Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments… For God shall bring every work into judgment.Ecclesiastes 12:13–14
Ecclesiastes calls its speaker “son of David, king in Jerusalem” and never names him. Tradition gave the crown to Solomon. But its late Hebrew and court vocabulary invite comparison with the exile and the Persian world. Its counsel often sounds like a subject's; several parables invite Babylonian comparisons, with important mismatches. Its Hebrew word for “interpretation” has an Aramaic cognate throughout Daniel, and its closing poem can be read beside prophetic judgments. This exhibit holds, at CONVICTION, that the Preacher is Daniel, writing under a Solomonic mask so that a captive could speak of kings and judgment without endangering himself or his hosts. Daniel's Davidic ancestry is not established, and many scholars date the book later than his lifetime. Neither the vocabulary nor the parallels demonstrate his authorship. The house also holds that the poem's last horizon reaches beyond historical Babylon to the end of the age, when the lights of the old heaven go out and the vault is taken away. That physical and prophetic synthesis remains CONVICTION.
The attribution is not careless. The opening line names a “son of David, king in Jerusalem,” and the only son of David who reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was Solomon. The Preacher claims wisdom beyond all before him, great works, houses, vineyards, gardens and pools, servants, silver and gold, and singers — a résumé that reads like 1 Kings 4–10. He “set in order many proverbs,” and Solomon “spake three thousand proverbs.”
Even the title points there. is formed from the root q-h-l, “to assemble,” and in 1 Kings 8:1 it is Solomon who assembles Israel at the dedication of the temple.
Later tradition sealed it. The Targum on Ecclesiastes names Solomon in its first verse, and a midrash assigns Song of Songs to his youth, Proverbs to his maturity and Ecclesiastes to his old age. Christian readers followed for 16 centuries. These are post-70 witnesses, so here they are footnotes, not foundations.
The name is missing. Proverbs names Solomon three times; the Song of Songs names him in its title. Ecclesiastes never does. That the omission conceals another author is an inference, not something anonymity alone proves.
The tense invites a question. “I the Preacher was king” (1:12). Solomon reigned until his death, but Hebrew hayiti can also be rendered “have been”; it does not require that the speaker ceased reigning. Gittin 68b connects the verse with Solomon's displacement by . The legend is attested ; the claim that the tense forced its invention is not established. The mask reading must stand on more than this verb.
The boast is odd. “All they that have been before me in Jerusalem” (1:16). Before Solomon, only David had reigned as Israel's king in Jerusalem. The phrase sits more easily in the mouth of someone looking back on a long line of Jerusalem kings. In the margin: the kings before David in that city were Melchizedek and Adonizedek.
The tradition distinguishes literary hands. The Talmud says Hezekiah and his company “wrote” Ecclesiastes. as an attested tradition. “Wrote” may concern collection, editing or transmission, and does not by itself deny Solomonic composition. The same discussion assigns Daniel to the Great Assembly; those categories cannot be treated literally for one book and editorially for another simply to favor this thesis.
The language is late. The book contains Aramaic features and at least 2 commonly recognized Persian loanwords: and . These are major objections to an unchanged tenth-century Solomonic text. Delitzsch put the linguistic objection bluntly: if the book were of old Solomonic origin, “there is no history of the Hebrew language.” The lexical occurrences are ; dating their composition is scholarly inference . Persian and Hellenistic dating proposals commonly extend beyond Daniel's lifetime. Later editing is another possibility, not a demonstrated solution. The register neither uniquely dates the book to Daniel nor identifies his hand.
The vantage is from below. The Preacher sees oppression in the provinces and no one to comfort the oppressed (4:1; 5:8). He watches servants on horses and princes on foot (10:7). He counsels how to stand before a king, how long to stay, what not to whisper (8:2–5; 10:20). These are a subject's observations. A reigning king does not advise himself not to curse the king.
If the crown slips, the question becomes whose head is under it. If “son of David” is genealogical, Daniel's individual ancestry must be established; if it belongs to the persona, the exhibit cannot also use it as proof of his bloodline. Daniel 1:3–6 includes royal and noble Judeans among the recruits without specifying Daniel's family. He is wise and at home in a royal court; Daniel 10:1 places his revelation in Cyrus's third year, not necessarily continued service. A Davidic Daniel is possible, not demonstrated. If he was about 15 when taken in 605 BC, he would be about 84 in 536 BC — an assumed starting age, not a recorded birthday. The older man addressing youth is a suggestive profile, not an authorship test.
The vocabulary points the same way.
The ledger contains Hebrew and Aramaic cognates, not seven identical words in one language: pesher H6592 / peshar H6591; Hebrew pitgam H6599 / Aramaic H6600; Hebrew zeman H2165 / Aramaic H2166. The lexical occurrences are . Read side by side, Daniel 2:21 can be heard as Ecclesiastes 3:1–8 folded into a line: times and seasons are God's, and kings rise and fall on His schedule. That literary comparison is ; that one man wrote both is . Esther, Ezra and Nehemiah share this register. It supports a broad cultural comparison, not a unique milieu or a proven hand.
Words be few. “God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few” (5:2) does not forbid prayer. It forbids the babbling that thinks it will be heard for much speaking — the very thing Jesus forbade when He sent the disciple into the closet (Matt 6:6–7). Daniel is the model of both halves: few words before kings, and a chamber with the windows open toward Jerusalem, three times a day. In a court ready to feed its problems to lions, public restraint was not timidity. It was the exile's realpolitik, and Ecclesiastes is its manual.
Why write in a mask at all? The book gives the reason itself. “Curse not the king, no not in thy thought… for a bird of the air shall carry the voice” (10:20). A captive at court could not publish a treatise on the folly of kings, the oppression of provinces, and the coming judgment of every work. A dead king of Israel could. The mask protected the writer, and it protected the hosts from a scroll that would read as sedition.
Two readings invite comparison but also supply counterevidence. Jehoiachin is lifted from prison and honored above other captive kings in 561 BC, yet is not restored to sovereign rule as the prisoner in 4:14 comes to reign. Daniel is recalled by the queen, but unlike the poor wise man of 9:15 he does not save the city: Babylon falls that night. Release and memory are real points of comparison; the mismatched outcomes prevent biographical identification. These remain proposed typological readings.
The classic reading of 12:1–7 concerns aging and death: keepers as arms, grinders as teeth, windows as eyes, almond blossom as white hair. Individual identifications vary, but youth, evil days, mourning, dust and returning spirit make that context substantial. Darkened lights and silenced mills can also be compared with prophetic catastrophe. That intertextual comparison is , not proof that the bodily reading fails. Seow's eschatological study is a scholarly reference for discussion, not an endorsement of Daniel's authorship or this exhibit's physical cosmology.
Judgment vocabulary crosses cities. Jeremiah 25:10 first silences music, millstones and lamps in Judah and neighboring lands under Babylon's devastation. Verse 11 gives their seventy-year service; verse 12 then turns judgment on Babylon. Daniel studies Jeremiah's years (Dan 9:2). Isaiah 47 directly addresses Babylon, sending her daughter into the dust and to the millstones while her stargazers fail. Lamentations recalls Judah's young men taken to grind. These are distinct settings, not one original formula exclusively about Babylon. Hearing their imagery together in Ecclesiastes is ; literary dependence and the writer's identity remain unproved.
The house holds the horizon farther than Babylon. Revelation applies the silence of millstone and music to its Babylon (18:22). The imagery is reused across scriptural judgments. The house reads Ecclesiastes in that wider company: not only a dying body, but the end of an order. That the Preacher deliberately writes the end of all things, or learned these words as Daniel, is , not a date or identity supplied by the poem.
The 4 breakings of 12:6 are lamp and water — light and life. for the lexemes. And between the silenced mills and the breakings stands the almond. Shaqed is God's pun to Jeremiah: “I see a rod of an almond tree… I will hasten (shoqed) my word to perform it.” Aaron's dead rod budded almonds as God's verdict on whom He had chosen. In a poem of judgment, the almond blossoming is the watcher keeping His word and vindicating His own.
Daniel was set over Babylon's wise men (Dan 2:48). Babylonian celestial omen literature, including , relates sky phenomena to kings and lands. That makes a cultural comparison possible , but this exhibit identifies no tablet with the exact sequence of Ecclesiastes 12:2–3. Daniel's office does not prove his training in a particular omen series or his authorship of this poem.
The book opens with the sky too. “The sun… hasteth to his place where he arose. It goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north” (1:5–6) — the sun's yearly swing between the solstices, which Babylonian astronomy divided into the three paths of . In Hebrew grammar the wind is the subject of verse 6; the Targum and Rashi read its first half of the sun. The 28 times of 3:2–8, in 14 pairs, echo the nights of a lunar month.
The house reads 12:2 as the book's frame darkening. “There is no new thing under the sun” (1:9). The phrase recurs nearly 30 times; the house hears a closed order in its cycles. Reading the darkened sun as the end of that order, then setting it beside “Behold, I make all things new,” is a theological synthesis. Revelation's city has “no need of the sun”; it does not say the sun ceases to exist, and Ecclesiastes does not explicitly make its observation conditional on the sun's continued existence.
The clouds after the rain. The Hebrew says the clouds “return after the rain” (ve-shavu he-avim achar ha-geshem). That wording is ; permanent overcast is not a grammatical requirement. The house imagines the old water cycle taking its last turn beneath the lid. Through a Glass reads the rolled scroll of Isaiah 34:4 and Revelation 6:14 as that vault removed, beside Revelation 21:1's “no more sea.” The further picture — no cloud-producing sea, no lid and no rain cycle — is , not a physical mechanism explicitly stated by those passages. Neither returning clouds nor “no more sea” independently proves that reading.
The end of the seasons. Genesis 1:14 gives the lights for signs and . Genesis 8:22 promises continuity after the Flood: “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease”; the bow in the cloud follows (9:13–14). But cultivation already belongs to the garden (2:15), and Cain tills before the Flood (4:2–3). Genesis 2:5–6 describes no rain at that narrative stage and water rising from the ground, not a statement that Eden never had rain. Work precedes the curse; painful toil and frustration are added in 3:17–19.
The house reads the returning clouds and the time to plant and pluck up against that Noahic continuity, then holds that restoration ends the seasons of frustrated toil. The tree yields fruit every month (Rev 22:2), and Isaiah keeps new moons and sabbaths in the new heavens and earth (Isa 66:22–23). Those texts affirm fruitfulness and worship; they do not explicitly abolish every harvest season, rainstorm or form of farming. Genesis 8:22 does not itself announce an expiry date at renewal. Ecclesiastes says the earth “abideth for ever” (1:4). Bringing these into one renewed-Eden climate is the house's synthesis, not a measured forecast or a demonstrated weather system.
A striking phrase joins the readings. Ecclesiastes' conclusion opens with , “the end of the matter.” Daniel closes his vision with the comparable Aramaic sofa di-millta (Dan 7:28). The lexical and semantic comparison is . A shared closing idiom is not a unique authorial signature; its force for this pairing is .
The Preacher lays the dust down; the prophet raises it. The Preacher wearies of books; the prophet seals one for the end. The Preacher promises judgment; the prophet is told he will stand in it. The pairing of the two endings is . That both are numbered chapter 12 is only — the chapter numbers were added around 1227.
The closing verdict resonates with the prophet's name. Daniel is conventionally rendered “God is my judge”; Ecclesiastes closes on “God shall bring every work into judgment.” This is a thematic resonance, not the book's literal final word or an exact name-translation. The Mystery of Chileab heard that name walking on. Here the house holds the name and the pen together.
Held together, the house reads one plan in three registers. Daniel gives the calendar of judgment in visions. Psalm 119, laid on the ladder in The 22 Times of Daniel, gives its alphabet from aleph to tav. And Ecclesiastes gives its end in a poem: the lights out, the seasons spent, the tent struck, the dust laid down for the prophet to raise. That one hand stands behind all three is .
If Daniel wrote in stealth once, the next question is what else his name or his hand may be on. The shelf is a selected collection of Danielic texts and proposed connections, not an exhaustive inventory of pre-70 writings or a uniform authorship claim.
His pen holds the 2 books this house attributes to Daniel: Ecclesiastes and Psalm 119, only at CONVICTION. His name holds the 3 Greek additions associated with Daniel and his companions, preserved in the and traditions. Their canonical status varies: Catholic and Orthodox Bibles include them; Protestant editions traditionally place them in the Apocrypha or omit them. The KJV Apocrypha English embedded here follows the Theodotion form printed in the sixteenth century; it is not a pre-70 manuscript or an English rendering of every Old Greek variant. His circle groups 3 Aramaic shelf entries from , edited in . “Circle” means a literary tradition, not documented disciples or Daniel's own pen. 4Q243–244 and 4Q245 are not securely one composition. Medieval apocalypses and dream books are outside this selected shelf.
For each text, On the radar pulls out what still faces forward — promises and patterns the house reads as open, as Movements V and VI did with Ecclesiastes 12.
The Preacher's survey of life “under the sun,” written under a Solomonic mask. Twelve chapters circle 3 themes: the vanity (hevel, “vapour”) of the sealed order; the courtier's rules for living in a king's house; and joy received as a gift while it lasts. The book closes with the poem of the falling house and a single verdict: fear God, for every work comes into judgment.
Two things stand out. The forward edge of the whole shelf points one way: judgment of what is hidden, the refining of the wicked like dross, the acknowledgment of God over the whole world, and a kingdom at rest in truth. And the stories told of Daniel carry the same method as the books held to be his: hidden things exposed by evidence, false witnesses undone by their own words, the furnace that does not consume. The pen and the name walk the same road.
The persona debt. “I was king over Israel in Jerusalem” (1:12), the predecessors in Jerusalem (1:16) and the building works of 2:4–9 describe Solomon's life, not Daniel's. This reading must treat them as a deliberate mask. That is coherent with the book's own warnings about speech, but a mask is hard to test.
The register debt. Hebrew and Aramaic cognates place the comparisons within a broad court-language environment, shared with Esther, Ezra and Nehemiah. They do not uniquely date Ecclesiastes to Daniel's lifetime, still less place it in his hand.
The date and ancestry debt. Late language and Persian borrowings support Persian-to-Hellenistic proposals; many scholars place Ecclesiastes in the fourth or third century BC, later than Daniel's narrative lifetime. Daniel 10:1 records a revelation in Cyrus's third year, not continued office. Daniel 1 does not specify his individual Davidic genealogy. This thesis must argue these questions, not count them as resolved.
The tone debt. Ecclesiastes has no visions, angels or recorded prayers; Daniel is full of them. This reading answers that a book written under cover would mute exactly those things. A hostile reader will still press it.
The horizon debt. Isaiah 47 addresses Babylon; Jeremiah 25 first addresses Judah and neighboring nations, then Babylon after seventy years. Revelation reuses the judgment imagery. Reading Ecclesiastes 12 as the end of the age remains a synthesis alongside its substantial aging-and-death context, not a date or physical cosmology stated by the poem.
The idiom debt. “What doest thou?” appears in Job 9:12 and Isa 45:9 as well as Daniel. It is an idiom, not a signature.
The shelf debt. Only Ecclesiastes and Psalm 119 are attributed to Daniel here, only at CONVICTION; Psalm 119 is anonymous. The Greek additions belong to traditions of Daniel and his companions, not signed compositions by him. The Aramaic manuscripts have distinct, fragmentary witnesses and restored passages. Pre-70 copying is not evidence of Daniel's own authorship. Their forward-looking application remains interpretation unless the cited text itself makes the promise.
In this exhibit's reading, the Preacher's counsel speaks from exile. Under grace its pattern can serve anyone working inside a system that does not acknowledge the Most High. This application does not require agreement with the authorship thesis. These are first steps, not homework.
Every device state, shelf entry, provenance note and available reader text is listed here for linear reading.
Passage: I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem.
The mask: A memoir of the reign, written by the king himself; the Hebrew can also be rendered “have been king.”
The court: The house proposes a crown worn as costume by an exile. The tense does not require a former king, and Dan 1:3–6 does not establish Daniel's Davidic ancestry.
Sources: 1. Ecclesiastes 1:1, 1:12, 1:16 — the Preacher's self-description · 27. Daniel 1:3–6 — royal and noble recruitment
Passage: Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king… for out of prison he cometh to reign.
The mask: A general proverb about wisdom and folly in rulers.
The court: Jehoiachin is lifted out of prison and honored above captive kings (2 Kgs 25:27–30), but is not restored to sovereign rule. The release resembles the proverb; the reign does not.
Sources: 13. 2 Kings 25:27–30 — Jehoiachin out of prison
Passage: God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.
The mask: Decorum in the house of God.
The court: The exile's rule of survival. Few words in public, in a court that fed problems to lions; the long prayers kept for the chamber with the windows open (Dan 6:10; Matt 6:6–7).
Sources: 26. Daniel 6:10 · Matthew 6:6–7
Passage: Who is as the wise man? and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing?
The mask: Wisdom in the abstract.
The court: Pesher — a Hebrew word whose Aramaic cognate peshar fills Daniel 2, 4 and 5. A genuine lexical parallel, not a unique authorial signature.
Sources: 7. Pesher (H6592) in Eccl 8:1 · peshar (H6591) in Daniel
Passage: Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?
The mask: A king describing his own authority.
The court: A subject describing a king's — and echoing Nebuchadnezzar's confession of God (Dan 4:35).
Sources: 8. Eccl 8:4 · Dan 4:35 — “What doest thou?”
Passage: There was a little city… there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man.
The mask: A parable.
The court: The queen recalls Daniel in Belshazzar's court (Dan 5:10–13). The memory motif resembles the parable, but its outcome is opposite: Daniel announces judgment and Babylon falls; he does not save the city.
Sources: 14. Daniel 5:10–13, 30 — the remembered interpreter and the fallen city
Passage: Curse not the king, no not in thy thought… for a bird of the air shall carry the voice.
The mask: Prudence advised to subjects — by the king?
The court: A courtier under surveillance. Daniel's enemies sought occasion against him and found none (Dan 6:4–5).
Sources: 12. Eccl 8:2–5; 10:20 — the courtier's rules
Passage: The grinders cease because they are few… the sound of the grinding is low… all the daughters of musick shall be brought low.
The mask: Teeth, voice and hearing failing in old age.
The court: Judgment imagery across texts: Jeremiah first silences Judah and neighboring nations (25:9–11); Isaiah addresses Babylon; Lamentations recalls Judah's captives. Revelation 18:22 applies the millstone/music silence to Babylon. A proposed intertextual reading, not proof of dependence or authorship.
Sources: 15. Jeremiah 25:10–12 · Daniel 9:2 · 16. Isaiah 47:1–2, 13 — the daughter of Babylon in the dust · 17. Lamentations 5:13 — the young men taken to grind · 18. Revelation 18:22 — Babylon's last silence
“There is no new thing under the sun.” — Eccl 1:9
The book's frame: a sealed order, every cycle returning on itself (1:5–7). The refrain “under the sun” recurs nearly 30 times.
“…while the sun… be not darkened.” — Eccl 12:2
The first light to go is the one the whole book has lived beneath.
“…or the light…” — Eccl 12:2
Light named apart from the sun, as on the first day before the luminaries (Gen 1:3, 1:14).
“…or the moon…” — Eccl 12:2
The lamp of the months and the feasts.
“…or the stars…” — Eccl 12:2
The house reads the darkened lights as a cosmic judgment horizon. Celestial omens provide a cultural comparison, not an identified source for this sequence or proof of Daniel's authorship.
“…nor the clouds return after the rain.” — Eccl 12:2
Returning clouds are the wording; permanent overcast and the last turn of the old water cycle are the house's CONVICTION, not requirements of the Hebrew grammar.
“The heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together.” — Rev 6:14
Beyond Ecclesiastes, the house reads Isaiah 34:4 and Revelation 6:14 as the separating vault taken away. This physical synthesis is CONVICTION. See Through a Glass.
“Behold, I make all things new… there was no more sea… the city had no need of the sun.” — Rev 21:1, 5, 23
The house envisions the old lid and seasonal toil gone, with fruit every month (Rev 22:2): CONVICTION. The texts do not explicitly abolish clouds, rain or farming, nor say the sun ceases to exist. “No need” is not “no sun.”
Classification: Hebrew canon · this exhibit · His pen — Held in this house as written by Daniel — CONVICTION.
Summary: The Preacher's survey of life “under the sun,” written under a Solomonic mask. Twelve chapters circle 3 themes: the vanity (hevel, “vapour”) of the sealed order; the courtier's rules for living in a king's house; and joy received as a gift while it lasts. The book closes with the poem of the falling house and a single verdict: fear God, for every work comes into judgment.
Provenance: King James Version (1611), standard 1769 text — public domain. Translated from the Hebrew Masoretic text.
1:2 — “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.” Hevel is breath or vapour, not worthlessness. The Septuagint renders it mataiotēs — and Paul uses that same word when he says the creation “was made subject to vanity… in hope,” awaiting deliverance from the bondage of corruption (Rom 8:20–21). The New Testament reads the Preacher's vanity as the creation's sealed state awaiting release.
3:11 — “He hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.” Ha-olam can mean “the world” or “eternity.” Interpreters through the centuries have heard here the restlessness of a creature made for more than time.
3:15 — “That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.” Literally, “God seeks what was pursued” — read both as God calling the past to account and as God seeking the hunted. A one-line doctrine of judgment and rescue.
8:11 — “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” Pitgam, the Persian court word for a decree. The delay of judgment read as the reason for boldness in evil — and, by implication, a delay that will end.
11:1 — “Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.” Read as generosity that returns, and as sowing that waits for its season.
12:11 — “The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd.” The book's own claim about its source: one shepherd behind many sayings.
12:13–14 — “Fear God, and keep his commandments… For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing.” The conclusion every reader carries out. Ne'lam, “hidden thing” — nothing covered stays covered.
1:1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
1:2 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
1:3 What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
1:4 One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.
1:5 The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.
1:6 The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.
1:7 All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.
1:8 All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
1:9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
1:10 Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.
1:11 There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.
1:12 I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem.
1:13 And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith.
1:14 I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
1:15 That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.
1:16 I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem: yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.
1:17 And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.
1:18 For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
2:1 I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also is vanity.
2:2 I said of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, What doeth it?
2:3 I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom; and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life.
2:4 I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards:
2:5 I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits:
2:6 I made me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees:
2:7 I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me:
2:8 I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces: I gat me men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of all sorts.
2:9 So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me.
2:10 And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour.
2:11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.
2:12 And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly: for what can the man do that cometh after the king? even that which hath been already done.
2:13 Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness.
2:14 The wise man's eyes are in his head; but the fool walketh in darkness: and I myself perceived also that one event happeneth to them all.
2:15 Then said I in my heart, As it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me; and why was I then more wise? Then I said in my heart, that this also is vanity.
2:16 For there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever; seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise man? as the fool.
2:17 Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
2:18 Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me.
2:19 And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shewed myself wise under the sun. This is also vanity.
2:20 Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labour which I took under the sun.
2:21 For there is a man whose labour is in wisdom, and in knowledge, and in equity; yet to a man that hath not laboured therein shall he leave it for his portion. This also is vanity and a great evil.
2:22 For what hath man of all his labour, and of the vexation of his heart, wherein he hath laboured under the sun?
2:23 For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity.
2:24 There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God.
2:25 For who can eat, or who else can hasten hereunto, more than I?
2:26 For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.
3:1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
3:2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3:3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
3:4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
3:5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
3:6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
3:7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
3:8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
3:9 What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?
3:10 I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.
3:11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.
3:12 I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.
3:13 And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.
3:14 I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.
3:15 That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.
3:16 And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there.
3:17 I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.
3:18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
3:19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
3:20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
3:21 Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?
3:22 Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?
4:1 So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.
4:2 Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive.
4:3 Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.
4:4 Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit.
4:5 The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh.
4:6 Better is an handful with quietness, than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit.
4:7 Then I returned, and I saw vanity under the sun.
4:8 There is one alone, and there is not a second; yea, he hath neither child nor brother: yet is there no end of all his labour; neither is his eye satisfied with riches; neither saith he, For whom do I labour, and bereave my soul of good? This is also vanity, yea, it is a sore travail.
4:9 Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.
4:10 For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.
4:11 Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone?
4:12 And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
4:13 Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished.
4:14 For out of prison he cometh to reign; whereas also he that is born in his kingdom becometh poor.
4:15 I considered all the living which walk under the sun, with the second child that shall stand up in his stead.
4:16 There is no end of all the people, even of all that have been before them: they also that come after shall not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and vexation of spirit.
5:1 Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil.
5:2 Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.
5:3 For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words.
5:4 When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed.
5:5 Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.
5:6 Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands?
5:7 For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear thou God.
5:8 If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they.
5:9 Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king himself is served by the field.
5:10 He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.
5:11 When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes?
5:12 The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.
5:13 There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt.
5:14 But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand.
5:15 As he came forth of his mother's womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand.
5:16 And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind?
5:17 All his days also he eateth in darkness, and he hath much sorrow and wrath with his sickness.
5:18 Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it is his portion.
5:19 Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labour; this is the gift of God.
5:20 For he shall not much remember the days of his life; because God answereth him in the joy of his heart.
6:1 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men:
6:2 A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it: this is vanity, and it is an evil disease.
6:3 If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he.
6:4 For he cometh in with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness.
6:5 Moreover he hath not seen the sun, nor known any thing: this hath more rest than the other.
6:6 Yea, though he live a thousand years twice told, yet hath he seen no good: do not all go to one place?
6:7 All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.
6:8 For what hath the wise more than the fool? what hath the poor, that knoweth to walk before the living?
6:9 Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this is also vanity and vexation of spirit.
6:10 That which hath been is named already, and it is known that it is man: neither may he contend with him that is mightier than he.
6:11 Seeing there be many things that increase vanity, what is man the better?
6:12 For who knoweth what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?
7:1 A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth.
7:2 It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.
7:3 Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.
7:4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.
7:5 It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools.
7:6 For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool: this also is vanity.
7:7 Surely oppression maketh a wise man mad; and a gift destroyeth the heart.
7:8 Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.
7:9 Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools.
7:10 Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this.
7:11 Wisdom is good with an inheritance: and by it there is profit to them that see the sun.
7:12 For wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence: but the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to them that have it.
7:13 Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked?
7:14 In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him.
7:15 All things have I seen in the days of my vanity: there is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness.
7:16 Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself over wise: why shouldest thou destroy thyself?
7:17 Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldest thou die before thy time?
7:18 It is good that thou shouldest take hold of this; yea, also from this withdraw not thine hand: for he that feareth God shall come forth of them all.
7:19 Wisdom strengtheneth the wise more than ten mighty men which are in the city.
7:20 For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.
7:21 Also take no heed unto all words that are spoken; lest thou hear thy servant curse thee:
7:22 For oftentimes also thine own heart knoweth that thou thyself likewise hast cursed others.
7:23 All this have I proved by wisdom: I said, I will be wise; but it was far from me.
7:24 That which is far off, and exceeding deep, who can find it out?
7:25 I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness:
7:26 And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her.
7:27 Behold, this have I found, saith the preacher, counting one by one, to find out the account:
7:28 Which yet my soul seeketh, but I find not: one man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found.
7:29 Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.
8:1 Who is as the wise man? and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? a man's wisdom maketh his face to shine, and the boldness of his face shall be changed.
8:2 I counsel thee to keep the king's commandment, and that in regard of the oath of God.
8:3 Be not hasty to go out of his sight: stand not in an evil thing; for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him.
8:4 Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?
8:5 Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment.
8:6 Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him.
8:7 For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be?
8:8 There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it.
8:9 All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: there is a time wherein one man ruleth over another to his own hurt.
8:10 And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done: this is also vanity.
8:11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.
8:12 Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him:
8:13 But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he feareth not before God.
8:14 There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there be just men, unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again, there be wicked men, to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also is vanity.
8:15 Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun.
8:16 When I applied mine heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth: (for also there is that neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes:)
8:17 Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea further; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.
9:1 For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them.
9:2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.
9:3 This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.
9:4 For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
9:5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.
9:6 Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.
9:7 Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works.
9:8 Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head lack no ointment.
9:9 Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun.
9:10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.
9:11 I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
9:12 For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.
9:13 This wisdom have I seen also under the sun, and it seemed great unto me:
9:14 There was a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it:
9:15 Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man.
9:16 Then said I, Wisdom is better than strength: nevertheless the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.
9:17 The words of wise men are heard in quiet more than the cry of him that ruleth among fools.
9:18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war: but one sinner destroyeth much good.
10:1 Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour.
10:2 A wise man's heart is at his right hand; but a fool's heart at his left.
10:3 Yea also, when he that is a fool walketh by the way, his wisdom faileth him, and he saith to every one that he is a fool.
10:4 If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place; for yielding pacifieth great offences.
10:5 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, as an error which proceedeth from the ruler:
10:6 Folly is set in great dignity, and the rich sit in low place.
10:7 I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth.
10:8 He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.
10:9 Whoso removeth stones shall be hurt therewith; and he that cleaveth wood shall be endangered thereby.
10:10 If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength: but wisdom is profitable to direct.
10:11 Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment; and a babbler is no better.
10:12 The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious; but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself.
10:13 The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness: and the end of his talk is mischievous madness.
10:14 A fool also is full of words: a man cannot tell what shall be; and what shall be after him, who can tell him?
10:15 The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the city.
10:16 Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning!
10:17 Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness!
10:18 By much slothfulness the building decayeth; and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through.
10:19 A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry: but money answereth all things.
10:20 Curse not the king, no not in thy thought; and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter.
11:1 Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.
11:2 Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth.
11:3 If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth: and if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be.
11:4 He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap.
11:5 As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.
11:6 In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.
11:7 Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun:
11:8 But if a man live many years, and rejoice in them all; yet let him remember the days of darkness; for they shall be many. All that cometh is vanity.
11:9 Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.
11:10 Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh: for childhood and youth are vanity.
12:1 Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;
12:2 While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain:
12:3 In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened,
12:4 And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low;
12:5 Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets:
12:6 Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
12:7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
12:8 Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity.
12:9 And moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in order many proverbs.
12:10 The preacher sought to find out acceptable words: and that which was written was upright, even words of truth.
12:11 The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd.
12:12 And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
12:14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
Classification: Hebrew canon · The 22 Times of Daniel · His pen — Held in this house as written by Daniel — CONVICTION.
Summary: The longest psalm and an elaborate acrostic: 22 stanzas of 8 verses, every verse in a stanza beginning with the same Hebrew letter, aleph to tav. Nearly every verse uses recurring vocabulary of God's instruction: law, testimonies, precepts, statutes, commandments, judgments, and two terms rendered word or promise; ways is another recurring term. A servant under affliction and persecution clings to the word, asks to be taught, and ends as a lost sheep asking to be sought.
Provenance: King James Version (1611), standard 1769 text — public domain. Translated from the Hebrew Masoretic text.
119:18 — “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.” The reader's prayer before the text — the posture of every exhibit.
119:71 — “It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.” Affliction as schoolmaster — the exile's theology in one line.
119:89 — “For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.” Opens the Lamed stanza — in The 22 Times of Daniel, the stanza laid over Sinai.
119:96 — “I have seen an end of all perfection: but thy commandment is exceeding broad.” Qetz — the word Daniel uses for “the time of the end” (Dan 8:17; 12:4).
119:105 — “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” The most quoted line of the psalm; the lamp of the lampstand carried in the hand.
119:126 — “It is time for thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void thy law.” Et in Hebrew, kairos in the Greek — the appointed hour for God to act.
119:176 — “I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments.” The tav — the alphabet ends not on a decode but on being found (Luke 15:4; 19:10).
א Aleph — 119:1 Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.
119:2 Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart.
119:3 They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways.
119:4 Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently.
119:5 O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!
119:6 Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments.
119:7 I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments.
119:8 I will keep thy statutes: O forsake me not utterly.
ב Beth — 119:9 Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.
119:10 With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.
119:11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
119:12 Blessed art thou, O Lord: teach me thy statutes.
119:13 With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth.
119:14 I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches.
119:15 I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways.
119:16 I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.
ג Gimel — 119:17 Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word.
119:18 Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.
119:19 I am a stranger in the earth: hide not thy commandments from me.
119:20 My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times.
119:21 Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed, which do err from thy commandments.
119:22 Remove from me reproach and contempt; for I have kept thy testimonies.
119:23 Princes also did sit and speak against me: but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes.
119:24 Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counsellors.
ד Daleth — 119:25 My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word.
119:26 I have declared my ways, and thou heardest me: teach me thy statutes.
119:27 Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: so shall I talk of thy wondrous works.
119:28 My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word.
119:29 Remove from me the way of lying: and grant me thy law graciously.
119:30 I have chosen the way of truth: thy judgments have I laid before me.
119:31 I have stuck unto thy testimonies: O Lord, put me not to shame.
119:32 I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.
ה He — 119:33 Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end.
119:34 Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.
119:35 Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight.
119:36 Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness.
119:37 Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.
119:38 Stablish thy word unto thy servant, who is devoted to thy fear.
119:39 Turn away my reproach which I fear: for thy judgments are good.
119:40 Behold, I have longed after thy precepts: quicken me in thy righteousness.
ו Vau — 119:41 Let thy mercies come also unto me, O Lord, even thy salvation, according to thy word.
119:42 So shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproacheth me: for I trust in thy word.
119:43 And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth; for I have hoped in thy judgments.
119:44 So shall I keep thy law continually for ever and ever.
119:45 And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts.
119:46 I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed.
119:47 And I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved.
119:48 My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes.
ז Zain — 119:49 Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope.
119:50 This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me.
119:51 The proud have had me greatly in derision: yet have I not declined from thy law.
119:52 I remembered thy judgments of old, O Lord; and have comforted myself.
119:53 Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law.
119:54 Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.
119:55 I have remembered thy name, O Lord, in the night, and have kept thy law.
119:56 This I had, because I kept thy precepts.
ח Cheth — 119:57 Thou art my portion, O Lord: I have said that I would keep thy words.
119:58 I intreated thy favour with my whole heart: be merciful unto me according to thy word.
119:59 I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies.
119:60 I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments.
119:61 The bands of the wicked have robbed me: but I have not forgotten thy law.
119:62 At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments.
119:63 I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts.
119:64 The earth, O Lord, is full of thy mercy: teach me thy statutes.
ט Teth — 119:65 Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O Lord, according unto thy word.
119:66 Teach me good judgment and knowledge: for I have believed thy commandments.
119:67 Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.
119:68 Thou art good, and doest good; teach me thy statutes.
119:69 The proud have forged a lie against me: but I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart.
119:70 Their heart is as fat as grease; but I delight in thy law.
119:71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.
119:72 The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver.
י Jod — 119:73 Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments.
119:74 They that fear thee will be glad when they see me; because I have hoped in thy word.
119:75 I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.
119:76 Let, I pray thee, thy merciful kindness be for my comfort, according to thy word unto thy servant.
119:77 Let thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may live: for thy law is my delight.
119:78 Let the proud be ashamed; for they dealt perversely with me without a cause: but I will meditate in thy precepts.
119:79 Let those that fear thee turn unto me, and those that have known thy testimonies.
119:80 Let my heart be sound in thy statutes; that I be not ashamed.
כ Caph — 119:81 My soul fainteth for thy salvation: but I hope in thy word.
119:82 Mine eyes fail for thy word, saying, When wilt thou comfort me?
119:83 For I am become like a bottle in the smoke; yet do I not forget thy statutes.
119:84 How many are the days of thy servant? when wilt thou execute judgment on them that persecute me?
119:85 The proud have digged pits for me, which are not after thy law.
119:86 All thy commandments are faithful: they persecute me wrongfully; help thou me.
119:87 They had almost consumed me upon earth; but I forsook not thy precepts.
119:88 Quicken me after thy lovingkindness; so shall I keep the testimony of thy mouth.
ל Lamed — 119:89 For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.
119:90 Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: thou hast established the earth, and it abideth.
119:91 They continue this day according to thine ordinances: for all are thy servants.
119:92 Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction.
119:93 I will never forget thy precepts: for with them thou hast quickened me.
119:94 I am thine, save me; for I have sought thy precepts.
119:95 The wicked have waited for me to destroy me: but I will consider thy testimonies.
119:96 I have seen an end of all perfection: but thy commandment is exceeding broad.
מ Mem — 119:97 O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.
119:98 Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me.
119:99 I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation.
119:100 I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts.
119:101 I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word.
119:102 I have not departed from thy judgments: for thou hast taught me.
119:103 How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
119:104 Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way.
נ Nun — 119:105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
119:106 I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will keep thy righteous judgments.
119:107 I am afflicted very much: quicken me, O Lord, according unto thy word.
119:108 Accept, I beseech thee, the freewill offerings of my mouth, O Lord, and teach me thy judgments.
119:109 My soul is continually in my hand: yet do I not forget thy law.
119:110 The wicked have laid a snare for me: yet I erred not from thy precepts.
119:111 Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever: for they are the rejoicing of my heart.
119:112 I have inclined mine heart to perform thy statutes alway, even unto the end.
ס Samech — 119:113 I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love.
119:114 Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word.
119:115 Depart from me, ye evildoers: for I will keep the commandments of my God.
119:116 Uphold me according unto thy word, that I may live: and let me not be ashamed of my hope.
119:117 Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe: and I will have respect unto thy statutes continually.
119:118 Thou hast trodden down all them that err from thy statutes: for their deceit is falsehood.
119:119 Thou puttest away all the wicked of the earth like dross: therefore I love thy testimonies.
119:120 My flesh trembleth for fear of thee; and I am afraid of thy judgments.
ע Ain — 119:121 I have done judgment and justice: leave me not to mine oppressors.
119:122 Be surety for thy servant for good: let not the proud oppress me.
119:123 Mine eyes fail for thy salvation, and for the word of thy righteousness.
119:124 Deal with thy servant according unto thy mercy, and teach me thy statutes.
119:125 I am thy servant; give me understanding, that I may know thy testimonies.
119:126 It is time for thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void thy law.
119:127 Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold.
119:128 Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way.
פ Pe — 119:129 Thy testimonies are wonderful: therefore doth my soul keep them.
119:130 The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.
119:131 I opened my mouth, and panted: for I longed for thy commandments.
119:132 Look thou upon me, and be merciful unto me, as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name.
119:133 Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.
119:134 Deliver me from the oppression of man: so will I keep thy precepts.
119:135 Make thy face to shine upon thy servant; and teach me thy statutes.
119:136 Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law.
צ Tzaddi — 119:137 Righteous art thou, O Lord, and upright are thy judgments.
119:138 Thy testimonies that thou hast commanded are righteous and very faithful.
119:139 My zeal hath consumed me, because mine enemies have forgotten thy words.
119:140 Thy word is very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it.
119:141 I am small and despised: yet do not I forget thy precepts.
119:142 Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.
119:143 Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me: yet thy commandments are my delights.
119:144 The righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting: give me understanding, and I shall live.
ק Koph — 119:145 I cried with my whole heart; hear me, O Lord: I will keep thy statutes.
119:146 I cried unto thee; save me, and I shall keep thy testimonies.
119:147 I prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried: I hoped in thy word.
119:148 Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word.
119:149 Hear my voice according unto thy lovingkindness: O Lord, quicken me according to thy judgment.
119:150 They draw nigh that follow after mischief: they are far from thy law.
119:151 Thou art near, O Lord; and all thy commandments are truth.
119:152 Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old that thou hast founded them for ever.
ר Resh — 119:153 Consider mine affliction, and deliver me: for I do not forget thy law.
119:154 Plead my cause, and deliver me: quicken me according to thy word.
119:155 Salvation is far from the wicked: for they seek not thy statutes.
119:156 Great are thy tender mercies, O Lord: quicken me according to thy judgments.
119:157 Many are my persecutors and mine enemies; yet do I not decline from thy testimonies.
119:158 I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved; because they kept not thy word.
119:159 Consider how I love thy precepts: quicken me, O Lord, according to thy lovingkindness.
119:160 Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.
ש Schin — 119:161 Princes have persecuted me without a cause: but my heart standeth in awe of thy word.
119:162 I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil.
119:163 I hate and abhor lying: but thy law do I love.
119:164 Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments.
119:165 Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.
119:166 Lord, I have hoped for thy salvation, and done thy commandments.
119:167 My soul hath kept thy testimonies; and I love them exceedingly.
119:168 I have kept thy precepts and thy testimonies: for all my ways are before thee.
ת Tau — 119:169 Let my cry come near before thee, O Lord: give me understanding according to thy word.
119:170 Let my supplication come before thee: deliver me according to thy word.
119:171 My lips shall utter praise, when thou hast taught me thy statutes.
119:172 My tongue shall speak of thy word: for all thy commandments are righteousness.
119:173 Let thine hand help me; for I have chosen thy precepts.
119:174 I have longed for thy salvation, O Lord; and thy law is my delight.
119:175 Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee; and let thy judgments help me.
119:176 I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments.
Classification: KJV v1–68 · NABRE Daniel 3:24–90 cross-references · His name — Carried in the Greek Danielic tradition, including his companions; not signed by Daniel.
Summary: The Greek text of Daniel 3 opens the furnace from the inside. Azariah — Abednego by his Babylonian name — confesses the nation's sin in exile: no prince, no prophet, no offering, no place to sacrifice, only a contrite heart. The king's servants stoke the furnace until the flame kills the Chaldeans outside it; the angel of the Lord comes down into the fire and makes its midst like a moist, whistling wind. Then the 3 young men sing the Benedicite, calling every part of creation, rank by rank, to bless the Lord.
Provenance: King James Version Apocrypha (1611), standard 1769 text — public domain. Translated from the Greek of Daniel as printed in the 16th century (the Theodotion form).
v15–16 (Dan 3:38–39) — “Neither is there at this time prince, or prophet, or leader, or burnt offering… Nevertheless in a contrite heart and an humble spirit let us be accepted.” Worship without a temple: the sacrifice of the heart offered in place of the altar (Ps 51:17). Under grace it becomes the living sacrifice of Rom 12:1.
v22 (Dan 3:45) — “And let them know that thou art God, the only God, and glorious over the whole world.” The prayer's goal is not rescue alone but universal acknowledgment.
v26–27 (Dan 3:49–50) — “The angel of the Lord came down into the oven… And made the midst of the furnace as it had been a moist whistling wind.” The Greek tradition identifies an angel; the Aramaic chapter describes the fourth figure separately. The furnace as a garden breeze is the house's poetic comparison; ruach is a Hebrew analogy, not the Greek word used here.
v38 (Dan 3:60) — “O all ye waters that be above the heaven, bless ye the Lord.” The waters above the firmament (Gen 1:7; Ps 148:4) summoned by name — the barrier of Through a Glass has a voice in this hymn.
v45 (Dan 3:67) — “O ye winter and summer, bless ye the Lord.” The Gen 8:22 seasons in praise. Reading this as their last service before a changed order is CONVICTION; the hymn itself does not announce their abolition.
v66 (Dan 3:88) — “He hath delivered us from hell, and saved us from the hand of death, and delivered us out of the midst of the furnace.” Hades and the furnace named together: deliverance from the fire read as deliverance from death itself.
The church's canticle The Benedicite has been sung in Christian morning prayer for centuries, and the Book of Common Prayer prints it as a canticle of Morning Prayer.
1:1 And they walked in the midst of the fire, praising God, and blessing the Lord.
1:2 Then Azarias stood up, and prayed on this manner; and opening his mouth in the midst of the fire said,
1:3 Blessed art thou, O Lord God of our fathers: thy name is worthy to be praised and glorified for evermore:
1:4 For thou art righteous in all the things that thou hast done to us: yea, true are all thy works, thy ways are right, and all thy judgments truth.
1:5 In all the things that thou hast brought upon us, and upon the holy city of our fathers, even Jerusalem, thou hast executed true judgment: for according to truth and judgment didst thou bring all these things upon us because of our sins.
1:6 For we have sinned and committed iniquity, departing from thee.
1:7 In all things have we trespassed, and not obeyed thy commandments, nor kept them, neither done as thou hast commanded us, that it might go well with us.
1:8 Wherefore all that thou hast brought upon us, and every thing that thou hast done to us, thou hast done in true judgment.
1:9 And thou didst deliver us into the hands of lawless enemies, most hateful forsakers of God, and to an unjust king, and the most wicked in all the world.
1:10 And now we cannot open our mouths, we are become a shame and reproach to thy servants; and to them that worship thee.
1:11 Yet deliver us not up wholly, for thy name's sake, neither disannul thou thy covenant:
1:12 And cause not thy mercy to depart from us, for thy beloved Abraham's sake, for thy servant Issac's sake, and for thy holy Israel's sake;
1:13 To whom thou hast spoken and promised, that thou wouldest multiply their seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand that lieth upon the seashore.
1:14 For we, O Lord, are become less than any nation, and be kept under this day in all the world because of our sins.
1:15 Neither is there at this time prince, or prophet, or leader, or burnt offering, or sacrifice, or oblation, or incense, or place to sacrifice before thee, and to find mercy.
1:16 Nevertheless in a contrite heart and an humble spirit let us be accepted.
1:17 Like as in the burnt offerings of rams and bullocks, and like as in ten thousands of fat lambs: so let our sacrifice be in thy sight this day, and grant that we may wholly go after thee: for they shall not be confounded that put their trust in thee.
1:18 And now we follow thee with all our heart, we fear thee, and seek thy face.
1:19 Put us not to shame: but deal with us after thy lovingkindness, and according to the multitude of thy mercies.
1:20 Deliver us also according to thy marvellous works, and give glory to thy name, O Lord: and let all them that do thy servants hurt be ashamed;
1:21 And let them be confounded in all their power and might, and let their strength be broken;
1:22 And let them know that thou art God, the only God, and glorious over the whole world.
1:23 And the king's servants, that put them in, ceased not to make the oven hot with rosin, pitch, tow, and small wood;
1:24 So that the flame streamed forth above the furnace forty and nine cubits.
1:25 And it passed through, and burned those Chaldeans it found about the furnace.
1:26 But the angel of the Lord came down into the oven together with Azarias and his fellows, and smote the flame of the fire out of the oven;
1:27 And made the midst of the furnace as it had been a moist whistling wind, so that the fire touched them not at all, neither hurt nor troubled them.
1:28 Then the three, as out of one mouth, praised, glorified, and blessed, God in the furnace, saying,
1:29 Blessed art thou, O Lord God of our fathers: and to be praised and exalted above all for ever.
1:30 And blessed is thy glorious and holy name: and to be praised and exalted above all for ever.
1:31 Blessed art thou in the temple of thine holy glory: and to be praised and glorified above all for ever.
1:32 Blessed art thou that beholdest the depths, and sittest upon the cherubims: and to be praised and exalted above all for ever.
1:33 Blessed art thou on the glorious throne of thy kingdom: and to be praised and glorified above all for ever.
1:34 Blessed art thou in the firmament of heaven: and above all to be praised and glorified for ever.
1:35 O all ye works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever,
1:36 O ye heavens, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
1:37 O ye angels of the Lord, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
1:38 O all ye waters that be above the heaven, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
1:39 O all ye powers of the Lord, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
1:40 O ye sun and moon, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
1:41 O ye stars of heaven, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
1:42 O every shower and dew, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
1:43 O all ye winds, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever,
1:44 O ye fire and heat, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
1:45 O ye winter and summer, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
1:46 O ye dews and storms of snow, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
1:47 O ye nights and days, bless ye the Lord: bless and exalt him above all for ever.
1:48 O ye light and darkness, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
1:49 O ye ice and cold, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
1:50 O ye frost and snow, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
1:51 O ye lightnings and clouds, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
1:52 O let the earth bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
1:53 O ye mountains and little hills, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
1:54 O all ye things that grow in the earth, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
1:55 O ye mountains, bless ye the Lord: Praise and exalt him above all for ever.
1:56 O ye seas and rivers, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
1:57 O ye whales, and all that move in the waters, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
1:58 O all ye fowls of the air, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
1:59 O all ye beasts and cattle, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
1:60 O ye children of men, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
1:61 O Israel, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
1:62 O ye priests of the Lord, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
1:63 O ye servants of the Lord, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
1:64 O ye spirits and souls of the righteous, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
1:65 O ye holy and humble men of heart, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
1:66 O Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever: for he hath delivered us from hell, and saved us from the hand of death, and delivered us out of the midst of the furnace and burning flame: even out of the midst of the fire hath he delivered us.
1:67 O give thanks unto the Lord, because he is gracious: for his mercy endureth for ever.
1:68 O all ye that worship the Lord, bless the God of gods, praise him, and give him thanks: for his mercy endureth for ever.
Classification: Greek Daniel · Theodotion · KJV v1–64 · His name — Carried in the Greek Danielic tradition, including his companions; not signed by Daniel.
Summary: In the Babylonian exile, two elders appointed judges lust after Susanna, the God-fearing wife of Joacim. When she refuses them, they accuse her of adultery and the assembly condemns her to death. As she is led out, God stirs up the holy spirit of a young man named Daniel. He halts the execution, separates the two witnesses, and asks each under which tree he saw the crime. One says a mastic, the other an oak. Daniel answers each with a pun on his tree, the two are convicted by their own mouths, and they suffer the death they intended for her.
Provenance: King James Version Apocrypha (1611), standard 1769 text — public domain. Translated from the Greek of Daniel as printed in the 16th century (the Theodotion form).
v42 — “O everlasting God, that knowest the secrets, and knowest all things before they be.” The knower of hidden things (Dan 2:22) — the same God of Eccl 12:14.
v45 — “The Lord raised up the holy spirit of a young youth whose name was Daniel.” The defender raised at the moment of sentence. The judge enters the story under the name “God has judged.”
v48 — “Are ye such fools, ye sons of Israel, that without examination or knowledge of the truth ye have condemned a daughter of Israel?” Due process as righteousness: no verdict without examination.
v55, 59 — “Thou hast lied against thine own head; for even now the angel of God hath received the sentence of God to cut thee in two.” In the Greek the trees become the sentence: schinos, mastic, and schisei, will split; prinos, oak, and prisai, will saw.
v62 — “According to the law of Moses they did unto them in such sort as they maliciously intended to do to their neighbour.” The false witness bears the penalty he sought (Deut 19:18–19).
The puns debated Around AD 240 Julius Africanus argued in a letter to Origen that the Greek wordplay proved Susanna was composed in Greek; Origen answered in its defence. The exchange is the earliest recorded debate over the additions. Post-79 witnesses — footnote grade.
1:1 There dwelt a man in Babylon, called Joacim:
1:2 And he took a wife, whose name was Susanna, the daughter of Chelcias, a very fair woman, and one that feared the Lord.
1:3 Her parents also were righteous, and taught their daughter according to the law of Moses.
1:4 Now Joacim was a great rich man, and had a fair garden joining unto his house: and to him resorted the Jews; because he was more honourable than all others.
1:5 The same year were appointed two of the ancients of the people to be judges, such as the Lord spake of, that wickedness came from Babylon from ancient judges, who seemed to govern the people.
1:6 These kept much at Joacim's house: and all that had any suits in law came unto them.
1:7 Now when the people departed away at noon, Susanna went into her husband's garden to walk.
1:8 And the two elders saw her going in every day, and walking; so that their lust was inflamed toward her.
1:9 And they perverted their own mind, and turned away their eyes, that they might not look unto heaven, nor remember just judgments.
1:10 And albeit they both were wounded with her love, yet durst not one shew another his grief.
1:11 For they were ashamed to declare their lust, that they desired to have to do with her.
1:12 Yet they watched diligently from day to day to see her.
1:13 And the one said to the other, Let us now go home: for it is dinner time.
1:14 So when they were gone out, they parted the one from the other, and turning back again they came to the same place; and after that they had asked one another the cause, they acknowledged their lust: then appointed they a time both together, when they might find her alone.
1:15 And it fell out, as they watched a fit time, she went in as before with two maids only, and she was desirous to wash herself in the garden: for it was hot.
1:16 And there was no body there save the two elders, that had hid themselves, and watched her.
1:17 Then she said to her maids, Bring me oil and washing balls, and shut the garden doors, that I may wash me.
1:18 And they did as she bade them, and shut the garden doors, and went out themselves at privy doors to fetch the things that she had commanded them: but they saw not the elders, because they were hid.
1:19 Now when the maids were gone forth, the two elders rose up, and ran unto her, saying,
1:20 Behold, the garden doors are shut, that no man can see us, and we are in love with thee; therefore consent unto us, and lie with us.
1:21 If thou wilt not, we will bear witness against thee, that a young man was with thee: and therefore thou didst send away thy maids from thee.
1:22 Then Susanna sighed, and said, I am straitened on every side: for if I do this thing, it is death unto me: and if I do it not I cannot escape your hands.
1:23 It is better for me to fall into your hands, and not do it, than to sin in the sight of the Lord.
1:24 With that Susanna cried with a loud voice: and the two elders cried out against her.
1:25 Then ran the one, and opened the garden door.
1:26 So when the servants of the house heard the cry in the garden, they rushed in at the privy door, to see what was done unto her.
1:27 But when the elders had declared their matter, the servants were greatly ashamed: for there was never such a report made of Susanna.
1:28 And it came to pass the next day, when the people were assembled to her husband Joacim, the two elders came also full of mischievous imagination against Susanna to put her to death;
1:29 And said before the people, Send for Susanna, the daughter of Chelcias, Joacim's wife. And so they sent.
1:30 So she came with her father and mother, her children, and all her kindred.
1:31 Now Susanna was a very delicate woman, and beauteous to behold.
1:32 And these wicked men commanded to uncover her face, (for she was covered) that they might be filled with her beauty.
1:33 Therefore her friends and all that saw her wept.
1:34 Then the two elders stood up in the midst of the people, and laid their hands upon her head.
1:35 And she weeping looked up toward heaven: for her heart trusted in the Lord.
1:36 And the elders said, As we walked in the garden alone, this woman came in with two maids, and shut the garden doors, and sent the maids away.
1:37 Then a young man, who there was hid, came unto her, and lay with her.
1:38 Then we that stood in a corner of the garden, seeing this wickedness, ran unto them.
1:39 And when we saw them together, the man we could not hold: for he was stronger than we, and opened the door, and leaped out.
1:40 But having taken this woman, we asked who the young man was, but she would not tell us: these things do we testify.
1:41 Then the assembly believed them as those that were the elders and judges of the people: so they condemned her to death.
1:42 Then Susanna cried out with a loud voice, and said, O everlasting God, that knowest the secrets, and knowest all things before they be:
1:43 Thou knowest that they have borne false witness against me, and, behold, I must die; whereas I never did such things as these men have maliciously invented against me.
1:44 And the Lord heard her voice.
1:45 Therefore when she was led to be put to death, the Lord raised up the holy spirit of a young youth whose name was Daniel:
1:46 Who cried with a loud voice, I am clear from the blood of this woman.
1:47 Then all the people turned them toward him, and said, What mean these words that thou hast spoken?
1:48 So he standing in the midst of them said, Are ye such fools, ye sons of Israel, that without examination or knowledge of the truth ye have condemned a daughter of Israel?
1:49 Return again to the place of judgment: for they have borne false witness against her.
1:50 Wherefore all the people turned again in haste, and the elders said unto him, Come, sit down among us, and shew it us, seeing God hath given thee the honour of an elder.
1:51 Then said Daniel unto them, Put these two aside one far from another, and I will examine them.
1:52 So when they were put asunder one from another, he called one of them, and said unto him, O thou that art waxen old in wickedness, now thy sins which thou hast committed aforetime are come to light.
1:53 For thou hast pronounced false judgment and hast condemned the innocent and hast let the guilty go free; albeit the Lord saith, The innocent and righteous shalt thou not slay.
1:54 Now then, if thou hast seen her, tell me, Under what tree sawest thou them companying together? Who answered, Under a mastick tree.
1:55 And Daniel said, Very well; thou hast lied against thine own head; for even now the angel of God hath received the sentence of God to cut thee in two.
1:56 So he put him aside, and commanded to bring the other, and said unto him, O thou seed of Chanaan, and not of Juda, beauty hath deceived thee, and lust hath perverted thine heart.
1:57 Thus have ye dealt with the daughters of Israel, and they for fear companied with you: but the daughter of Juda would not abide your wickedness.
1:58 Now therefore tell me, Under what tree didst thou take them companying together? Who answered, Under an holm tree.
1:59 Then said Daniel unto him, Well; thou hast also lied against thine own head: for the angel of God waiteth with the sword to cut thee in two, that he may destroy you.
1:60 With that all the assembly cried out with a loud voice, and praised God, who saveth them that trust in him.
1:61 And they arose against the two elders, for Daniel had convicted them of false witness by their own mouth:
1:62 And according to the law of Moses they did unto them in such sort as they maliciously intended to do to their neighbour: and they put them to death. Thus the innocent blood was saved the same day.
1:63 Therefore Chelcias and his wife praised God for their daughter Susanna, with Joacim her husband, and all the kindred, because there was no dishonesty found in her.
1:64 From that day forth was Daniel had in great reputation in the sight of the people.
Classification: Greek Daniel · LXX and Theodotion · KJV v1–42 · His name — Carried in the Greek Danielic tradition, including his companions; not signed by Daniel.
Summary: Under Cyrus, Daniel refuses to worship Bel, whose priests claim the idol eats a daily mountain of flour, sheep and wine. Daniel has ashes strewn on the temple floor before the doors are sealed with the king's signet; in the morning footprints expose the secret door. The king kills the priests, their wives and children (v21); that severe ending is part of the story, not an instruction to punish deceivers today. Bel is destroyed. Daniel kills the dragon with cakes of pitch, fat and hair. The mob forces the king to throw him to 7 lions. During his six-day stay, Habakkuk is carried by an angel from Judea to feed him; the meal's day is not numbered. On day seven the king finds him unharmed.
Provenance: King James Version Apocrypha (1611), standard 1769 text — public domain. Translated from the Greek of Daniel as printed in the 16th century (the Theodotion form).
v5 — “I may not worship idols made with hands, but the living God, who hath created the heaven and the earth.” The made thing against the Maker — the whole case in one sentence.
v7 — “Be not deceived: for this is but clay within, and brass without, and did never eat or drink any thing.” Idolatry exposed by its construction: an impressive surface over an empty interior.
v14, 19 — “Daniel had commanded his servants to bring ashes… Behold now the pavement, and mark well whose footsteps are these.” A forensic scene in Scripture: evidence laid down in the night, read in the morning, under a seal the deceivers asked for.
v10 — “Now the priests of Bel were threescore and ten.” 70 priests in Babylon — in the margin beside the 70 years. WINK
v27 — “Daniel took pitch, and fat, and hair… this he put in the dragon's mouth, and so the dragon burst in sunder.” The dragon destroyed from within, by what it was willing to swallow.
v36–38 — “The angel of the Lord took him by the crown, and bare him by the hair of his head… And Daniel said, Thou hast remembered me, O God.” Set beside Eccl 9:15 — “no man remembered that same poor man” — the forgotten wise man is remembered by God.
The Greek heading The Old Greek attributes the story to Habakkuk son of Jesus/Joshua, of the tribe of Levi. This is that version's literary heading; the father's name does not identify him with Jesus of Nazareth. Theodotion has a different opening.
1:1 And king Astyages was gathered to his fathers, and Cyrus of Persia received his kingdom.
1:2 And Daniel conversed with the king, and was honoured above all his friends.
1:3 Now the Babylons had an idol, called Bel, and there were spent upon him every day twelve great measures of fine flour, and forty sheep, and six vessels of wine.
1:4 And the king worshipped it and went daily to adore it: but Daniel worshipped his own God. And the king said unto him, Why dost not thou worship Bel?
1:5 Who answered and said, Because I may not worship idols made with hands, but the living God, who hath created the heaven and the earth, and hath sovereignty over all flesh.
1:6 Then said the king unto him, Thinkest thou not that Bel is a living God? seest thou not how much he eateth and drinketh every day?
1:7 Then Daniel smiled, and said, O king, be not deceived: for this is but clay within, and brass without, and did never eat or drink any thing.
1:8 So the king was wroth, and called for his priests, and said unto them, If ye tell me not who this is that devoureth these expences, ye shall die.
1:9 But if ye can certify me that Bel devoureth them, then Daniel shall die: for he hath spoken blasphemy against Bel. And Daniel said unto the king, Let it be according to thy word.
1:10 Now the priests of Bel were threescore and ten, beside their wives and children. And the king went with Daniel into the temple of Bel.
1:11 So Bel's priests said, Lo, we go out: but thou, O king, set on the meat, and make ready the wine, and shut the door fast and seal it with thine own signet;
1:12 And to morrow when thou comest in, if thou findest not that Bel hath eaten up all, we will suffer death: or else Daniel, that speaketh falsely against us.
1:13 And they little regarded it: for under the table they had made a privy entrance, whereby they entered in continually, and consumed those things.
1:14 So when they were gone forth, the king set meats before Bel. Now Daniel had commanded his servants to bring ashes, and those they strewed throughout all the temple in the presence of the king alone: then went they out, and shut the door, and sealed it with the king's signet, and so departed.
1:15 Now in the night came the priests with their wives and children, as they were wont to do, and did eat and drink up all.
1:16 In the morning betime the king arose, and Daniel with him.
1:17 And the king said, Daniel, are the seals whole? And he said, Yea, O king, they be whole.
1:18 And as soon as he had opened the dour, the king looked upon the table, and cried with a loud voice, Great art thou, O Bel, and with thee is no deceit at all.
1:19 Then laughed Daniel, and held the king that he should not go in, and said, Behold now the pavement, and mark well whose footsteps are these.
1:20 And the king said, I see the footsteps of men, women, and children. And then the king was angry,
1:21 And took the priests with their wives and children, who shewed him the privy doors, where they came in, and consumed such things as were upon the table.
1:22 Therefore the king slew them, and delivered Bel into Daniel's power, who destroyed him and his temple.
1:23 And in that same place there was a great dragon, which they of Babylon worshipped.
1:24 And the king said unto Daniel, Wilt thou also say that this is of brass? lo, he liveth, he eateth and drinketh; thou canst not say that he is no living god: therefore worship him.
1:25 Then said Daniel unto the king, I will worship the Lord my God: for he is the living God.
1:26 But give me leave, O king, and I shall slay this dragon without sword or staff. The king said, I give thee leave.
1:27 Then Daniel took pitch, and fat, and hair, and did seethe them together, and made lumps thereof: this he put in the dragon's mouth, and so the dragon burst in sunder: and Daniel said, Lo, these are the gods ye worship.
1:28 When they of Babylon heard that, they took great indignation, and conspired against the king, saying, The king is become a Jew, and he hath destroyed Bel, he hath slain the dragon, and put the priests to death.
1:29 So they came to the king, and said, Deliver us Daniel, or else we will destroy thee and thine house.
1:30 Now when the king saw that they pressed him sore, being constrained, he delivered Daniel unto them:
1:31 Who cast him into the lions' den: where he was six days.
1:32 And in the den there were seven lions, and they had given them every day two carcases, and two sheep: which then were not given to them, to the intent they might devour Daniel.
1:33 Now there was in Jewry a prophet, called Habbacuc, who had made pottage, and had broken bread in a bowl, and was going into the field, for to bring it to the reapers.
1:34 But the angel of the Lord said unto Habbacuc, Go, carry the dinner that thou hast into Babylon unto Daniel, who is in the lions' den.
1:35 And Habbacuc said, Lord, I never saw Babylon; neither do I know where the den is.
1:36 Then the angel of the Lord took him by the crown, and bare him by the hair of his head, and through the vehemency of his spirit set him in Babylon over the den.
1:37 And Habbacuc cried, saying, O Daniel, Daniel, take the dinner which God hath sent thee.
1:38 And Daniel said, Thou hast remembered me, O God: neither hast thou forsaken them that seek thee and love thee.
1:39 So Daniel arose, and did eat: and the angel of the Lord set Habbacuc in his own place again immediately.
1:40 Upon the seventh day the king went to bewail Daniel: and when he came to the den, he looked in, and behold, Daniel was sitting.
1:41 Then cried the king with a loud voice, saying, Great art Lord God of Daniel, and there is none other beside thee.
1:42 And he drew him out, and cast those that were the cause of his destruction into the den: and they were devoured in a moment before his face.
Classification: Qumran 4Q242 · Aramaic · His circle — Pre-70 Aramaic texts from Qumran in Daniel's cycle; his name or his pattern, not his hand.
Summary: Four scraps of a short Aramaic prayer, read through editorial reconstruction. Nabonidus's affliction at Teima lasts seven years; the surviving and restored lines describe prayer to material gods and a Jewish exorcist associated with forgiveness and a command to write praise of the Most High. The Livius translation marks missing/restored wording in brackets, especially lines 1–5. The healer is unnamed in what survives; this does not establish that the lost text once named him, or that he was Daniel.
Provenance: These are original digests, not reproduced modern translations. The linked modern editions and discussions have their own copyright terms. DJD 22 (1996) is the official edition; the source directory supplies accessible translations or scholarly locators. Surviving wording, editorial restorations and this exhibit's interpretation must not be conflated. Manuscript images can be sought in the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library.
Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library
The word gazer The term is compared with Daniel's court diviners (Dan 2:27; 4:7; 5:7) and his office over them (5:11). That makes a literary comparison, not a surviving identification of the healer as Daniel.
Teima and 7 years Nabonidus really did leave Babylon for the Arabian oasis of Teima for about 10 years, leaving Belshazzar in charge (Nabonidus Chronicle). The text joins that history to the 7 times of Dan 4.
Healing with forgiveness Forgiveness and recovery are connected in readings of these fragmentary lines. Placing that beside Mark 2:5–12 is a Christian intertextual application, not a claim that the fragment explicitly predicts that scene.
Its place in study Published in 1956, this manuscript demonstrates a pre-70 form of a Nabonidus story. Scholars debate its relation to Daniel 4: source, shared tradition or another literary relationship. Nabonidus's residence at Teima is historical context, not independent proof that the narrated disease and healing occurred.
Classification: Qumran 4Q243–245 · Aramaic, fragmentary · His circle — Pre-70 Aramaic texts from Qumran in Daniel's cycle; his name or his pattern, not his hand.
Summary: Three fragmentary manuscripts, not a recovered continuous book. 4Q243–244 overlap; 4Q245 does not overlap with their surviving text and may be another composition. Published reconstructions associate Daniel and a royal setting with a survey of history: flood, ancestral and exodus traditions, exile and kingdoms. Lists of priests and kings survive in 4Q245 fragment 1, column i; 4Q243 fragment 28 has partly restored priestly names. Proposed end-time reconstructions include wickedness, blindness and gathering language, but cannot be presented as the intact closing chapter of all three witnesses.
Provenance: These are original digests, not reproduced modern translations. The linked modern editions and discussions have their own copyright terms. DJD 22 (1996) is the official edition; the source directory supplies accessible translations or scholarly locators. Surviving wording, editorial restorations and this exhibit's interpretation must not be conflated. Manuscript images can be sought in the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library.
Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library
Daniel as historian The fragments and their proposed ordering extend Danielic historical vision backward toward flood and ancestral traditions. A whole uninterrupted speech is not preserved.
The 70 years The exile measured as 70 years — Jeremiah's number, the one Daniel studied (Dan 9:2).
The lists of priests and kings 4Q245 fragment 1, column i moves from a priestly list toward royal names including David and Solomon (lines 11–12). Some names, including Jonathan, require restoration. The association with the two offices in The Mystery of Chileab is this house's comparison, not the manuscript's own explanation.
The end The house hears an echo of Daniel 12:1–3 in the reconstructed end-time material: wickedness, those astray in blindness, and the chosen. Fragmentary wording and proposed arrangements must remain visible; this is not a full surviving ending or a directly stated Gospel identification.
Classification: Qumran 4Q246 · Aramaic · His circle — Pre-70 Aramaic texts from Qumran in Daniel's cycle; his name or his pattern, not his hand.
Summary: Two surviving columns of an Aramaic apocalypse, with column I damaged and its narrative substantially reconstructed. A court-vision setting, affliction and rulers are reconstructed from partial lines. Column II.1 preserves son of God and son of the Most High; II.2–4 has kingdoms, conflict and the people of God arising; II.5–9 has eternal kingdom, truth and peace. The identity of the titled figure and whether later singular pronouns refer to him or collectively to God's people are disputed. The digest is not an unbroken manuscript translation.
Provenance: These are original digests, not reproduced modern translations. The linked modern editions and discussions have their own copyright terms. DJD 22 (1996) is the official edition; the source directory supplies accessible translations or scholarly locators. Surviving wording, editorial restorations and this exhibit's interpretation must not be conflated. Manuscript images can be sought in the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library.
Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library
The titles “He will be called son of God, and they will call him son of the Most High” — wording that closely matches Gabriel's words to Mary (Luke 1:32, 35), in a text copied before the Gospels were written.
The debate Scholars divide on the figure. Some read him as the Messiah; others as a blasphemous king claiming divine titles, whom the people of God then overthrow. The text's grammar allows both, which is why it is among the most discussed of the Aramaic scrolls.
Province against province Medinah — the court word for “province” shared by Ecclesiastes and Daniel (Movement III).
The earth in truth The kingdom's mark is not conquest but truth: judgment in truth, the sword ceasing, peace among the provinces (cf. Isa 2:4; Dan 7:14, 27).
“The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem” (1:1); “I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem” (1:12); “all they that have been before me in Jerusalem” (1:16). Solomon is never named in the book.
Open source 1Solomon “spake three thousand proverbs” (4:32), matching Eccl 12:9's Preacher who “set in order many proverbs.” In 8:1 Solomon “assembled” (yaqhel, root q-h-l) Israel — the root of the title Qoheleth.
Open source 2The baraita assigns writing (katvu) to Hezekiah and his company. This can concern compilation or transmission, not a denial of Solomonic composition. The same discussion assigns Daniel to the Great Assembly; its categories must be handled consistently. A post-70 witness to tradition, not contemporary authorship evidence.
Open source 3Solomon is displaced by Ashmedai and wanders saying “I Qoheleth was king.” The tradition connects the verse with displacement; this does not prove that its Hebrew requires a former king or that the tense caused the legend. Post-70 witness.
Open source 4Delitzsch wrote: “If the Book of Koheleth were of old Solomonic origin, then there is no history of the Hebrew language.” The linked university catalog locates editions; it is not a direct display of the quoted page. His linguistic objection supports a later date, not Daniel's identity.
Open source 5A feminine participle of q-h-l, “one who assembles.” An office-title, not a personal name — the grammar of a mask.
Open source 6“Who knoweth the interpretation (pesher) of a thing?” — the only use of this word in Hebrew Scripture. In Daniel's Aramaic, peshar is the interpreter's work throughout chapters 2, 4 and 5 (e.g. 5:12, 5:16).
Open source 7“Who may say unto him, What doest thou?” (Eccl 8:4, of the king). “None can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?” (Dan 4:35, Nebuchadnezzar of God). The idiom also appears in Job 9:12 and Isa 45:9 — a shared idiom, not a fingerprint.
Open source 8“Because sentence (pitgam) against an evil work is not executed speedily” (Eccl 8:11). Hebrew elsewhere only Esther 1:20; Aramaic in Dan 3:16 and 4:17 and in Ezra. A court word of the Persian period.
Open source 9“To every thing there is a season (zeman)” (Eccl 3:1). “He changeth the times and the seasons (zimnaya): he removeth kings, and setteth up kings” (Dan 2:21). The Hebrew word is late, shared with Nehemiah and Esther.
Open source 10“The peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces” (Eccl 2:8); oppression “in a province” (5:8). An imperial administrative term — Dan 2:48–49, 3:1–3, 8:2; Esther; Ezra; Nehemiah.
Open source 11“Keep the king's commandment… Be not hasty to go out of his sight” (8:2–3). “Curse not the king, no not in thy thought… for a bird of the air shall carry the voice” (10:20).
Open source 12Jehoiachin is released, honored above other captive kings and given a daily allowance. Unlike Eccl 4:14's prisoner who comes to reign, he is not restored to sovereign rule. A partial analogy, not an identification.
Open source 13The queen recalls Daniel to Belshazzar. But Daniel interprets Babylon's sentence: the city falls that night (5:30). He does not deliver it as the poor wise man delivers the city in Eccl 9:15. The resemblance concerns memory, not the outcome.
Open source 14The silenced millstone and lamp initially concern Judah and neighboring nations (25:9–11). Babylon's punishment follows after seventy years (25:12). Daniel studies Jeremiah's years (Dan 9:2); Revelation 18:22 later applies the silence imagery to Babylon.
Open source 15“Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon… Take the millstones, and grind meal” (47:1–2). “Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee” (47:13).
Open source 16“They took the young men to grind (techon).” Grinding as the labor of the captive — the same root as Eccl 12:3's grinders (tochanot).
Open source 17“The voice of harpers, and musicians… shall be heard no more at all in thee… and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee.” John lifts the Jeremiah formula onto the final city.
Open source 18Sun, light, moon and stars darkened; clouds returning after the rain; keepers trembling; grinders ceasing; windows (arubot) darkened; daughters of music brought low; the almond (shaqed) blossoming; the silver cord, golden bowl (gullah), pitcher (kad) and wheel at the cistern (bor); dust to the earth, spirit to God.
Open source 19Scholarly discussion of an eschatological reading of Eccl 12. The linked Princeton bibliography verifies the article's publication; it does not display its full argument. This reference is not evidence for Daniel's authorship or for this exhibit's physical model of the heavens.
Open source 20“There is no new thing under the sun” (Eccl 1:9). “Behold, I make all things new” (Rev 21:5). “The city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon” (Rev 21:23).
Open source 21“The heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll” (Isa 34:4). “The heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together” (Rev 6:14). Developed in Through a Glass.
Open source 22“Let us hear the conclusion (sof davar) of the whole matter” (Eccl 12:13). “Hitherto is the end of the matter (sofa di-millta)” (Dan 7:28). The same phrase in Hebrew and in Aramaic.
Open source 23“Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake” (12:2). “Shut up the words, and seal the book… knowledge shall be increased” (12:4). “Thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days” (12:13).
Open source 24“The sun… hasteth to his place where he arose. It goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north.” Grammatically the wind is the subject of v6; the Targum and Rashi read its first half of the sun. Babylonian astronomy divided the sun's yearly swing into the paths of Anu, Enlil and Ea.
Open source 25Daniel prays three times a day in his chamber with the windows open toward Jerusalem. “Enter into thy closet… use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.” Compare Eccl 5:2.
Open source 26The selected Judeans include royal seed and nobility; Daniel is named among the recruits. This does not specify his individual family or demonstrate Davidic descent. Dan 10:1 dates a revelation to Cyrus's third year, not necessarily continued court office.
Open source 27Gullah is the bowl atop the lampstand (Zech 4:2–3). Broken cisterns (borot nishbarim) beside the fountain of living waters (Jer 2:13). Aaron's rod “yielded almonds” (Num 17:8). “I see a rod of an almond tree (shaqed)… I will hasten (shoqed) my word to perform it” (Jer 1:11–12).
Open source 28Melchizedek king of Salem; Adonizedek king of Jerusalem. For Solomon, only David preceded him as Israel's king in Jerusalem — which makes “all they that have been before me” (Eccl 1:16) an awkward boast.
Open source 29Lights for signs and moʿadim, appointed times (Gen 1:14; LXX kairous). “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest… shall not cease” (Gen 8:22), with the bow in the cloud (9:13–14). No rain before the mist (2:5–6). The tree of life “yielded her fruit every month” (Rev 22:2). “From one new moon to another” in the new heavens and earth (Isa 66:22–23).
Open source 30“When wilt thou execute judgment?” (84). “I have seen an end (qetz) of all perfection” (96) — qetz is Daniel's word for the end (Dan 8:17; 12:4). “Thou puttest away all the wicked of the earth like dross” (119). “It is time for thee, LORD, to work” (126; LXX kairos). “Seek thy servant” (176).
Open source 31The linked NABRE Daniel 3 supplies the integrated cross-reference scheme alongside the separate KJV Apocrypha text embedded here, not its English translation. KJV verses 29 and 30 both map to Daniel 3:52; later labels cannot use the opening +23 offset. Catholic/Orthodox canon; Protestant Apocrypha.
Open source 32Two elders falsely accuse Susanna; Daniel cross-examines them separately. Different trees expose the lie; the Greek tree-name/sentence puns are schinos/schisei and prinos/prisai. The embedded English is KJV Apocrypha, not the linked modern translation.
Open source 33Footprints expose Bel's priests. Habakkuk feeds Daniel during six days in the den; the text does not number the meal's day. The king visits on day seven. The linked notes distinguish Old Greek and Theodotion; embedded English is KJV Apocrypha.
Open source 34A fragmentary Aramaic prayer: Nabonidus's seven-year affliction at Teima and a Jewish exorcist. The linked translation marks reconstructed words in brackets (especially lines 1–5). The healer is unnamed; identifying him with Daniel is an inference, not a surviving name.
Open source 354Q243–244 overlap as copies of one work; 4Q245 has no surviving overlap, so its identity as the same composition is uncertain. The linked scholarly discussion separates the manuscripts and identifies fragments, including the priestly lists at 4Q243 fragment 28 and 4Q245 fragment 1, column i. This shelf gives a digest, not a continuous translation.
Open source 36Column II.1 has the titles son of God and son of the Most High; II.4–9 concerns the people of God, kingdom and peace. Column I is damaged. Both the figure's identity and later pronoun referents are debated; the parallel with Luke does not settle them.
Open source 37Accessible scholarly counterweight: late Hebrew and Persian words support a later composition, often placed in the Persian or Hellenistic period. These features do not identify a unique author or establish Daniel's lifetime as the date.
Open source 38SPINE: Gen 1:14, 2:5–6, 3:17–19, 8:22, 9:13–14; Isa 66:22–23; Rev 22:2; Eccl 1:1, 1:4, 1:9, 3:2, 1:12, 1:16, 2:5, 3:1, 5:2, 8:1, 8:4, 8:11, 10:20, 12:1–14; Dan 1:3–4, 2:21, 2:48, 4:35, 5:6, 5:10–13, 6:10, 7:28, 9:2, 10:1, 12:2–13; Jer 1:11–12, 2:13, 25:10–12; Isa 34:4, 47:1–13; Lam 5:13; 2 Kgs 25:27–30; Zech 4:2–3; Num 17:8; Rev 6:14, 18:22, 21:5, 21:23; the lexemes pesher, pitgam, zeman, medinah, sof; Bava Batra 15a and Gittin 68b as attested traditions.
SCAFFOLD: the subject's vantage; comparative court register and later linguistic dating, not a unique author; judgment imagery across Judah, Babylon and Revelation; broad celestial-omen context, not a recovered source tablet; the received solar reading of 1:5–6 beside its grammatical wind; the two chapter endings; literary connections with the selected Danielic shelf. Manuscript identity, restorations, version history and verse numbering remain edition-specific.
CONVICTION: Daniel as the Preacher under a Solomonic mask and as the author of Psalm 119; possible Davidic ancestry, not established genealogy; the partial Jehoiachin and remembered-wise-man comparisons despite their mismatches; the end-of-age horizon and open heaven; the end of seasonal toil and the proposed renewed climate, not explicit abolition of rain or farming; the name and pen meeting at 12:14; the messianic application of 4Q246 despite disputed referents.
WINK: Melchizedek among the kings before; 28 times in 14 pairs; both endings numbered chapter 12.