Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit [was] in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm.
Ver. 3. Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents.] Chald., He became a conqueror over those exarchs; so that he might have been called, as Charles the Great once was, Pater orbis, the world's father; or as Titus, Orbis deliciae, the world's darling; or as Otho III, Mirabilia mundi, the world's wonder. He was indeed no less, and that Darius well found by him. Whether he took him with him into Medea, as Jerome, out of Josephus, relateth, I have not to say; if he did, it seemeth that after the death of Darius he returned again to Babylon, and there served King Cyrus. Dan 6:28
Because an excellent spirit was in him.] Not only of prophecy, but of prudence, justice, zeal, and other virtues, which, if a governor lack, he is as a sun without light, a bird without wings, a master of a ship without a helm, &c.
And the king thought to set him over the whole realm.] Thus dignity waiteth upon desert, and envy upon dignity, which made David love his hook the better after he had seen the court; and Daniel was never fond of this great preferment, whereby, for his own particular, he got nothing, nisi ut turbatior viveret, occupatior interiret, as he said, but vanity and vexation of spirit. High seats are never but uneasy; neither want there those who are lifting at them, and labouring to overturn them. Feriunt summos fulmina montes.