And I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose up, and did the king’s business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it.
God struck Daniel with illness to make him know this vision came from Heaven and to seal its weight upon him. We neglect God's word unless fear first awakens us from our drowsiness; here He showed His servant the magnitude of what was coming. Notice Daniel returned to the king's business, he was not in Persia then, but in Babylon, where the palace stood.
AI summary
Daniel sought understanding and did not seek in vain. Those who truly know God's things must desire to know more of them. When Gabriel approached, Daniel fell in fear and then into deep sleep, not from carelessness but from the weight of such abundance of revelations.
AI summary
Commenting on Daniel 8:15-27
The vision of those calamities coming on God's people so worked upon his mind that he fainted and lay ill for days. The soul and body are bound together; what grieves one grieves the other. That he did the king's business proves he was at Babylon, not Shushan, and that no one but himself understood what the angel had shown him.
AI summary