and Berosus, in Polyhistor, write the name Ναβουκοδρόσορος. The writing Nebuchadnezar, with n and without the ,א appears to be the Aramean form, since it prevails in the Chaldean portions of Daniel and Ezra, and accounts for the Masoretic pronunciation of the word (the צּ with Dagesch forte). On other forms of the name, cf. Niebuhr, Gesch. Assurs, p. 41f.
Verse 2
“The Lord gave Jehoiakim into his hands” corresponds with the words in 2Ki 24:1, “he became his servant,” and with 2Ch 36:6, “and he bound him in fetters.” “And part of the vessels of the house of God.” מקצת without the Dag. forte, meaning properly from the end of extremity, is abbreviated from קצה עד מקּצה, cf. Jer 25:33; Gen 47:21; Exo 26:28, and shows that “that which was found from end to end contributed its share; meaning that a great part of the whole was taken, although קצת of itself never means a part” (Kran.). As to the statement of the text, cf. 2Ch 36:7. These vessels he brought (commanded to be brought) into the land of Shinar, i.e., Babylonia (Gen 10:10), into the temple of his god, i.e., Bel, and indeed into the treasure-house of this temple. Thus we understand the meaning of the two latter clauses of Dan 1:2, while Hitz. and Kran., with many older interpreters, refer the suffix in יביאם to Jehoiakim, and also to the vessels, on account of the express contrast in the following words, ואת־הכּלים (Kran.), and because, if it is not stated here, it is nowhere else mentioned that Nebuchadnezzar carried away men also (Hitz.). But the latter fact is expressly affirmed in Dan 1:3, and not only supposed, as Hitz. alleges, and it was not necessary that it should be expressed in Dan 1:2. The application of the suffix to Jehoiakim or the Jewish youths who were carried captive is excluded by the connection of יביאם with אלהיו בּית, into the house of his god. But the assertion that בּית, house, here means country, is not proved from Hos 8:1; Hos 9:15, nor is warranted by such passages as Exo 29:45; Num 35:34; Eze 37:27, etc., where mention is made of God's dwelling in the land. For God's dwelling in the land is founded on the fact of His gracious presence in the temple of the land, and even in these passages the word land does not stand for the word house. Equally unfounded is the further remark, that if by the expression אלהיו בּית the temple is to be understood, the preposition אל would stand before it, for which Zec 11:13; Isa 37:23; Gen 45:25 are appealed to. But such passages have been referred to without observing that in them the preposition אל stands only before living objects, where
