Daniel 2:15,16 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Why is the decree so hasty from the king? So precipitate, or, as Wintle renders it, so urgent, to slay the innocent, who were never called, and knew nothing of the matter? The word מהחצפה, here used, signifies both hasty and pressing. So the Syriac. The LXX. render it, η αναιδης, shameful; the Vulgate translates the verse thus: He (namely, Daniel) asked him who had received authority from the king, for what reason so cruel a sentence had gone forth from the presence of the king? Then Arioch made the thing known to Daniel Acquainted him with the whole affair, of which, it is evident, he knew nothing before. Then Daniel went in Or, went up, as על properly signifies; that is, either to the palace or throne of the king; and desired of the king that he would give him time, &c. The king's anger was now abated; and withal the providence of God was visible, in inclining the king's heart to allow Daniel that favour which he had before denied to the magicians; and that he would show the king the interpretation Daniel promised this, in confidence that God, to whom he intended to make application by prayer, would discover to him both the dream and its interpretation. Doubtless God inspired him with a persuasion to this purpose.