In those days I Daniel was mourning three full weeks.
I Daniel was mourning - i:e., afflicting myself by fasting from "pleasant bread, flesh, and wine" (Daniel 10:3), as a sign of sorrow, not for its own sake. Compare Matthew 9:14, "fast," answering to "mourn" (Daniel 10:15), and therefore implying that fasting was a recognized outward indication of inward mourning, and not practiced merely for its own sake, as if it were meritorious and sanctifying in itself. Compare 1 Corinthians 8:8, "Meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse:" 1 Timothy 4:3, "Commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving," is given as a mark of the apostasy, which passages prove that "fasting" is not an indispensable Christian obligation; but merely an outward expression of sorrow, and separation from ordinary worldly enjoyments, in order to give one's self to prayer (Acts 13:2, "They ministered to the Lord and fasted"). Daniel's mourning was probably for his countrymen, who met with ma ny obstructions to their building of the temple, from their adversaries in the Persian court.