Notes on the Aramaic Part of Daniel. 263 



hzn, Dan. 3 : 25 ; "IDI?, Dan. 4 : 12 ; Ki'Tir'^S several times in Dan. ; 

 ^p\ Dan. 4 : 33 ; '2Tp, Ezr. 7 : 22 ; -jn% Ezr. 6:5; "^HD some texts), 

 Ezr. 7 : 13 ; T^TillSt, Ezr. 4 : 23 ; j^S^, Dan. 4 : 31 ; ^^W, Dan. 7 : 19 ; 

 and finally iHU^n, Ezr. 6:9; these (and some others less well supported) 

 were pronounced with a, instead of the usual pointing with -^ . At the time 

 when these texts were written, all the words above mentioned were 

 probably pronounced with the long vowel. At the time when the vocali- 

 zation was fixed, however, the use of the short vowel was becoming 

 customar}^, at least in some localities ; and as a witness to this important 

 fact it is well to keep in our standard texts the best-attested examples 

 of the kind. 



Observe especially that this same participle, l^ntt^rij with the short 

 vowel, occurs in Ezr. 6 : 9 in the fem. third plural, in the phrase |nt2?in Hipi) 

 "And whatever things are needful " (see my forthcoming Ezra Studies, 

 p. 194). 



3 : 16 DJinS- I have already, in editing and annotating the Aramaic 

 text of Ezra, expressed the opinion that this word is most probably the 

 Greek 'fGeYixa. The fact that in Greek it is used chiefly in poetry and 

 high style is not a weighty argument against the derivation, since it is 

 notoriously the fact that word-borrowing often proceeds in unexpected 

 ways. In both Western and Eastern Aramaic QjriD always means simply 

 " zvord'' (or "thing," etc., like 121) ; never " message," nor " answer," 

 nor ■' command," as is so often said. 



3 : 17 ijns iri- '1 he word TH cannot be rendered " Behold " (Vulgate ; 

 Ewald ; margin of English Revised Version) ; nor, on the other hand, is 

 it correct to translate : "■ If our God, whom we serve, is able," etc., as 

 is done by nearly all modern interpreters. ^riK TH is used here exacdy 

 like tS?"'! in ii Kings 10 : 15 (with which cf. ii!^\ in 5 : 17). That is, it 

 contains within itself the whole protasis ; what follows is the conclusion. 

 " If it be so (i. e., if the sentence of the king is executed), our God, 

 whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace ; 

 and he will deliver us from thine hand, O king. But even if he shall not 

 do so, be it known to thee, O king," etc. If we possessed an Aramaic text 

 punctuated with reference to the logical division of sentences,' it would 



* It is a pity that the help which we find indispensable in our Greek and 

 Latin Bibles (as in all other modern editions of ancient classical texts) should 

 be denied us in our Hebrew Bible, where it is at least equally necessary ; 

 while the obsolete and intolerably burdensome accentuation — which never was 

 a system of '• Punctuation " in our sense of the term, and if thus used is 

 almost always misleading, the only question being how great the degree in 

 each case — is still retained even in our latest editions. A Hebrew Bible 



