10:1
Chapters 10-12 are all of a piece and this chapter introduces the vision without giving any of the content. “In the third year of Cyrus the king of Persia”. This was 537 BC and the first group of exiles had returned to Jerusalem. This vision is linked back to the introduction of the book with the mention of Daniel being called Belteshazzar. Daniel would be an old man by this time, having lived many years in exile. We are assured that the message Daniel receives is true. NIV has “it concerned a great war”, ESV has “it was a great conflict”. So it isn’t clear whether it is saying Daniel found the message very hard to take, or that the message is about a great conflict. Both are true, so it doesn’t matter that much, and both NIV and ESV give the alternative reading as a footnote. Daniel was given understanding of the message through a vision.
10:2,3
That the message caused Daniel great trouble is shown by the fact that he was in mourning for three weeks. Daniel also reverted to the “Daniel fast” of chapter 1, not allowing any delicacies or wine etc to pass his lips. This does imply that he did not keep to the “Daniel fast” for the whole of his time in Babylon. This fasting lasted for three weeks.
10:4-6
The twenty-fourth day of the first month may have had some significance, but if it did we do not know what it was. The Euphrates and the Tigris were great rivers. Daniel saw “a man”, literally this is “a certain man”. Throughout the vision it is made clear that the messenger is a man. Priests wore linen garments, and these were usually white. He was wearing a belt of fine gold. The description here, especially in v6, bears some resemblance to Rev 1:12-16.
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