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Daniel 2

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Nebuchadnezzar's Forgotten Dream 1–13

1
And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit was troubled, and his sleep brake from him. ​
2
Then the king commanded to call the magicians, and the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, for to shew the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king. ​
3
And the king said unto them, I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit was troubled to know the dream.
4
Then spake the Chaldeans to the king in Syriack, O king, live for ever: tell thy servants the dream, and we will shew the interpretation. ​
5
The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, The thing is gone from me: if ye will not make known unto me the dream, with the interpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill. ​
6
But if ye shew the dream, and the interpretation thereof, ye shall receive of me gifts and rewards and great honour: therefore shew me the dream, and the interpretation thereof.
7
They answered again and said, Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will shew the interpretation of it.
8
The king answered and said, I know of certainty that ye would gain the time, because ye see the thing is gone from me.
9
But if ye will not make known unto me the dream, there is but one decree for you: for ye have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak before me, till the time be changed: therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that ye can shew me the interpretation thereof. ​
10
The Chaldeans answered before the king, and said, There is not a man upon the earth that can shew the king's matter: therefore there is no king, lord, nor ruler, that asked such things at any magician, or astrologer, or Chaldean.
11
And it is a rare thing that the king requireth, and there is none other that can shew it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh. ​
12
For this cause the king was angry and very furious, and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.
13
And the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain; and they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain. ​

Daniel Seeks Time and Prays 14–23

14
Then Daniel answered with counsel and wisdom to Arioch the captain of the king's guard, which was gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon: ​
15
He answered and said to Arioch the king's captain, Why is the decree so hasty from the king? Then Arioch made the thing known to Daniel.
16
Then Daniel went in, and desired of the king that he would give him time, and that he would shew the king the interpretation.
17
Then Daniel went to his house, and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions:
18
That they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. ​
19
Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. ​
20
Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his:
21
And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding: ​
22
He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him.
23
I thank thee, and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me now what we desired of thee: for thou hast now made known unto us the king's matter.

Daniel Appears Before the King 24–30

24
Therefore Daniel went in unto Arioch, whom the king had ordained to destroy the wise men of Babylon: he went and said thus unto him; Destroy not the wise men of Babylon: bring me in before the king, and I will shew unto the king the interpretation.
25
Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste, and said thus unto him, I have found a man of the captives of Judah, that will make known unto the king the interpretation.
26
The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, Art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen, and the interpretation thereof? ​
27
Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, shew unto the king;
28
But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these; ​
29
As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter: and he that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass.
30
But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living, but for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart. ​

The Dream of the Great Image 31–45

31
Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. ​
32
This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, ​
33
His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.
34
Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. ​
35
Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.
36
This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.
37
Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. ​
38
And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.
39
And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. ​
40
And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. ​
41
And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.
42
And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.
43
And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. ​
44
And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. ​
45
Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.

The King Honors Daniel and God 46–49

46
Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odours unto him. ​
47
The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret. ​
48
Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon.
49
Then Daniel requested of the king, and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, over the affairs of the province of Babylon: but Daniel sat in the gate of the king. ​

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for Daniel 2

Verse 1

his spirit was troubled — Pa’am, to be stirred, the word used of Pharaoh: ‘his spirit was troubled’ (Gen 41:8). In both accounts the king is left troubled until a servant of God gives the meaning. Here the king wants ‘to know the dream’ (v.3), and the wise men are called in v.2 to tell it.

Verse 2

the magicians, and the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans — Four classes of the king’s wise men. Chartom, ‘magicians’, is the word for Pharaoh’s (Gen 41:8). Moses had warned Israel against ‘an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch’ (Deut 18:10), and Isa 47:12–13 names Babylon’s ‘enchantments’, ‘sorceries’ and ‘astrologers’. Here ‘Chaldeans’ is a class of wise men.

Verse 4

in Syriack — Aramit, in Aramaic, the language Hezekiah’s officers asked Rabshakeh to use: ‘Speak, I pray thee, to thy servants in the Syrian language; for we understand it’ (2 Kgs 18:26). From here to the end of ch.7 the book is written in Aramaic. ‘O king, live for ever’ is the court greeting, heard again in 3:9 and 5:10.

Verse 5

cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill — The king demands the dream and its interpretation together. The penalty is stated in the same words in his later decree (3:29): the offender is cut in pieces (haddam) and his house made a dunghill (nevalu). Darius’s decree (Ezra 6:11) also ends with the house made a dunghill. The wise men are given no choice.

Verse 9

till the time be changed — The king suspects they are stalling, that they ‘have prepared lying and corrupt words’ until the moment passes. ‘Changed’ is shena, the same verb Daniel uses in v.21: God ‘changeth the times and the seasons’. The king’s test of the wise men matches Isa 41:23: ‘Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods.’

Verse 11

whose dwelling is not with flesh — The wise men admit the matter is ‘a rare thing’ (yaqqir, hard, costly) that only ‘the gods’ can show. Scripture says otherwise of the true God: ‘I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God’ (Ex 29:45). The LORD does dwell among men, and in John 1:14 ‘the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us’.

Verse 13

they sought Daniel and his fellows — The decree (dath, the word of v.9) goes out that all the wise men be slain, and it reaches Daniel and his friends because they are counted among ‘the wise men of Babylon’ (v.14). In 1:20 the king had found them ‘ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers’.

Verse 14

counsel and wisdom — ’Eta, prudence, and te’em, judgment (literally taste, discernment): a measured reply to Arioch, ‘the captain of the king’s guard’ (rab tabbachaya, literally chief of the slaughterers), who ‘was gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon’. Nebuzaradan held the same office, ‘captain of the guard’, at the fall of Jerusalem (Jer 39:9).

Verse 18

mercies of the God of heaven — Daniel tells his three companions (v.17) and they ask together. Rachamin, mercies, is plural, as in 1:9 (rachamim). They ask concerning ‘this secret’ (raz), the word used of what God alone reveals in vv.19, 28 and 47. ‘God of heaven’ occurs in this book only in ch.2 (vv.18, 19, 37, 44). Compare Jer 33:3, ‘Call unto me, and I will answer thee’.

Verse 19

revealed unto Daniel in a night vision — Gelah, to uncover, the verb that returns in v.22, ‘He revealeth the deep and secret things’, and in vv.28 and 47. A vision by night is a way God makes himself known: ‘I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream’ (Num 12:6). Daniel’s reply is a blessing, vv.20–23.

Verse 21

he changeth the times and the seasons — Shena, to change, is the verb of v.9, where the king hopes the ‘time be changed’; here the one who changes times is God. The same hand ‘removeth kings, and setteth up kings’, as Ps 75:7 says, ‘he putteth down one, and setteth up another’. The truth is applied to Nebuchadnezzar in v.37, ‘the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom’.

Verse 26

whose name was Belteshazzar — The narrative keeps both names together: the king addresses Daniel by the name given in 1:7, ‘according to the name of my god’ (4:8). The same description appears in 10:1, ‘Daniel, whose name was called Belteshazzar’. The king’s question, ‘Art thou able’, is the one the wise men could not meet (v.10), and Daniel’s answer in v.27 begins with them.

Verse 28

a God in heaven that revealeth secrets — Daniel answers the king’s question by pointing to the one who ‘revealeth secrets’ (gelah, raz), as Joseph did: ‘Do not interpretations belong to God?’ (Gen 40:8). ‘The latter days’ is acharit yomayya, the Aramaic form of the phrase in Num 24:14 and Dan 10:14, so the dream reaches past Babylon to what follows it.

Verse 30

not revealed to me for any wisdom — Daniel disclaims any wisdom ‘more than any living’, as Joseph did before Pharaoh: ‘It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace’ (Gen 41:16), and as Peter did: ‘as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?’ (Acts 3:12). It is given ‘for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king’.

Verse 31

a great image — Tselem, the word for the golden image Nebuchadnezzar later sets up (3:1). One figure stands for a succession: its parts are of metals that change from head to feet (vv.32–33), and v.38 begins the explanation, ‘Thou art this head of gold’. ‘Terrible’ (dechal) is the word for the fourth beast of 7:7, ‘dreadful and terrible’.

Verse 32

fine gold… silver… brass — The metals run downward: gold, silver, brass, then iron (v.33) and iron mixed with clay. The head is Babylon, ‘Thou art this head of gold’ (v.38), and the next is ‘another kingdom inferior to thee’ (v.39). Jer 51:7 uses the same metal of Babylon: ‘Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD’S hand, that made all the earth drunken’.

Verse 34

a stone was cut out without hands — ‘Without hands’ (lah bidayin) is repeated in v.45: the stone is ‘cut out of the mountain without hands’. It strikes the image ‘upon his feet’, of iron and clay, and in v.35 the whole image is broken together and the stone ‘became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth’. Of ‘this stone’ Christ says, ‘it will grind him to powder’ (Matt 21:44).

Verse 37

a king of kings — Ezekiel calls him the same: ‘Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, a king of kings’ (Ezek 26:7). The gift comes from above, ‘the God of heaven hath given thee’ (yehab) a ‘kingdom, power, and strength, and glory’. Jeremiah had said, ‘have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant’ (Jer 27:6).

Verse 39

another kingdom inferior to thee — The kingdom that follows Babylon is given ‘to the Medes and Persians’ (5:28), and in the ram and goat vision Scripture itself names ‘Media and Persia’ and then ‘Grecia’ (8:20–21). The ‘third kingdom of brass’ that ‘shall bear rule over all the earth’ follows them in the order of the image’s metals (v.32).

Verse 40

the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron — The fourth beast of 7:7 matches it: ‘strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces’. Here iron ‘breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things’, and it breaks ‘all these’, the earlier kingdoms. Christian readers have taken it from the early centuries as Rome. The feet and toes follow in vv.41–43.

Verse 43

iron mixed with miry clay — The kingdom is ‘divided’ (v.41) and ‘partly strong, and partly broken’ (v.42). The iron and clay ‘shall not cleave one to another’ (dabaq, to cling), ‘even as iron is not mixed with clay’. They ‘shall mingle themselves with the seed of men’ (zera enasha). It still carries ‘the strength of the iron’ (v.41).

Verse 44

shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom — The kingdom is God’s own, ‘which shall never be destroyed’ (chabal), and the phrase is repeated of the Son of man: ‘his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed’ (7:14), and of the God of Daniel (6:26). It ‘shall stand for ever’. The angel’s word to Mary uses the same hope: ‘of his kingdom there shall be no end’ (Luke 1:33).

Verse 46

fell upon his face, and worshipped Daniel — Segid, to prostrate in homage, the verb used of the golden image in 3:5. Daniel’s answer is not recorded here. When Cornelius did the same, Peter ‘took him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man’ (Acts 10:25–26). The ‘oblation and sweet odours’ (nichochin) are the kind of offerings made to the ‘God of heaven’ (Ezra 6:10).

Verse 47

a God of gods, and a Lord of kings — The king speaks of him as ‘your God’. Moses had used the same title: ‘the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords’ (Deut 10:17). ‘A revealer of secrets’ (gelah, raz) is the title Daniel gave in v.28. Nebuchadnezzar later confesses ‘the King of heaven, all whose works are truth’ (4:37).

Verse 49

the gate of the king — Daniel asks, and the king sets Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego ‘over the affairs of the province of Babylon’, the office named again in 3:12. ‘Daniel sat in the gate of the king’, the place where officials sat to do the king’s business, as Mordecai did (Esth 2:21). The three are called by the names given in 1:7.