Daniel 6:10

His house. Daniel’s house probably had a flat roof, like the majority of both ancient and modern houses in Mesopotamia. Usually on one corner there is an apartment raised above the flat roof that contains latticed windows for ventilation. Such rooms provided ideal places of seclusion.

His windows being open. An identical Aramaic expression is used in an Aramaic papyrus from Elephantine. The papyrus describes a house having “open windows” at the lower end and above (Cowley, No. 25, line 6). Another papyrus speaks of a house whose “one window opens to the two compartments” (Kraeling, No. 12, line 21). Daniel’s open windows faced in the direction of Jerusalem, the city he had left as a boy and probably never saw again. On the custom of turning in prayer toward Jerusalem see 1 Kings 8:33, 35; Ps. 5:7; 28:2.

He kneeled. The Bible notes various postures in prayer. We find servants of God praying while sitting, like David (2 Sam. 7:18), bowing, like Eliezer (Gen. 24:26) and Elijah (1 Kings 18:42), and frequently standing, like Hannah (1 Sam. 1:26). The most common attitude in prayer seems to have been that of kneeling, of which the following are examples: Ezra (Ezra 9:5), Jesus (Luke 22:41), Stephen (Acts 7:60). See further PK 48; GW 178.

Three times a day. In later Jewish tradition the offering of prayer three times a day took place at the third, sixth, and ninth hours of the day (the hours being counted from sunrise). The third and ninth corresponded to the time of the morning and the evening sacrifices. The psalmist followed the same practice (Ps. 55:17). Three daily prayers later became a fixed custom with every orthodox Jew living according to rabbinical regulations (Berakoth iv. 1). This custom of the three daily times of prayer seems also to have been adopted in the early Christian church (Didache 8).