Now, O king, establish the decree, and sign the writing, that it be not changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not.
Ver. 8. Now, O king, establish the decree.] Confirm it, that it may receive the force of law.
According to the law of the Medes and Persians, that altereth not.] This was too much to be given to any law made by man, so mutable a creature. I have read of a people whose laws lasted in force but for three days at utmost; this was a fault in the other extreme. The Persians' laws were therefore irrepealable, because they worshipped truth for a goddess, to whom inconstancy and change must needs be opposite and odious. But this was no good reason either, unless the law makers shall be supposed such as cannot err, nor will anything unjust, which can be truly attributed to none but God only.