Daniel 5:29 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

They clothed Daniel— The clothing of Daniel with scarlet was an honour of a different kind from that mentioned, chap. Daniel 2:46. We have no custom of this kind. Persons receive favours of various sorts from princes; but the coming out from their presence in a different dress, is not an honour in use among us, though it is still practised in the East. Some doubt, however, may be made concerning the precise intention of thus clothing him; whether it was the investing him with the dignity of the third ruler of the kingdom, by putting on him the dress belonging to that office; or whether it was a distinct honour; the modern customs of the East not determining this point, because caffetans, or robes, are at this day put on people with both views. Thus Norden, speaking of one of the Arab princes of Upper Egypt, says, that he had received at Girge the caffetan of the bey, which was the only mark of respect they paid there at that time to the Turkish government, force deciding between the competitors who should have the dignity, and he that was sent to Girge being absolutely to be vested with the caffetan by the bey. But then we find too, that these caffetans are given merely as an honour, and not as an ensign of office. La Roque tells us, that he himself received it at Sidon, and three other attendants on the French consul, along with the consul himself, who, upon a particular occasion, waited on Ishmael the basha of that place. Agreeable to which, Thevenot tells us, that he saw an ambassador from the Great Mogul come out from an audience that he had of the Grand Signior with a vest of cloth of gold upon his back, a caffetan of which sort of stuff thirty of his retinue also had: and elsewhere he observes, that he saw one hundred and eight of the retinue of an Egyptian bey thus honoured along with their master, by a bashaw of that country. But if it should be indeterminate whether this scarlet vestment was merely the dress belonging to the office with which Daniel was dignified, or a distinct honour, it is by no means uncertain whether it was put upon him or not, since these caffetans are always in readiness in the East, and are wont immediately to be put on: contrary to the sentiments of Lowth, who supposes in his commentary on the place, that though the king thought himself bound to perform the promise of the 16th verse, yet that it was likely it could not take effect at that unseasonable time of the night, and therefore that the words might have been better translated, "Then commanded Belshazzar, that they should clothe Daniel with scarlet." This is certainly an unnecessary refinement. See Observation, p. 278.