And [it is] a rare thing that the king requireth, and there is none other that can shew it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.
Ver. 11. And it is a rare thing.] Exceeding man's wit.
Except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.] They cohabit not with men, that we might converse and confer with them. Here these wizards (1.) Superstitiously affirm a multitude of gods, which the wiser heathens denied, Thales, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Chrysippus, &c. (2.) They deny God's providence, as did also the Epicures, who held that the gods did nothing out of themselves. The Peripatetics also held that they had nothing to do with things below the moon; yea, the Platonists and Stoics placed the gods in heaven only, and other spirits good and bad in the air, which conversed with men, and were as messengers between them and the gods. Thus these famous philosophers became altogether "vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened." Rom 1:21 (3.) They seem to affirm that man can know nothing of God, unless he cohabited in the flesh with him. "But we have the mind of Christ," 1Co 2:16 and "the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him"; Psa 25:14 this is a paradox to the natural man. 1Co 2:14 Lastly, they deny the incarnation of Christ, that great "mystery of godliness, God manifested in the flesh." 1 Timothy 3:16 Joh 1:14