Daniel 10:8

Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(8) This great vision.—Daniel again distinguishes this from former visions: The glory of the man who appeared to him was far in excess of what he had witnessed previously (Daniel 8:17). The effects of the vision upon him are also mentioned. His “comeliness was turned,” or, he grew pale with terror at what he saw, and fainted.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

10:1-9. This chapter relates the beginning of Daniel's last vision, which is continued to the end of the book. The time would be long before all would be accomplished; and much of it is not yet fulfilled. Christ appeared to Daniel in a glorious form, and it should engage us to think highly and honourably of him. Let us admire his condescension for us and our salvation. There remained no strength in Daniel. The greatest and best of men cannot bear the full discoveries of the Divine glory; for no man can see it, and live; but glorified saints see Christ as he is, and can bear the sight. How dreadful soever Christ may appear to those under convictions of sin, there is enough in his word to quiet their spirits.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision - That is, I distinctly saw it, or contemplated it. He perceived, doubtless, that it was a heavenly vision; and as he had often been favored with similar manifestations, he remained to receive the communication which probably he understood was to be made.

And there remained no strength in me - He was completely overcome. A similar effect was produced on John when he was in Patmos: "And when I saw him I fell at his feet as dead," Revelation 1:17. That he should be overcome, and his strength taken away, was not an unnatural effect; and what occurred to Daniel and John may demonstrate that there may be such views of the Divine character and glory now as to prostrate our physical powers. It is certain that such visions as those which appeared to Daniel and John would have this effect; and, though we are not to expect that they will now be vouchsafed to men, no one can doubt that there may be such views of God, and heaven, and eternal realities presented to the eye of faith and hope; such joy in the evidence of pardoned sin; such a change from a sense of condemnation to the peace resulting from forgiveness, that the powers of the body may be prostrated, and sink from exhaustion. Indeed, it is not much of the revelation of the Divine character that in our present state we can bear.

For my comeliness - Margin, "vigour." Hebrew, הוד hôd. The word means, properly, majesty or splendor; then beauty or brightness, as of the complexion. The meaning here is, that his "bright complexion" (Gesenius, Lexicon) was changed upon him; that is, that he turned pale.

Into corruption - The phrase used here means literally "into destruction." The sense is, that by the change that came over him. his beauty - his bright or florid complexion was completely "destroyed." He became deadly pale.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8. comeliness—literally, "vigor," that is, lively expression and color.

into corruption—"deadliness," that is, death-like paleness (Da 5:6; 7:28).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

This great vision; great in the appearance, and great in the great things revealed.

There remained no strength in me; by the recoiling of his spirits inward.

My comeliness was turned in me into corruption; his colour was changed into paleness, as one that is faint, and pining into a consumption, by terror and consternation.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision,.... Which was great indeed, both with respect to the object now seen, and with respect to the subject matter, the things afterwards revealed, the nature, use, and importance of them; and it was so wisely ordered by the Lord, that the men with Daniel should be seized with a panic, and flee and leave him alone; that they being removed from him, he might have the secrets of the Lord revealed to him as a peculiar favourite of his, and hear and see the things he did:

and there remained no strength in me: either through the intenseness of his mind upon the object before him, and to what he said; or through the awe he was struck with at the sight of him; his blood running back to the heart to secure that; his nerves loosened; his hands weak and hanging down; his knees feeble, and spirits faint, just ready to sink and swoon away:

for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption; the form of his countenance was marred; his forehead wrinkled; his eyes sunk; the sprightliness and vivacity of them gone; his cheeks turned pale; his lips quivering; his joints trembling; his vigour and health impaired; all nature convulsed; and he lifeless and spiritless, like a dead carcass:

and I retained no strength; or, "restrained" (s) it not; his strength; could not keep it from going out of him, either of body or mind; he could not rally the powers of nature, so depressed was he with the vision: all which is observed, both to exaggerate the greatness of the vision, and the favour and goodness of God after shown him; as well as to observe the weakness of human nature, not being able to bear the sight of a divine Person, or such discoveries the Lord is sometimes pleased to make, without being strengthened and supported in an extraordinary manner.

(s) "non cohibui", Gejerus.

Geneva Study Bible

Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me: for {f} my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength.

(f) So that because of fear he was like a dead man because of his deformity.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

8. And I (emph.) was left alone, and saw this great vision] ‘great,’ on account of the majestic appearance of the angel.

and there was left (Daniel 10:17) no strength in me] Cf. 1 Samuel 28:20. The vision itself is more impressive than that of Gabriel in Daniel 8:16-18, and its effects upon Daniel are more marked.

comeliness] The meaning is dignity of countenance. Majesty, glory, is the idea of the word: cf. (of God) Psalm 8:1, Habakkuk 3:3; (of a king), Psalm 45:3, Jeremiah 22:18 (‘Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!’); of the Israel of the future, compared to a nobly-spreading tree, Hosea 14:6 (where ‘beauty,’ A.V., R.V., is inadequate).

was turned upon me into corruption] i.e. disfigured, or destroyed, by sudden pallor. The Hebrew word rendered ‘corruption’ is cognate with that rendered ‘marred’ in Isaiah 52:14 (also of the countenance). For ‘upon,’ cf. Daniel 5:9, Daniel 7:28; and see on Daniel 2:1.

retained no strength] In the Heb., a late idiom, found otherwise only Daniel 10:16, Daniel 11:6; 1 Chronicles 29:14; 2 Chronicles 2:5; 2 Chronicles 13:20; 2 Chronicles 22:9.

8–9. Daniel was left alone, and fell motionless, as if stunned, upon the earth.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 8. - Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me; for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength. The versions do not call for much remark. The LXX. renders "glory" by "spirit" or "breath;" and the Peshitta renders it by "body." The Massoretic is superior, as more difficult and more likely to be the source of the other two than either of them. Theodotion's rendering, δόξα, confirms this. Daniel explains how he alone had seen the vision, and narrates the effects contact with the spiritual had on him, "There remained no strength in me;... And I retained no strength" - a redoubled statement of weakness not necessarily meaning, as Jephet-ibn-Ali would have it, that the one refers to his inability to flee like his attendants, and the other to his inability to stand upright. It is probably due merely to the great impression this sudden powerlessness made on him. For my comeliness was turned in me into corruption. From the natural brightness of the skin in life the face assumed the yellow pallor of death (comp. Daniel 7:28). "And my countenance was changed in me;" comp. also Habakkuk 3:16, "When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones." While the ideas here are the same, the parallelism is made more striking by the difference of the terms. Daniel 10:8

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Daniel here calls the appearance great with reference to the majesty displayed, such as had never hitherto been known to him. Its influence upon him is, therefore, also greater than that of the appearance of Gabriel, Daniel 8:17. There remained in him no strength, i.e., he felt himself overwhelmed, and as if about to perish. His הוד, splendour - the same as the Chald. זיו, Daniel 7:28; Daniel 5:6, Daniel 5:9 - i.e., the fresh colour of life which marked his countenance, was changed למשׁחית, properly, to destruction, to entire disfigurement, to corruption. The last clause, "and I retained no strength," gives greater force to the preceding statement.