And the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic, O king, live for ever! tell thy servants the dream, and we will shew the interpretation.
The king has put his wise men on the spot, and they answer with an offer: give us the dream, and we will give you the meaning. That reply is also the point where the book's original language changes.
From this verse onward the text is no longer Hebrew. One writer traces how the switch maps exactly onto the book's subject matter:
Daniel's prophecy falls into two simple parts after the introductory chapter, which tells of the courageous stand Daniel and his three companions took against idolatry, and how God honoured it. From the point where the Chaldeans spoke "to the king in Syriac" (Dan. 2:4) to the end of Daniel 7, this language of the Gentiles is used, and Hebrew is only returned to as we start Daniel 8. So the historical details and the prophecies relating to the Gentile powers are written in the Gentile language.
The ESV calls it Aramaic; older translations say "Syriac," which is the same tongue.
The choice of language was not an accident of transcription. It made the record readable by the very powers it described:
It is interesting that the portion from Daniel 2:4 to the close of Daniel 7 is in the Syriac or Aramean language. That was the tongue spoken by the Babylonians and the Assyrians. These were the two powers used in the captivity of all Israel. In that portion we have the rise, progress and doom of Gentile power sketched by God. So not Hebrew but Syriac is the chosen tongue. The Gentiles could then read for themselves. They were left without excuse about how they used the governmental power God had entrusted to them.
The choice also makes a claim. Babylon had captured Jerusalem, and that looked like a win for Babylon's gods:
The Gentiles had triumphed over the kingdom of Judah. But God would teach them that they had not triumphed over Jehovah. Their gods had not given them the victory. He, and He alone, was the true God, the God of heaven.
Earlier in the book Daniel is taught "the tongue of the Chaldeans" (Daniel 1:4). Writers note that this is not the same as the Aramaic spoken here, and one offers a reason for the switch in the room itself:
In Dan. 2:4 we find that the wise men answered the king in the Syriac language, that is Aramaic. There must be some reason why Daniel says the wise men answered the king in Aramaic. Aramaic is held to be not the learned and court language, but the common language of the people. The wise men may have used it so that all who heard could judge whether what they said was reasonable, even though the king might condemn them.
Their request sounds modest, and it is easy to feel for them. But it put their own claims to the test:
We might pity these men of wisdom, put through such an ordeal. But we must remember two things. First, the professionals of the occult sciences of that day claimed to be able to reveal secrets and to see into regions hidden from mortal eyes. Second, God designed the whole thing to bring the wisdom of the wise to nothing in the eyes of this absolute monarch, to take them in their own craftiness, and so to pour contempt on all the pride of man. Their reply was, "Tell your servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation."
The king's demand still sounds harsh. One writer weighs it against what these men claimed they could do:
This request appears at first sight wholly unreasonable, and the Chaldeans tell the king, "There is not a man on earth who can show the king's matter... And it is a rare thing that the king requires, and there is no other who can show it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh." But remember the vast pretensions of these wise men of Babylon. Then the demand does not appear so outrageous.
The men closest to the throne had no light. God gave it elsewhere:
"The secret of the LORD is with those who fear him." The magicians, the astrologers, the sorcerers and the Chaldeans lived in the atmosphere of the royal presence. They were all in the dark about the royal dream... But there was a God in heaven who knew all about it. He could unfold it to those who had faith enough, devotion enough and self-denial enough to separate themselves from Babylon's pollutions, though they were caught up in Babylon's captivity.
- Language. From this verse to the end of chapter 7 the book leaves Hebrew for Aramaic — a Gentile tongue for the Gentile part of the prophecy.
- Audience. God chose that tongue so the nations could read the story of their own rise and fall, and be left with no excuse.
- Claim. Babylon's victory over Judah was no victory over God. He alone is the God of heaven.
- Exposure. Their polite offer — you supply the dream, we supply the meaning — put their advertised powers on trial. God used it to bring the wisdom of the wise to nothing.
- Location. God kept the secret from the men nearest the throne. He gave it to those who had kept clear of Babylon's pollutions.
The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, The command is gone forth from me If ye do not make known unto me the dream, and its interpretation, ye shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
But if ye shew the dream and its interpretation, ye shall receive of me gifts and rewards and great honour; therefore shew me the dream and its interpretation.
Nebuchadnezzar dangles gifts, rewards and great honour before his wise men, but only after promising to tear them limb from limb if they fail. It raises a plain question: can any prize pull out of a man knowledge that God alone has?
The offer is one half of a pair. The king has just told the same men what happens if they fail. Behind his panic, God was at work.
Nebuchadnezzar is troubled by a dream, his sleep leaves him, and his memory fails him. God allowed all of this to force the king to acknowledge Him through His servant Daniel. The king had already found Daniel to be ten times wiser than all the wise men of Babylon. Yet he forgets or rejects Daniel. He turns to the magicians, astrologers, sorcerers and Chaldeans. He demands that they not only give the interpretation of the dream, but first recall the dream he has forgotten. If they satisfied the king's demands, he would reward them richly. If they failed, he would have them cut in pieces and their houses turned into rubbish heaps.
At first glance the king is asking the impossible. But the men standing before him had built their careers on the claim that nothing was hidden from them.
We might pity these wise men for being put through such an ordeal. But remember two things. First, the men who practised the occult arts of that day claimed they could reveal secrets and see into regions hidden from human eyes. Second, God designed the whole thing to bring the wisdom of the wise to nothing in the eyes of this absolute monarch, to catch them in their own craftiness, and so to pour contempt on all the pride of man.
Had the king told them the dream, they could have invented a meaning and nobody could have checked it. Withholding it closed that door. The reward offered here, pressed alongside the threat, could not open it.
They could easily have given an interpretation. If it concerned future events, it might pass unchallenged. Until the time came for it to happen, no one could say whether it was true or false. So God would not have accomplished His purpose of exposing the emptiness of their pretended skill and knowledge. The king would not be satisfied by their answer. He pressed them further, turning from promises of reward to threats, until they were driven to confess that there is not a man on earth who can show the king's matter.
The king seems not to have trusted the men he was bribing.
Clearly, the king has no great opinion of the integrity of his wise men. He probably had good ground for thinking them quite capable of preparing lying and corrupt words. They, for their part, face such a dilemma that they must admit they are completely unable.
The failure of the paid experts was no accident. God used it to show where real understanding comes from.
God was pleased to reveal the secrets of the future. But He did this so as to impress on the Gentiles that true intelligence belongs only to those who fear Him. The king had turned to the ordinary means of his empire to recall or understand the vision, but in vain. He asked, as his wise men told him, what no king had ever asked before. By their own confession none but He whose dwelling is not with flesh could give the answer. In his commanding style he demanded it on pain of death. When his officer was about to carry out the cruel decree, where did God raise up a witness? Among the captives of Judah.
The gifts and honour of verse 6 do land on someone by the end of the chapter — on the one man who never applied for them.
Finally, Daniel is promoted to great honour. This faithful man has borne a witness for God before the king, and becomes a means of blessing both to the world and to his own companions. He had neither sought nor asked anything for himself. Yet he is free to use his high position to ask for his companions.
Later, facing a different king with a similar offer, his response changed — and commentators explain the change by what he already knew was coming.
Daniel's answer, recorded in verse 17, is very striking. Earlier, at the end of Daniel 2, Daniel had accepted the honours placed on him; now he treated them with disdain. The meaning of the four fateful words had clearly already reached his heart, and he knew that Belshazzar was rejected by God and his kingdom about to crash in ruin, so the honours offered him were worthless.
- Bribe. The reward offered here is the softer half of a threat; the same demand promised to cut them to pieces if they failed.
- Bluff. The men who took the offer had long claimed to reveal secrets, so the impossible test called their bluff.
- Bankruptcy. Neither promises nor threats could squeeze out the answer; they were forced to admit only God could give it.
- Bestowal. What no reward could buy, God gave freely — and gave it to a captive, not to the paid experts of the empire.
- Blessing. Daniel received the honour he never chased, and spent it on his friends rather than himself.
They answered the second time and said, Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will shew the interpretation.
The wise men of Babylon have already heard the king's terms once, and their answer here is to ask again for the one thing he will not give them — the dream itself. The request sounds reasonable. It also shows the exact limit of what they can do.
If the king told them the dream, any interpretation would do. One writer explains why:
They could easily give an interpretation. If it dealt with future events, it might pass unchallenged. Until the time came for it to happen, no one could say whether it was true or false. So God's purpose would not have been reached — to expose the emptiness of their pretended skill and knowledge.
The king suspected the same thing:
He is quite sure that, if they had known the dream, they could have invented some artificial interpretation of it, and the king would have had to be content with it. Yet he often seems to have been painfully aware of how fake their interpretations were.
The demand looks impossible and cruel. But these men had claimed access to knowledge closed to ordinary people:
At first sight this demand looks wholly unreasonable. The Chaldeans tell the king, "There is not a man on earth who can meet the king's demand… The thing that the king asks is difficult, and no one can show it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh." But remember the vast claims these wise men of Babylon made. Then the demand does not look so outrageous.
Another writer sees the king testing whether those claims were real:
If they claimed to interpret dreams by supernatural power, surely that same power could rebuild the forgotten dream! That would prove the claims they made. And if they could not prove their claims, he would wipe them out of his kingdom!
The deadlock served a purpose neither side chose:
The teachers of the occult arts of that day claimed they could reveal secrets and reach into regions hidden from human eyes. God designed the whole thing to bring the wisdom of the wise to nothing in the eyes of this absolute ruler, to catch them in their own craftiness, and so to pour contempt on all the pride of man.
The stand-off between a furious ruler and his advisers is drawn out as a lasting picture:
What a picture of the world! Authority makes unreasonable demands on advisers it does not really trust. It turns to rage and violence when the demands are not met at once. Put to the test, the wisdom of this world proves to be mere pretension. There is might without wisdom on the one hand; and profession of wisdom without might on the other.
Notice who gains when they fail:
Whatever comes, they have to admit defeat. So, unwillingly, they add their own testimony to the wisdom and might of the God of Daniel, when through him the king learns both the dream and its interpretation. They have to own their helplessness. All the king's resources fail him. He may be angry, he may turn to violence, he may kill without mercy; but how will that help him? Even after killing every wise man in his kingdom, he will be no nearer what he is after than at the start.
The men closest to the king knew the least:
"The magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans," who lived and breathed in the king's own presence, were all in the dark about the royal dream… "There is not a man on earth who can meet the king's demand." Very likely. But there was a God in heaven who knew all about it. He could unfold it to those who had faith enough, devotedness enough, and self-denial enough to separate themselves from Babylon's pollutions, even while held in Babylon's captivity.
- Claim. The wise men claimed they could reveal hidden things. That claim is why the king's demand was not as outrageous as it sounds.
- Test. Asking for the dream itself was the one test they could not fake. No one can check the interpretation of a dream someone told them.
- Collapse. The test exposed the wisdom of this world as pretension. The king had might without wisdom; his advisers claimed wisdom without power.
- Design. God arranged the failure. It brought the wisdom of the wise to nothing in front of the most powerful man on earth.
- Contrast. Those nearest the throne knew nothing. The God of heaven knew it all. He revealed it to men who kept themselves clean while living in captivity.