Also I in the first year of Darius the Mede, [even] I, stood to confirm and to strengthen him.
Ver. 1. Also I,] i.e., I, Gabriel the angel, glad of such an office, for the good of God's people, whereunto also I was sent by Christ. Dan 10:9-10
In the first year of Darius the Mede.] Who now began to think of sending home the captive Jews, but had some hesitations and fluctuations of mind about it.
I stood to confirm and to strengthen him.] Angels cannot enlighten the mind, or powerfully incline the will of man, for so the Holy Ghost only doth; but, as instruments of the Holy Ghost, they can stir up phantasms of the Word read or heard. They can also propose truth and right to the mind, advise and persuade to it as counsellors, and inwardly instigate as it were by speaking and doing after a spiritual manner, suggesting good thoughts, as devils do evil; yea, they can strangely wind themselves into men's imaginations, so as to appear to them in their dreams. Mat 1:20