Daniel 2:39

And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee,.... This is the kingdom of the Medes and Persians, signified by the breasts and arms of silver, an inferior metal to gold; this rose up,

And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. After thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee.

Another kingdom inferior to thee; this was that of the Medes and Persians, inferior in time and succession; in duration, it lasted not half so long as the Assyrian; and in prosperity and tranquillity, for the Persian was fuller of trouble; yet was this wonderfully rich and large for a time, : this was the breast and arms of silver. Another third kingdom of brass; this was the Grecian monarchy, under Alexander the Great, who conquered the former, called "the city," because given so much to luxury; brass, because coarser than the other, and their armour was chiefly brass, calkocitonev. Which shall bear rule over all the earth; therefore this is also called a universal monarchy; for Alexander marched into the Indies, and conquered much of that, (by which he was said to conquer the world,) and wept that he had not another world to conquer: yet; his lasted not long, for he was soon overcome and killed by his worldly lusts.

Daniel 2:39 And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.Ver. 39. And after thee shall arise another kingdom,] viz., That of the Persians, fitly set forth by silver, for their exceeding great wealth mentioned by many heathen authors. The two silver arms are the Medes and Persians, meeting both in Cyrus, as the two arms do in the breast; Cyrus also, by his great strength and much bodily labour all his life long, got this other empire. Inferior to thee,] sc., In fame and felicity. Chald., Humilius; quia durius et minus tolerabile, saith one. And another kingdom of brass.] This is the third monarchy, which is the Grecian, not the Carthaginian, as Orosius, and, out of him, Prosper, would have it; and it is fitly set forth by brass, which, as it is a metal strong and hard, so noisy and loud sounding. The belly noteth the beginning and greatness of this kingdom, saith one, under Alexander the Great; the joints between the belly and thighs note the plucking up of this kingdom after Alexander’ s death, to be divided into four, whereof the principal were two - the one of the Seleucidae, the other of the Lagidae, figured here by the two thighs of brass. See Daniel 11:4-5. Ex hac Danielis visione Gentiles fabulam acceperunt de quattuor saeculis, aureo, argenteo, &c. Parker in loc.

(39) Another kingdom.—These words make it clear that by “the king” in the last verse “kingdom” was meant; or, in other words, Nebuchadnezzar was identified with his kingdom (comp. Daniel 7:5; Daniel 8:3; Daniel 8:20). The second kingdom is the Medo-Persian (as appears more fully below, Exc. E). The inferiority is to be found in the divided character of that empire, as compared with the massive solidity of its predecessor. This is signified in the image, partly by the inferiority of the metal, silver instead of gold, and partly by the symbol of division, the two breasts opposed to the one head. It must not be forgotten that in other respects, such as extent of territory and duration of empire, the Medo-Persian far exceeded the Babylonian kingdom. Another third.—The metal implies a certain inferiority, but the phrase “shall bear rule over the whole earth” speaks of an empire that extended further than the preceding. This is the Græco-Macedonian Empire (see Exc. E, and comp. Daniel 7:6; Daniel 8:5-7).

39. The second and third kingdoms are, in all probability, the Median and the Persian. The home of the Medes was in the mountainous country N. and N.E. of Babylon, and S.W. of the Caspian Sea; they are often mentioned in the Assyrian inscriptions from the 8th cent. b.c.; but they were first consolidated into an important power by Cyaxares, b.c. 624–584, during whose reign, in 607, they were the chief instruments in bringing about the destruction of Nineveh. Cyaxares was succeeded by Astyages, whose soldiers deserted en masse to Cyrus (b.c. 549); and the empire of the Medes thus passed into the hands of the Persians. Their name was however long remembered; for the Greeks regularly spoke of the Persians as Medes (οἱΜῆδοι, τὰΜηδικά). In the book of Daniel the ‘Medes and Persians’ are, it is true, sometimes represented as united (Daniel 5:28, Daniel 6:8; Daniel 6:12; Daniel 6:15, cf. Daniel 8:20): but elsewhere they are represented as distinct; after the fall of Babylon, Darius ‘the Mede’ ‘receives the kingdom’ (Daniel 5:31), and acts in it as king (Daniel 6:1-2; Daniel 6:15; Daniel 6:25-26); he reigns for a time—it is not said how long—and is succeeded by Cyrus, who is called pointedly ‘the Persian’ (Daniel 6:28; cf. Daniel 10:1, and contrast Daniel 9:1, Daniel 11:1); the two horns of the ram in Daniel 8:3 are distinguished from each other, one (representing the Persian empire) being higher (i.e. more powerful) than the other (the Median empire), and coming up after it. Thus in the view of the author of the book, the more powerful rule of Persia is preceded by a ‘kingdom’ of the Medes, beginning immediately after the death of Belshazzar. It is possible that this representation is based upon the prediction in Isaiah 13:17, Jeremiah 51:11; Jeremiah 51:28, that the Medes would be the conquerors of Babylon. If the second kingdom be the Median, the third will be that of Persia; it is described as ruling ‘over all the earth,’ with allusion to the wide empire of Cyrus and his successors, which embraced virtually the whole of Western Asia (including Asia Minor) and Egypt (cf. the note on Daniel 4:1, at the end). Compare in the O.T. Ezra 1:2, Esther 1:1; Esther 10:1. inferior to thee] lit. lower than thou.

And after thee - This must mean “subsequently” to the reign, but it does not mean that the kingdom here referred to would “immediately” succeed his own reign, for that would not be true.

39. Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom shall be followed by a silver kingdom, inferior (or, literally, lower down; that is, nearer the ground) to that of the golden head, and it, in turn, by a brazen kingdom,