As I prepare for my course on Jeremiah this fall I noticed that the commentaries I was using (Brueggemann, Feinberg, Harrison, Kidner, Lalleman, Wright) were not covering the Ugaritic connection in Jeremiah 9:21 (English versions; vs. 20 in the Hebrew) which reads: ‘Death has climbed in through our windows. It has entered into our fortified… Continue reading A Window for Death
9:1-4 – The day arrives. After all that had been done and the joy of chapter eight, the actual day for the struggle of the Jews had yet to be decided though things were increasingly in the favor of the Jews. The Jews had been authorized to defend themselves against anyone taking aggression against them… Continue reading Esther 9-10 – The Day of Reckoning and Rejoicing
11:36-39 – The king who exalts himself. This king does have certain levels of overlap with Antiochus IV Epiphanes (and many commentators believe that this individual is one and the same), but the description does not fit as it did in the verses prior. The best explanation seems to be that this king is some… Continue reading Daniel 12 – The Vision of the End
10:1 – The Time and General Content of the Vision. The third year of Cyrus king of Persia would place this vision in approximately 536-535BC. This would also suggest that the recently begun work on rebuilding the Temple of the LORD by the returning exiles under the supervision of Ezra had been stopped temporarily by… Continue reading Daniel 10 – Prepared for the Final Vision
9:1-2 – Understanding the date. This chapter occurs some time after chapter five and perhaps after chapter six. If this “Darius” the Mede (which seems likely) is “Cyrus” as explained in earlier notes (6:28) then the year would be 538BC and Daniel would be approximately 82 years old. The NIV has curiously followed the LXX… Continue reading Daniel 9 – The Vision of the Seventy Sevens
Life Under the Covenant – Joshua-Malachi Story: Living in the Land (Joshua-2 Chronicles) – Israel entered the land of eternal promise, but once they were in the land they failed to live according to the covenant. The LORD rescued them again and again even though they always managed to rebel again and again. (Joshua 23:16;… Continue reading The Old Testament for Seventh Graders (in Four Weeks!) 4
This chapter is considered by most to be the most significant chapter of Daniel and also a key chapter of the Old Testament. There are some who have proposed that Daniel has borrowed from the ancient Near Eastern mythologies around him in this composition (such as the account of Adapa, Enuma Elish, or the Ugaritic… Continue reading Daniel 7 – Visions in the Night
<!–[if !mso]> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } <![endif]–> 5:1-4 – The party that ended it all. Daniel 5 moves the book forward in time about thirty years after the events of chapter 4. The date can actually be fixed to October 12, 539BC (Miller 151) based upon certain historical records that give the date for the conquering of… Continue reading Daniel 5 – The Writing Is On The Wall
By the rivers of Babylon we sit down and weep when we remember Zion. On the poplars in her midst we hang our harps, for there our captors ask us to compose songs; those who mock us demand that we be happy, saying: “Sing for us a song about Zion!” How can we sing a… Continue reading Blessed be the One Who Grabs Babylon's Babies and Smashes Them on a Rock: A Psalm
3:1-7 – The image of gold. Theodotian and the LXX provide an interesting time note that is not included in the Aramaic text found in our Bibles. They actually state that it was Nebuchadnezzar’s 18th year when what follows happened and that would place the incident of the fiery furnace in the very year of… Continue reading Daniel 3 – The God Who Saves
