Daniel 2:8

The king answered and said, I know of certainty that ye would gain the time, because ye see the thing is gone from me.

Ver. 8. I know of certainty.] There is no halting before a cripple. Politicians can sound the depth of one another. Dan 11:27

That ye would gain the time.] Chald., Buy or redeem it - that is, make your advantage of it to evade the danger. And indeed if these sorcerers could have gained longer time much might have been done; for either the king might have died or been employed in war, or pacified by the mediation of friends, &c. Time often cooleth the rage of hasty men. as 1Sa 25:33 How Hubert de Burgo, Earl of Kent, escaped the king's wrath by a little respite, see Goodwin's Catalogue of Bish., p. 193.