Ver. 1. It pleased Darius.] Chald., Pulchrum fuit coram Dario. Order, he knew, must be observed, or the kingdom could not continue; himself also was old, and needed assistants. It was honour and work enough for him illos iudicare quos constituit iudices aliorum to appoint others to judge also—as Petr. Blesensis saith that our Henry II did—to judge those whom he had made judges of others. The great Turk doth so to this day, whence few of his grandees, his viziers especially, or chief officers, die in their beds. An hundred and twenty princes.] For his one hundred and twenty provinces, which afterward came to be one hundred and twenty-seven. (Esther 1:1) Monarchs will ever be adding.
Ver. 2. And over these three presidents.] Triumviros sive tres rationales. Three to whom the rest should audit and be accountable. And the king should have no damage.] In his rights and in his revenues, which were, saith Herodotus, yearly fourteen thousand five hundred and threescore Euboian talents, raised out of the several satrapies.
Ver. 3. Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents.] Chald., He became a conqueror over those exarchs; so that he might have been called, as Charles the Great once was, Pater orbis, the world’s father; or as Titus, Orbis deliciae, the world’s darling; or as Otho III, Mirabilia mundi, the world’s wonder. He was indeed no less, and that Darius well found by him. Whether he took him with him into Medea, as Jerome, out of Josephus, relateth, I have not to say; if he did, it seemeth that after the death of Darius he returned again to Babylon, and there served King Cyrus. (Daniel 6:28) Because an excellent spirit was in him.] Not only of prophecy, but of prudence, justice, zeal, and other virtues, which, if a governor lack, he is as a sun without light, a bird without wings, a master of a ship without a helm, &c. And the king thought to set him over the whole realm.] Thus dignity waiteth upon desert, and envy upon dignity, which made David love his hook the better after he had seen the court; and Daniel was never fond of this great preferment, whereby, for his own particular, he got nothing, nisi ut turbatior viveret, occupatior interiret, as he said, but vanity and vexation of spirit. High seats are never but uneasy; neither want there those who are lifting at them, and labouring to overturn them. Feriunt summos fulmina montes.
Ver. 4. Then the presidents and princes sought.] Chald., Were seeking; they made it their business so to do. Envious men are always in excubiis, set in their watch, to observe where they may fasten their fangs, and do most mischief. See Proverbs 27:4. [See Trapp on “Pr 27:4”] But they could find none occasion.] His innocence thrattled their envy, and made them, since they could not come at his heart, to feed upon their own. Nor fault.] Neque in facto, nec in signo; and yet they waited for his halting, [as Psalms 38:16,17] and watched as eagerly for it as a dog doth for a bone. A blameless behaviour disappointeth malice, and maketh it drink up the most part of its own venom. Forasmuch as he was faithful.] Homo quadratus; a square-dealing man, and such as against whom lay no just exception. Homo virtuti simillimus, as Paterculus saith of Cato Major, A man as like Virtue herself as could be possible.
Ver. 5. Then said these men.] But whatsoever they said, Daniel said, Ego sic vivam ut nemo eis credat, My life shall be a real refutation of their lies. Against this Daniel.] This was the best language they could afford him. So, “Behold this dreamer,” said Joseph’s brethren, and “This fellow,” said the Pharisees of Christ, and “This pest,” said they of Paul, that most precious man upon earth. In envy is steeped the venom of all other vices. Except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.] Whereof Daniel was both a strict observer in himself, and a zealous preserver in others. Religion, then, was the quarrel, and all the fault they could find with him— Novum crimen Gaius Caesar, &c -and yet no new accusation either. The first man that ever died, died for religion, and still, “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus” (if they will needs do it, and be set upon it), “shall suffer persecution.” “ Omnia eum liceant, nen licet esse pium ”
Ver. 6. Then these presidents and princes assembled together to the king.] Or, Thronged tumultuously, as resolved to have that they came for. James and John, from the word here used, are called, Filii fremitus sive fragoris, Sons of thunder. (Mark 3:17) It seemeth these men came to the king with a bustle and a rattle, to frighten him into a consent to their motion. King Darius, live for ever.] This was to sprinkle him with court holy water, as they say.
Ver. 7. All the presidents of the kingdom.] Not all either, for Daniel would sooner have died a thousand deaths than have voted such a gross impiety; but he was one of the most, that knew least of the council, and it was he against whom, haec cudebatur faba, this plot was laid, though it proved at last to be against themselves. The governors, and the princes, the counsellors and the captains.] A rabble of rebels, conspiring against heaven. Non numeranda aunt suffragia, sed expendenda. To establish a royal statute.] But a very irreligious and injurious one, the like whereunto was that prohibition in France of Henry III, that it should not be lawful for householders to pray with their families; and that of the Jesuits at Dolce, forbidding the common people to say anything at all of God, either in good sort or in bad. That whosoever shall ask a petition of any god or man.] What, not of their own gods? nor yet of Cyrus, who was co-partner with Darius in the kingdom? But, like enough, these conspiritors might think hereby the rather to ingratiate with the old dotard Darius, who feared the virtue and valour of his nephew and colleague, Cyrus, and would say with tears, as Xenophon reporteth, that Cyrus was more glorious than he, and had more applause of the people. Polan. in locum. Heyl. Geog.