The subject of this chapter is a dream which Nebuchadnezzar had dreamed, but had forgot; upon which he calls his magicians and astrologers together, to tell him it, and the interpretation of it; threatening them with death if they did not, and promising them great rewards and honour if they did,…

And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar It was in the first year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign that Daniel was carried captive, , three years Daniel had been under tutors; at the end of which he was presented to the king, as is related in the preceding chapter; and yet the following dream…

Then the king commanded to call the magicians He ordered his servants in waiting to send immediately for the wise men, the philosophers of that age and kingdom, that studied the things of nature, and the natural causes of things: and the astrologers; that cast nativities, and pretended by the…

And the king said unto them, I have dreamed a dream What before is called dreams is here expressed in the singular, a dream; for it was but one dream, though it contained in it various things; this the king could remember, that he had a dream; for it had left some impression on his mind, though he…

Then spake the Chaldeans to the king in, Syriac These spake, either because the interpretation of dreams particularly belonged to them; or else as being the chief of the wise men, and of greatest authority; or as chosen by the rest, and spake in their name; and indeed this appellation may include…

The king answered and said to the Chaldeans In the same language they spoke to him: the thing is gone from me; either the dream was gone from him; it was out of his mind, he had forgot it, and could not call it to remembrance; he had been dreaming of monarchies and kingdoms, which are themselves…

But if ye show the dream, and the interpretation thereof Which he was extremely intent upon to know; and therefore makes use of every way to obtain it, first by threatenings, to terrify, and next by promises, to allure: ye shall receive of me gifts, and rewards, and great honour; gold, silver,…

They answered again, and said Or, a “second” [[4]] time; repeating the same words, having nothing more to say: let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation thereof; the first part was but right and reasonable, though the latter was mere boasting and arrogancy.

The king answered and said, I know of certainty I see plainly and clearly what you are at, and am fully assured you mean nothing, but that ye would gain the time: or buy [[5]], or redeem time, as in , prolong time, put off the answer to longer time; spin out time, as people do in buying and…

But if ye will not make known unto me the dream For the present he does not insist upon the interpretation, only the dream itself, at least this is now only mentioned; concluding that if they could do the one, they could do the other, as is after observed: there is but one decree for you; for them…

The Chaldeans answered before the King, and said As follows, in order to appease his wrath, and cool his resentment, and bring him to reason: there is not a man upon the earth can show the king’s matter; or, “upon the dry land” [[6]]: upon the continent, throughout the whole world, in any country…

And it is a rare thing the king requireth, &e.] Meaning not scarce, or seldom heard of; for they had before asserted it never had been required; but that it was hard and difficult, yea, with them, and as they supposed with any other, impossible to be done: and there is none other that can show it…

For this cause the king was angry, and very furious Not only because they could not tell his dream, and the interpretation of it; but because they represented him as requiring a thing unreasonable and impossible, which had never been done by any potentate but himself, and could never be answered…

And the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain, &c.] Or, “and the wise men were slain” [[7]], as the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and Syriac versions render it; and so Saadiah: orders were given by the king to his proper officers, and his edict was published, and his will made known in…

Then Daniel answered with counsel and wisdom In a discreet manner, using soft words and gentle language, humbly and modestly inquiring what should be the meaning of all this.

And he answered and said to Arioch the king’s captain Or governor [[11]]; over the persons before mentioned; either the king’s guard or militia, or cooks or executioners: before, the manner in which Daniel answered is observed; here, the matter of it, as follows: why is the decree so hasty from the…

Then Daniel went in Or “went up” [[12]]; to the king’s palace, which might be built on an eminence; or into his chamber, where he probably was; or in some upper room, very likely introduced by Arioch; and which was a bold and daring action in them both: in Arioch, to cease from doing his orders,…

Then Daniel went to his house Which Sanctius thinks was in the king’s palace; very probably it might be near it, somewhere in the city of Babylon; for that it should be twenty miles from that city, as Benjamin of Tudela relates [[13]], is not likely; since Arioch’s orders reached to none but the…

That they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret His view in sending for them, and informing them of this whole affair, was to engage them in prayer to God with him; even to that God that made the heaven, and dwells there, and is above all, and sees and knows what is done…

Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision, &c.] That is, after Daniel and his companions had importunately sought the Lord by prayer, the secret of the king’s dream, and the interpretation of it, were made known to Daniel, and to him only; he being the person designed in Providence…

Daniel answered and said That is, he began his prayer, as Jacchiades observes, or his thanksgiving, and expressed it in the following manner: blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: a form of blessing God, or a wish that he may be blessed by men for evermore; for there is that in his name, in…

And he changeth the times and the season Not only of day and night, summer and winter, and times and seasons of prosperity and adversity; but all the changes and revolutions in states and kingdoms, in all times and ages, are from him; and particularly those pointed at in the following dream, in the…

He revealeth the deep and secret things The purposes of his own heart, which are the deep things of God, and the secrets that belong to him, and which are opened in providence by the execution of them; the “arcana imperii”, or secrets of state, committed to men designed for government; the secrets…

I thank thee, and praise thee, O thou God my fathers His remote ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and more near progenitors, to whom God had made promises, and revealed his secrets in time past, and still continued his favours to Daniel; for which he was abundantly thankful, and owned and…

Therefore Daniel went in unto Arioch Into his apartments at court, or wherever he was in quest of the wise men, of which Daniel had knowledge; this he did as soon as the secret was revealed to him, though not before he had given thanks to God: whom the king had ordained to destroy the wise men of…

Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste As knowing how impatient the king was to have his dream, and the interpretation of it, told him; and how pleasing this would be to him, and be a means of ingratiating and establishing him in his affections, as well as for the sake of saving the…

The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar The name given him by the prince of the eunuchs, , and by which he was known to Nebuchadnezzar; and very likely he called him now by this name, which is the reason of its being mentioned: art thou able to make known unto me the dream…

Daniel answered in the presence of the king Boldly, and without fear: and said, the secret which the king hath demanded: so he calls it, to show that it was something divine, which came from God, and could only be revealed by him, and was not to be found out by any art of man: cannot the wise men,…

But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets By this Daniel meant to inform the king that there was but one God, in opposition to the notion of polytheism, that obtained among the Heathens; that this one God is in heaven, and presides over all persons and things on earth; and that to him…

As for thee, O king So far as thou hast any concern in this matter, or with respect to thee, the following was thy case; these the circumstances and situation in which thou wert: thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, which should come to pass hereafter; as he lay on his bed, either sleeping…

But as for me As to the part I have in this affair, I can ascribe nothing to myself; it is all owing to the God of heaven, the recovery of the dream, and its interpretation: this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living: not that he thought or affirmed that he…

Thou, O king, sawest Or, “wast seeing” [[24]]; not with the eyes of his body, but in his fancy and imagination; as he was dreaming, he thought he saw such an appearance, so it seemed to him, as follows: and behold a great image; or, “one great image” [[0]]; not painted, but a massive statue made of…

This image’s head was of fine gold The prophet begins with the superior part of this image, and descends to the lower, because of the order and condition of the monarchies it represents: this signifies the Babylonian monarchy, as afterwards explained; called the “head”, being the first and chief of…

His legs of iron A coarser metal than the former, but very strong; and designs the strong and potent monarchy of the Romans, the last of the four monarchies, governed chiefly by two consuls: and was divided, in the times of Theodosius, into the eastern and western empire, which may be signified by…

Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands Or, “wast seeing” [[4]]; the king continued looking upon the image that stood before him, as he thought, as long as he could see it, till he saw a “stone”: an emblem of the Messiah, as it often is in Scripture, , because of his strength,…

Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together The feet, the basis of the image, being broken, the whole body of it fell, and with its own weight was broken to pieces; an emblem this of the utter dissolution of all the monarchies and kingdoms of the…

This is the dream Which Nebuchadnezzar dreamed, but had forgot, and was now punctually and exactly made known to him; for the truth of which he is appealed unto; for, no doubt, by this account, the whole of his dream, and every circumstance of it, were brought to his mind: and we will tell the…

Thou, O king, art a king of kings Having many kings subject and tributary to him, or would have; as the kings of Judah, Ammon, Moab, and others, and who were even his captives and prisoners; see .

And wheresoever the children of men dwell Not in every part of the habitable world, but in every part of his large dominion inhabited by men: the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the heaven, hath he given into thine hand; all parks, chases, and forests (so that none might hunt or hawk without…

And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, &c.] This is the kingdom of the Medes and Persians, signified by the breasts and arms of silver, an inferior metal to gold; this rose up, not immediately after the death of Nebuchadnezzar, but after his successors, when Belshazzar his…

And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron This is not the kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae, the successors of Alexander, as some have thought; for these are designed by the thighs in the third kingdom; and, besides, the kingdom of Christ was to arise in the time of this fourth kingdom,…

And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potter’s clay, and part of iron That is, some of the toes of the feet were of iron, and others of them of clay: these toes, which are ten, as the toes of men are, design the ten kings or kingdoms, into which the western Roman empire was divided, by…

And as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay Or some of them of iron, and so were strong and powerful, as some of these kingdoms were; and some of clay, and so were weak and easily crushed, and did not stand long: so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken; this is…

And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay That is, iron among the clay; otherwise iron and clay will not mix and cement together, as is affirmed in the latter part of the verse; but as some of these toes were of iron, and others of clay, or some part of them were iron, and some part of them…

And in the days of these kings Not of the Babylonian, Persian, and Grecian kings; nor, indeed, of the old Roman kings, or emperors; but in the days of these ten kings, or kingdoms, into which the Roman empire is divided, signified by the ten toes, of different power and strength.

Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands (See Gill on Dan. 2:34) and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; of which the image was made he had seen in his dream; and which represented the several monarchies of the…

Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and worshipped Daniel Imagining there was something of divinity in him, that he could so exactly tell him his dream, which was past and gone; and give him the interpretation of it, respecting things to come, which he concluded none but God could do;…

The king answered unto Daniel By which it appears that Daniel interposed and expostulated with the king, and prevented the oblation to him as a god, and instructed him in the knowledge of the true God he ought to worship; as the following confession of the king more clearly shows: and said, of a…

Then the king made Daniel a great man Advanced him to posts of great honour and dignity he was a great man before in spiritual things, in which he was made great by the Lord; and now he was made a great man in worldly things, through the providence of God; those that honour him he will honour: and…

Then Daniel requested of the king Being in his favour, he improved it to the advantage of his friends, whom he did not forget in his elevated state; but made suit to the king for them to be put into places of trust and honour, which the king listened to: and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,…