently a captive among thy servants, the Babylonians--one whom humble obedience most becomes. Thus they aggravate his guilt, omitting mention of his being prime minister, which might only remind Darius of Daniel's state services.

regardeth not thee--because he regarded God (Act 4:19; Act 5:29).

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

Now, when Daniel’s calumniators see that King Darius had no wish to defend his cause, they open up more freely what they had previously conceded; for, as we have said, if they had openly accused Daniel, their accusation could have been instantly and completely refuted; but after this sentiment had been expressed to the king, their statement is final, since by the laws of the Medes and Persians a king’s decree ought to be self-acting; hence, after this is accomplished, they then come to the person. Daniel, say they, one of the captives of Judah, has not obeyed thy will, O king, nor the decree which thou hast signed. By saying, “Daniel, one of the Jewish captives,” they doubtless intended to magnify his crime and to render him odious. For if any Chaldean had dared to despise the king’s edict, his rashness would not have been excused. But now when Daniel, who was lately a slave and a Chaldean captive, dares to despise the king’s command, who reigned over Chaldea by the right of conquest, this seemed less tolerable still. The effect is the same as if they had said, “He was lately a captive among thy slaves; thou art supreme lord, and his masters to whom he was subject are under thy yoke, because thou art their conqueror; he is but a captive and a stranger, a mere slave, and yet he rebels against thee!” We see then how they desired to poison the king’s mind against him by this allusion, He is one of the captives! The words are very harmless in themselves, but they endeavor to sting their monarch in every way, and to stir up his wrath against Daniel. He does not direct his mind to thee, O king; that is, he does not reflect upon who you are, and thus he despises thy majesty and the edict which thou hast signed This is another enlargement: Daniel, therefore, did not direct his mind either to thee or to thy edict; and wilt thou bear this? Next, they recite the deed itself — he prays three times a-day This would have been the simple narrative, Daniel has not obeyed thy command in praying to his own God; but, as I have said, they exaggerate his crime by accusing him of pride, contempt, and insolence. We see, therefore, by what artifices Daniel was oppressed by these malicious men. It now follows:

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.

(13) Which is of the children.—By adding this to the charge of disobedience to the king’s commandment, they hoped to incense him still further against the prophet. Here was a foreigner, who had received the highest favours from the Court, setting himself up in antagonism to the laws of the kingdom.

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

13. children of the exile of Judah] Dan_2:25, Dan_5:13.

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.

Then the king, when he heard these words, was sore displeased with himself,.... Or "at it" (e); or "with him"; with Daniel, not so much for what he had done, but that he had not done it with more caution, or more privately, that it might not have been known: or rather, as we render it, "with himself", that he should so rashly sign the decree, without considering the consequences of it; for he now found that he was circumvented by his princes, and that their design was not his honour and glory, but the destruction of Daniel: or the sense in general is, that what he heard was very disagreeable, afflictive, and distressing to him:

and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him; he resolved, if possible, to do it; he applied his mind to it; he turned his thoughts wholly that way, and contrived all ways and means to effect it: R. Mattathiah, in Saadiah, interprets the phrase of his offering money as a ransom for his life:

and he laboured till the going down of the sun to save him; from the will of the princes, and from the jaws of the lions: very probably it was early in the morning these princes found Daniel at prayer, who went immediately to the king with their accusation; so that he was all day labouring with all his might and main to find out ways and means to save his darling favourite; he studied to put such a sense upon his decree, that it might not reach Daniel's case; he strove to make the princes easy, and to persuade them to drop the affair, and not insist on the execution of the decree.

(e) "super eo", Montanus; "super ipsum", De Dieu.

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

Then answered they ... That Daniel which is of the children of the captivity of Judah - Who is one of the captive Jews. There was art in thus referring to Daniel, instead of mentioning him as sustaining an exalted office. It would serve to aggravate his guilt to remind the king that one who was in fact a foreigner, and a captive, had thus disregarded his solemn commandment. If he had been mentioned as the prime minister, there was at least a possibility that the king would be less disposed to deal with him according to the letter of the statute than if he were mentioned as a captive Jew.

Regardeth not thee ... - Shows open disregard and contempt for the royal authority by making a petition to his God three times a day.

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

Here they call him

that Daniel, as, Dan 6:5,

this Daniel; both by way of contempt, when they had laid him low in their thoughts and words, intending the king should have the same thoughts of him too; hereby they should have the fairer blow at him.

Of the children of the captivity of Judah; a prisoner at mercy, and yet rebelliously slights the king and his laws. What! because he chose to obey God rather than men, and an ungodly law, as this was in the height? Well, that is his great crime, that he prays to his God three times a day.

Regardeth not thee, O king; which we account dishonourable to thy greatness, and unsufferable from such a mushroom as he is. What, do all the native subjects of the king keep his laws, and must this Daniel presume to break them and be indemnified? Wilt thou tolerate this, O king?

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

That person Daniel

This is not a respectful way of referring to Daniel. They intentionally used this phrase to avoid giving Daniel the respect he was due as a chief administrator.

who is one of the people of the exile from Judah

"who is an immagrant from Judah"

pays no attention to you

This idiom means he ignores the king. AT: "does not obey you" (See: Idiom)

he applied his mind

Here "mind" refers to his thinking. AT: "he thought very hard about how" (See: Metonymy)

He labored

This refers to mental labor, rather than to physical labor.

translationWords

king

Daniel

exile

Judah

decree

pray

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

concerning the king’s decree concerning the infraction of the king’s decree, about which they had come to inform.

the thing is true [as translated,] the thing is true.

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.