Daniel 6:10

and his windows, &c. more exactly, and also more clearly, now he had in his roof-chamber open windows fronting Jerusalem. The clause is parenthetical, and describes the constant and habitual arrangement of Daniel's windows.

roof-chamber] usually rendered upper chamber, which however does not at all suggest to an English reader what is intended. The -roof-chamber" was (and still is) an apartment -raised above the flat roof of a house at one corner, or upon a tower like annex to the building, with latticed windows giving free circulation to the air" (Moore on Judges 3:20). It was thus cool in summer (Judg. l. c.), and a part of the house to which anyone would naturally retire if he wished to be undisturbed (cf. 1 Kings 17:19; 2 Kings 1:2; 2 Kings 4:10-11). In the N.T. the roof-chamber is mentioned as a place of meeting for prayer (Acts 1:13; Acts 20:8; cf. Acts 10:9: see also Acts 9:37; Acts 9:39). Comp. Thomson's The Land and the Book, Exodus 2, ii. 634, 636 (with an illustration).

open i.e., either without lattices at all, or without fixed lattices (cf. 2 Kings 1:2; 2 Kings 13:17) opp. to -closed windows" (Ezekiel 40:16; Ezekiel 41:16; Ezekiel 41:26), or -windows with closed wood-work" (1 Kings 6:4), the lattices of which did not admit of being opened.

toward Jerusalem To pray, turning towards Jerusalem or, if in Jerusalem, towards the Temple became in later times a standing Jewish custom: we do not know how early it began; but it was based doubtless upon 1 Kings 8:35; 1Ki 8:38; 1 Kings 8:44; 1 Kings 8:48 (in this verse with reference to exiles in a foreign land), cf. Psalms 5:7; Psalms 28:2. The custom is alluded to in the Mishna (Běrâchôth, iv. 5, 6); and in Sifrê71 b it is said that those in foreign lands turn in prayer towards the land of Israel, those in the land of Israel towards Jerusalem, and those in Jerusalem towards the Temple. Mohammed at first commanded his disciples to pray towards Jerusalem; but afterwards he altered the ḳibla(-facing-point") to Mecca.

and he continued kneeling.… and praying, and giving thanks before his God, forasmuch as he had been wont to do (it) aforetime inasmuch as it had been his regular custom, he still adhered to it.

three times a day Cf. Psalms 55:17 (-at evening, and at morning, and at noonday will I complain and moan"). In later times, the three hours of prayer were not as is often supposed, the third, sixth and ninth hours, but the time when the morning burnt-offering was offered (תפלת שחר), in the afternoon at the ninth hour (our three o'clock; cf. Acts 3:1; Acts 10:30), when the evening meal-offering was offered (תפלת מנחה), and sunset (תפלת הערב) see Schürer, ii. 237. The custom may well have arisen before the 2nd cent. b.c. On the prayers which, at least in later days, were used at the three times, see Hamburger, Real-Encyclop. vol. vii., arts. Morgen-, Mincha-, and Abendgebet.

before his God a usage of the later Jews (as in the Targum constantly), who, from a feeling of greater reverence, said -to speak, pray, confess, &c. beforeGod," rather than - toHim." Cf. Daniel 6:22, end; also Daniel 2:9, with the note. The later Jews even extended the same usage to cases in which God was really the agent: cf. Matthew 11:26 (οὔτως ἐγένετο εὐδοκία ἔηπροσθέν σου) Matthew 18:14 (see R.V. marg.); Luke 12:6 (ἐπιλελησμένον ἐνώπιον τοῦ Θεοῦ); Numbers 14:8 Onk. (-if there is good pleasure in us before Jehovah"); and see Dalman, Die Worte Jesu, pp. 172 174.