Daniel 2:48-49

48, 49. If this means that Daniel was really appointed viceroy, or shalit, of the province and official head ( rab?) of the order of Magi, he must very soon have lost that position (Daniel 2:13), which might have been arbitrarily given him out of temporary spite toward the Babylonian priests and taken from him when the king and these ecclesiastics became reconciled. (See note Daniel 2:5.) Zockler says, “What really was conferred on the prophet was probably merely a decisive influence over the administration of the province of Babylon.” For a time, at least, Daniel was “in the gate of the king.” This perhaps may only mean that he abode at the royal court, though, strictly speaking, the “gate” was the most sacred part of the temple or palace, and was, therefore, used for the highest judicial functions (Trumbull, Threshold Covenant). At Persepolis (Susa) on the doorways the king is represented rendering justice at the palace gate. A Babylonian tablet written in the twenty-eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar contains the challenge of a certain person to his opponent to bring his witnesses to the gate of the house Bel-idden, and testify, and so the most sacred city of the empire was named Babylon, “the gate of the gods.” The high court of Turkey is still called the Sublime Porte, or Exalted Gateway.