a king · noun, common both genders singular determined + particle of affirmation
went
אֲזַ֨ל'a.Zal
H236
to depart · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
palace
לְהֵֽיכְלֵהּ֙le.hei.khe.Leh
H1965
a large public building · preposition + noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
night
וּבָ֣תu.Vat
H956
to lodge over night · conjunction + verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
fasting
טְוָ֔תte.Vat
H2908
hunger (as twisting) · adverb
neither
לָאla'-
H3809
not (the simple or abs. negation) · negative particle
instruments
וְדַחֲוָ֖ןve.da.cha.Van
H1761
probably a musical instrument (as being struck) · conjunction + noun, common feminine plural absolute
brought
הַנְעֵ֣לhan.'El
H5954
to enter · verb, hiphil perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
before
קָֽדָמ֑וֹהִיka.da.Mo.hi
H6925
before · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
sleep
וְשִׁנְתֵּ֖הּve.shin.Teh
H8139
sleep · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
went
נַדַּ֥תna.Dat
H5075
to depart · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
him
עֲלֽוֹהִיa.Lo.hi
H5922
above · preposition + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Esther 6:1 On that night could not the king sleep, and he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king.
Daniel 2:1 And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit was troubled, and his sleep brake…
2 Samuel 12:16-17 David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the earth.
Psalms 77:4 Thou holdest mine eyes waking: I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
2 Samuel 19:24 And Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the king, and had neither dressed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes…
1 Kings 21:27 And it came to pass, when Ahab heard those words, that he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackclo…
Job 21:12 They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ.
Psalms 137:2 We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Daniel 6:18-24
Here is, I. The melancholy night which the king had, upon Daniel's account, Dan 6:18. He had said, indeed, that God would deliver him out of the danger, but at the same time he could not forgive himself for throwing him into the danger; and justly might God deprive him of a friend whom he had himself used so barbarously. He went to his palace, vexed at himself for what he had done, and calling himself unwise and unjust for not adhering to the law of God and nature with a non obstante - a negative to the law of the Medes and Persians. He ate no supper, but passed the night fasting; his heart was already full of grief and fear. He forbade the music; nothing is more unpleasing that songs sung t…
neither were instruments of music, &c.--GESENIUS translates, "concubines." Daniel's mentioning to us as an extraordinary thing of Darius, that he neither approached his table nor his harem, agrees with XENOPHON'S picture of him as devoted to wine and women, vain, and without self-control. He is sorry for the evil which he himself had caused, yet takes no steps to remedy it. There are many such halters between good and bad, who are ill at ease in their sins, yet go forward in them, and are drawn on by others.
Adam Clarke on Daniel 6:18
Passed the night fasting - He neither ate nor drank, had no music to solace, nor sweet odors burnt or brought before him, and he passed the night without sleep. All this points out his great sincerity; and when it is considered that Darius could not be less than sixty-two or sixty-three years of age at this time, it shows more fully the depth of his concern.
John Gill on Daniel 6:18
Then the king went to his palace,.... After he had accompanied Daniel to the den, and he was cast into it, the stone was laid to the mouth of it, and that sealed; this was after sunset, for he had laboured till then to serve him, Daniel 6:14, perhaps it was late at night:
and passed the night fasting; vexed for what he had done, in signing the decree; fretting because he could not save Daniel, and his heart full of grief for him, and so had no stomach to eat; went to bed without his supper, lay all night fasting, and would not eat a bit nor drink a drop of anything:
neither were instruments of music brought before him; as used to be after supper, and played upon; his heart was too full, an…
The Church Fathers
Each of these details testifies both to his humanity and to his cowardice: a mark of his humanity was his refusing to partake of food or let his eyes rest in sleep, instead staying awake in grief for the unjust punishment of Daniel; it was a mark of cowardice that he was not so affected as to counter the accusers and invoke his royal authority and power to save the wronged.
Verse 18. "And the king departed to his own house, and went to bed without partaking of supper..." How sincere was the king's good will, when he would not touch food night or day or grant his eyelids sleep, but as long as the prophet was in danger he himself remained in a state of sympathetic suspense. But if a king who knew not God did such a thing for another man whose deliverance he desired, how much more ought we to implore God's mercy for our own sins with fastings and watchings.
Accordingly after this happened, "The king departed to his house and he went to bed without supper and food was not brought to him and sleep left him." [Daniel 6:18] How much did the righteous man do, who feared God, so that the king was so grieved over him to not take sustenance! And the satraps made merry all night, thinking that they were taking a prize from Daniel, but the king being sleepless all night bewailed that such a man was unrighteously destroyed, and so he was cautious lest on account of him he himself also be endangered. For the events which happened to Nebuchadnezzar and what happened to Belshazzar did not escape his notice, the former was banished from his kingdom, the latter on account of drinking from the holy vessels was killed that same night.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Daniel — God is my judge, or judge of God. (1.) David’s second son, “born unto him in Hebron, of Abigail the Carmelitess” (1 Chr. 3:1). He is called also Chileab (2 Sam. 3:3). (2.) One of the four great…
Darius — The holder or supporter, the name of several Persian kings. (1.) Darius the Mede (Dan. 11:1), “the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes” (9:1). On the death of Belshazzar the Chaldean he…
Medes, Media — (middle land). Media lay northwest of Persia proper, south and southwest of the Caspian Sea, east of Armenia and Assyria, west and northwest of the great salt desert of Iran. Its greatest length was…
Media — Heb. Madai, which is rendered in the Authorized Version (1) “Madai,” Gen. 10:2; (2) “Medes,” 2 Kings 17:6; 18:11; (3) “Media,” Esther 1:3; 10:2; Isa. 21:2; Dan. 8:20; (4) “Mede,” only in Dan. 11:1.…
Temptation — (1.) Trial; a being put to the test. Thus God “tempted [Gen. 22: 1; R.V., ‘did prove’] Abraham;” and afflictions are said to tempt, i.e., to try, men (James 1:2, 12; comp. Deut. 8:2), putting their…
Daniel · .Courage and fi — .Courage and fi
Fasting · Afflictions — Afflictions
Indictments · .Daniel, on the charge of — .Daniel, on the charge of
Insomnia · .Nebuchadnezzar — .Nebuchadnezzar
Lion · Used for the torture of criminals — Used for the torture of criminals
Music · Divided into: Instrumental — Divided into: Instrumental
Daniel 6:18
18. Then the king went to his palace, and passed the night fasting: neither were instruments of musick brought before him: and his sleep went from him.
18. Tunc profectus est rex in palatium suum, et pernoctavit in jejunio, jejunus, et instrumenta musica [305] non fuerint allata coram ipso, [306] et somnus etiam discessit ab eo.
Here Daniel relates the tardy repentance of the king, because although he was in the greatest grief, yet he did not correct his fault. And this occurs to many who are not hardened by contempt of God and their own depravity; they are drawn aside by others, and are dissatisfied with their own vices, while they still indulge in them. Would that the exampl…
Daniel's offence against the law; his accusation, condemnation, and miraculous deliverance from the den of lions; and the punishment of his accusers.
The satraps did not wait long for Daniel's expected disregard of the king's prohibition. It was Daniel's custom, on bended knees, three times a day to offer prayer to his God in the upper chamber of his house, the window thereof being open towards Jerusalem. He continued this custom even after the issuing of the edict; for a discontinuance of it on account of that law would have been a denying of the faith and a sinning against God. On this his enemies had reckoned. They secretly watched him, and immediately reported his disregard of the king's…
The king spent the night fasting because he mourned over what he had done and hoped that Daniel’s God would rescue him. The king couldn’t sleep at all because he knew that Daniel was an innocent and noble man.
Rashi on Daniel 6:18
And a stone was brought lit. and one stone was brought. Throughout the entire land of Babylon there are no stones but bricks, as it is written: (Gen 11:3): “Let us make bricks.” We learn that there are no stones in Babylon, but for the occasion, angels brought it [a stone] from the land of Israel. If God stipulated with the Creation on the sea that it should split for the Children of Israel, and on the fire that it cool off for Hananiah and his colleagues, and on the lions that they should not hurt Daniel, He did not stipulate about casting stones or weapons that they should not hurt any man. So the king said, “From the lions I cannot take him away. I shall be careful with him that no man hu…
Palaces · The term applied to: Residences of kings — The term applied to: Residences of kings
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
