Daniel 4:13

a watcher i.e. not a guardian, but a wakeful one (Aq., Symm., ἐγρήγορος, Vulg. vigil); so Daniel 4:17; Daniel 4:23. The term denotes an angel, or, possibly, a particular class of angels, so called, either as being ever ready to fulfil the Divine behests, or as being ever wakeful for some particular purpose (e.g. praise). It is of frequent occurrence in the Book of Enoch (in the Greek ἐγρήγοροι), where it is applied usually (i. 5, x. 9, 15, xii. 4, xiii. 10, xiv. 1, 3, xv. 2, xvi. 1, 2, xci. 15) to the fallen angels, but it is also (xii. 3, and perhaps xii. 2) used of the holy angels, though it is not perfectly clear (see the note in Dillmann's edition, p. 104 f.) whether it denotes them generally, or whether it is the name of a particular class (cf. Charles on i. 5, xxxix. 12): the use of the synonyms -the holy angels who watch" in xx. 1 (in the Ethiopic, but not in the Greek text [240]) of six archangels, and -those who sleep not" in xxxix. 12, 13, xl. 2, lxi. 12, lxxi. 7, of certain exalted angels who incessantly hymn the Almighty, and guard His throne, does not entirely remove the uncertainty. The same word which is used here is also often used of angels in Syriac; see Payne Smit [241] Thes. Syr.col. 2843 4.

[240] See p. 356 in Charles" edition (Oxford, 1893).

[241] yne Smith R. Payne Smith, Thesaurus Syriacus.

and a holy one another term denoting an angel: in the O.T., Job 5:1; Job 15:15; Psalms 89:5; Psalms 89:7; Zechariah 14:5; Daniel 8:13 [A.V. -saint" in these passages: see the note on Daniel 8:13]; and repeatedly in the Book of Enoch, i. 9 (whence Judges 14), xii. 2, xiv. 23, xxxix. 5, &c. (see Charles" note on i. 9).