Daniel 10.2-Daniel Was Mourning For Three Weeks When He Received Revelation from God During the Third Year of Cyrus the Persian
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday February 5, 2014
Daniel: Daniel 10:2-Daniel Was Mourning For Three Weeks When He Received Revelation from God During the Third Year of Cyrus King of Persia
Lesson # 297
Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel 10:1.
Daniel 10:1 In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a message was revealed to Daniel, who was named Belteshazzar; and the message was true and one of great conflict, but he understood the message and had an understanding of the vision. (NASB95)
Daniel 10:1 During Cyrus’s third year, king over Persia, a message was revealed to Daniel who was called by his name Belteshazzar. Specifically this message was truth and concerning a great conflict because he understood this message, yes he possessed understanding concerning this revelation. (My translation)
Daniel 10:2 In those days, I, Daniel, had been mourning for three entire weeks. (NASB95)
“In those days” denotes that during those days, namely, the third year of Cyrus the Persian’s reign over the Medo-Persian Empire, Daniel was in a state of mourning for three weeks.
“Had been mourning” is composed of the verb hā∙yā(h) (הָיָה) (haw-yaw), “had been” which is followed by the verb ʾā·ḇǎl (אָבַל) (aw-bal´), “mourning.”
The verb hā∙yā(h) denotes existing in a certain state or condition which is defined by the verb ʾā·ḇǎl, “mourning.”
Therefore, hā∙yā(h) denotes that Daniel was in a state of mourning when he received this fourth and final prophetic revelation from God during the third year of the reign of Cyrus the Persian.
The verb ʾā·ḇǎl means “to mourn” referring to expressing grief or sorrow for a someone or something.
Here in Daniel 10:2, Daniel is expressing his sorrow by fasting and not putting on any ointment for three weeks.
The hithpael stem of the verb ʾā·ḇǎl is a reflexive-factitive hithpael indicating that Daniel as the subject of this verb caused himself to enter the state of mourning.
“For three weeks” is composed of the cardinal number šā·lōš (שָׁלֹשׁ) (shaw-loshe´), “for three” which is modifying the noun šā·ḇûaʿ (שָׁבוּעַ) (shaw-boo´-ah), “weeks” which is modified by the noun yôm (יוֹם) (yome), “entire.”
The masculine plural noun šā·ḇûaʿ means “a unit of seven” and is modified by the cardinal number šā·lōš which means “three” since it is a ordinal number of being third in a series involving time.
This cardinal number is then modified by the noun yôm which again is in the plural and again means “days” referring to a unit of time reckoned from sunset to the next sunset, including two or more segments (morning and evening) about 24 hours.
Therefore, Daniel is telling the reader that during the third year of the reign of Cyrus the Persian, he caused himself to enter the state of mourning for three units of seven days or in other words, three weeks.
The inclusion of yôm, “days” here is significant and more than likely intended to call attention to the fact that these weeks or units of seven in Daniel 10:2 are very different in nature from the weeks or units of sevens which appear Daniel 9:24-27.
If days were intended in Daniel 9:24-27, one would expect Daniel to have added the phrase “of days” after “70 sevens” as he does here in Daniel 10:2-3 in which he wrote literally, “three sevens of days.”
Daniel 10:2 During those days, I myself, Daniel caused myself to enter the state of mourning for three weeks. (My translation)
So here in Daniel 10:2, Daniel transitions from employing the third person in the narrative as he did in Daniel 10:1 to using the first person emphasizing that this is his personal account of what he saw and heard when he received this fourth and final prophetic revelation from God concerning the future of the nation of Israel.
He says that he caused himself to enter the state of mourning.
In Daniel 10:3, he tells the reader that he expressed his sorrow by fasting and by not putting on any ointment for three weeks.
The obvious question is why was Daniel causing himself to enter into the state of mourning?
As we noted in our study of Daniel 10:1, the Jewish exiles were returning from Babylon to Israel and had begun rebuilding the temple.
So why this behavior on the part of this great prophet of God?
Was he in mourning because he was interceding for the Jewish exiles who had yet to repent?
Was he interceding for them again in prayer?
Daniel does not tell us why he was mourning.
Therefore, we have to compare Scripture.
One reason why he could have been mourning is because many of the Jewish exiles continued to stay in Babylon even though they were free to return to the land of Israel.
Daniel had a good reason why he could not return, namely he was a high governmental official in Babylon serving Darius the Mede who served under Cyrus the Persian.
Remember during Cyrus’ first year he issued a decree which permitted the Jewish exiles to leave Babylon and return to their homeland (cf. Ezra 1).
However, Ezra 2:64 says that only 42,360 returned, which is a rather small number.
This same number appears in Nehemiah 7:66.
However, it is difficult to understand how this number is reached, since the numbers of people listed in the constituent groups do not add up to 42,360.
The list in vv. Ezra 2:3-60 apparently is not intended to be exhaustive, but the basis of the selectivity is unclear.
Another reason why Daniel could have been mourning was that he heard of the enemies of the Jews opposing them (cf. Ezra 4:4-5).
On the anniversary of Israel’s exodus from Egypt, a new exodus had begun during the first year of Cyrus the Persian, namely the Jewish exiles exodus from Babylon to Israel (Ezra 1).
However, it met with great discouragement early on (cf. Ezra 3:12-4:5).
The work of rebuilding the temple came to a complete stop because of Israel’s enemies (cf. Ezra 4:24).
It would take another two decades before the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem would be completed (Zechariah 4:7).
God’s plan was moving according to schedule even though Daniel may not have realized this fact.
John Walvoord writes “Humanly speaking, there was ground for anxiety. But Daniel did not understand that the seventy years of the captivity which expired with the return of the exiles in Ezra 1 did not fulfill the seventy years of the desolation of Jerusalem and the temple. This required an additional twenty years (the difference between 605 B.C., the first deportation of the Jews, and 586 B.C., the date of the destruction of Jerusalem). From God’s point of view, things were moving exactly on schedule. In a sense, the vision which followed was a reply to Daniel’s questions concerning God’s purposes for the future of Israel in relation to the Gentiles. These purposes involved a far more extensive program than that fulfilled in the book of Ezra and Nehemiah. While the saints of God may justly be concerned over what seems to be a defeat of God’s purpose, the suffering saint should never forget the majesty of the sovereignty of God which ultimately proves ‘that all things work together for good to them that love God’ (Ro 8:28). From the divine viewpoint, while we should pray, we should be delivered from anxiety—as Paul stated many years later (Phil 4:6-7). The period of fasting, however, constituted a divine preparation for the revelation. No doubt, abstinence from all but absolutely necessary food and drink, and the omission of anointing oil—indicative of his grief for the affliction of Israel (Amos 6:6; 2 Sa 14:2)—helped to ready Daniel for his great experience.”