Joseph Benson’s Bible Commentary

Daniel 6:14,15

Then the king, when he heard these things, was sore displeased with himself Having too late discovered that the princes, in procuring him to sign this decree, had no other end or aim, but to take advantage of it to the prejudice of Daniel. The word באשׂ, here rendered displeased, which in Hebrew signifies to be rotten, is used in Chaldee for such great distress as preys upon the mind, and occasions rottenness in the bones. The meaning is, that the king was very much troubled, and exceedingly vexed with himself. And set his heart on Daniel to deliver him The LXX. render it, και περι του Δανιηλ ηγωνισατο το εξελεσθαι αυτον, a very strong expression, implying that his anxiety to save him was so great as to throw him into an agony. And he laboured till the going down of the sun Endeavouring to find out some exception for him from the law, and being in a great strait through the necessity he was under to have the law executed, and the regard he had for Daniel. Then these men assembled unto the king These were bold men, and resolved to pursue their point and have their will, rather than the king should have his, in this case. The king wished to retrieve an evil act, and to retract, or at least to mitigate, a rigid and rash decree, which was acting an honourable and princely part; but they insist that the law must have its course, and its sentence be fully executed on him, who, they urged, had violated it, because it was a fundamental maxim in the constitution of the government of the Medes and Persians, that no decree or statute which the king established should be changed.

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Joseph Benson’s Bible Commentary

Daniel 6:14,15

Old Testament

New Testament