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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Daniel 9:20 - 9:20
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The granting of the prayer. - While Daniel was yet engaged in prayer (הַר ק עַל, on account of the holy mountain, i.e., for it, see under Dan 9:16), an answer was already communicated to him; for the angel Gabriel came to him, and brought to him an explanation of the seventy years of Jeremiah, i.e., not as to their expiry, but what would happen after their completion for the city and the people of God. הָאִישׁ , the man Gabriel, refers, by the use of the definite article, back to Dan 8:15, where Gabriel appeared to him in the form of a man. This is expressly observed in the relative clause, “whom I saw,” etc. Regarding בַּתְּחִלָּה (at the first, Dan 9:21) see under Dan 8:1. The differently interpreted words, מֻעַף בִּיעָף, belong, from their position, to the relative clause, or specially to רָאִיתִי (I had seen), not to נֹגֵעַ, since no ground can be perceived for the placing of the adverbial idea before the verb. The translation of מֻעָף בִּיעָף by τάχει φερόμενος (lxx), πετόμενος (Theodot.), cito volans (Vulg.), from which the church fathers concluded that the angels were winged, notwithstanding the fact that rabbis, as e.g., Jos. Jacchiades, and modern interpreters (Häv., v. Leng., Hitz.) maintain it, is without any foundation in the words, and was probably derived by the old translators from a confounding of יָעֵף with עוּף. יָעֵף means only wearied, to become tired, to weary oneself by exertion, in certain places, as e.g., Jer 2:24, by a long journey or course, but nowhere to run or to flee. יְעָף, weariness - wearied in weariness, i.e., very wearied or tired. According to this interpretation, which the words alone admit of, the expression is applicable, not to the angel, whom as an unearthly being, we cannot speak of as being wearied, although, with Kranichfeld, one may think of the way from the dwelling-place of God, removed far from His sinful people, to this earth as very long. On the contrary, the words perfectly agree with the condition of Daniel described in Dan 8:17., 27, and Daniel mentions this circumstance, because Gabriel, at his former coming to him, not only helped to strengthen him, but also gave him understanding of the vision, which was to him hidden in darkness, so that his appearing again at once awakened joyful hope. אֵלַי נֹגֵעַ, not he touched me, but he reached me, came forward to me. For this meaning of נָגַע cf. 2Sa 5:8; Jon 3:6. “About the time of the evening sacrifice.” מִנְחָה, properly meat-offering, here comprehending the sacrifice, as is often its meaning in the later Scriptures; cf. Mal 1:13; Mal 2:13; Mal 3:4. The time of the evening oblation was the time of evening prayer for the congregation.