and for a long time and it will come in a long time.

and he understood the word and to understand the word, the vision was revealed to me.

and he understood it in the vision Heb. וּבִינָה and to make him understand it in the vision. Now this word is not a noun, like (Job. 38:4): “if you know understanding (בִּינָה) Instead, the “hey” is superfluous, and it is like (Ps 5:2) “understand (בִּינָה) my thoughts” Therefore, the accent is above on the “beth,” and its meaning is like הָבֵן, understand.

had been mourning when he saw that Cyrus had curtailed the construction of the Temple, for he had ordered to commence it, and he reneged because of the missive of the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin: Rehum the adviser and Shimshai the scribe, as is written in the Book of Ezra (4:5).

three weeks of days twenty-one years. They are eighteen years from the one year of Darius the Mede, when he [Daniel] put to his heart to calculate the seventy years of the exile, as it is written: until the second year of Darius the Persian, the son of Esther, who built the Temple. As for the three extra years, I do not know whether he started to fast before them or whether the duration of the acceptance of the vow of his fasts terminated three years after the building.

white bread Heb. לֶחֶם חֲמֻדֹת, white (lit. clean) bread, as Onkelos rendered (Gen. 27:15): “Esau’s clean clothes (הַחֲמֻדֹת),” דַּכְיָתָא, clean.

clad in linen a linen garment.

with a girdle of gold studded with jewels Heb. בְּכֶתֶם אוּפָז, with a girdle of a cluster of pearls. Every [instance of] כֶּתֶם is an expression of a cluster of gold and precious stones.

And his body was like tarshish Our Sages of blessed memory explained in Tractate Hullin (9lb): “His body was two thousand parasangs large, like the measurement of the sea named Tarshish, and that is the sea of Africa (the Mediterranean).”

brandished Heb. קָלָל, smelted, refined, and shiny.

like the voice of a multitude like the voice of a gathering of a large multitude, whose voice is heard from afar.

but the men who were with me Our Sages of blessed memory said that they were Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.

but a great quaking fell upon them Our Sages of blessed memory said that although a person does not see something of which he is terrified, his guardian angel, who is in heaven, does see it; therefore, he becomes terrified.

was turned in me into corruption Heb. לְמַשְׁחִית, lit. to a destroyer. To corruption, and it is customary for Biblical verses to speak in this manner, like (Jer. 5:8): “They were like armed stallions early in the morning.” מַשְׁכִּים is the equivalent of בְּהַשְׁכָּמַת הַבּקֶר, in the early morning.

I could not summon up strength i.e., I did not gather. All my strength left my innards.

I fell into a sound sleep out of great fright.

and moved me as one who moves a sleeping person to awaken him.

man of desirable qualities אִישׁ חֲמֻדוֹת, pure man.

upright Heb. עַל עָמְדֶךָ, on the stand of your feet.

I have been sent to you I have been sent to you from the Omnipresent.

quaking [as translated,] quaking.

and I have come because of your words I have come on this mission because of your words. Our Rabbis, however, explained in Tractate Yoma (77a): “and I came within the curtain because of you, for I was banned from its midst.”

has been standing against me to battle with me in heaven by requesting an extension for the kingdom for Persia to enable them to subjugate you (Israel). Behold twenty-one days that he has been standing against me.

the first princes those counted first among those who enter.

and I remained there to silence the princes of Persia in heaven.

for there is yet a vision to tell you what has not yet been told, and it will come in many days at an appointed time.

my joints turned upon me Heb. צִירַי. These are the ends of the bones, all the limbs that are thrust into their sockets and turn within them like a door on its hinge in the socket of the threshold. My joints turned to become dislocated from their place out of much trembling and quaking.

this servant of my lord He refers to himself as a servant, and to the angel as “my lord,” i.e., to say, How will your servant be able to speak with you?

And now I shall return to battle with the prince of Persia and I know that I will be victorious, but when the time of the kingdom of the heathens [Greece Malbim ed., Antiochus Vilna ed.] arrives, I know that I will leave, and he will enter after thirty-four years of the existence of the Temple. Alexander of Macedon will rise, for although Israel was subjugated by the kings of Persia in those days, they exacted a light tribute from them, and they did not burden them heavily because the Holy One, blessed be He, caused them to have mercy on them. But the kings of the heathens [Greece, Antiochus] laid a heavy yoke upon them.

what is inscribed in a true script the document of the decree is true, but not one of the heavenly princes is exerting himself to assist me with all these, except etc.