26/09/21 – Daniel 2:26-35
Daniel 2:26 – 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?
answered and said – or probably “responded by saying”
Belteshazzar – Daniel’s Babylonian name given to him by Ashpanaz (prince of the eunuchs) – Daniel 1:7. It is clear that from the time Daniel was given this name (when he first began his training in order to stand before the king in service) that this was how he was to be addressed when in Babylon. His Hebrew name remained Daniel; thus his writings were called the book of Daniel. But in Babylon he would be known as Belteshazzar.
make known – yᵉda‘ (Aphel tense) (Aramaic)
(to let someone know; communicate; inform; cause to know) Its Hebrew
equivalent is yada‘ (to know). The king wanted to know: Was Daniel able
to make known (to declare) the knowledge of this dream to the king? And, not
only this, but the meaning (interpretation) as well?
Nebuchadnezzar appears to be uncertain as yet
that Daniel could be able to tell him the dream and its meaning. If his wise
men couldn’t deliver (and therefore had to be executed
for their lack of “wisdom”), then how could Daniel deliver what supposedly
wiser men could not? Of course, Nebuchadnezzar did acknowledge that Daniel and
his companions were so much wiser than all his other wise men.
Daniel 1:19-20 – 19And
the king communed with them; and among them all was found none like Daniel,
Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: therefore stood they
before the king. 20And in all matters of wisdom [and] understanding,
that the king enquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the
magicians [and] astrologers that [were] in all his realm.
However, that was at the end of the training period and it is probable
that Nebuchadnezzar’s dream was before the end of that three years. It is also
possible that the king’s assessment of their wisdom in Daniel 1:19-20 may have, in
fact, been influenced by their obviously greater wisdom regarding this particular dream or vision in Daniel 2. (Daniel had involved
his three companions regarding what should be done concerning this dream – see Daniel 2:17. Therefore note that
when Daniel told the king about his dream and its meaning, he was clearly
speaking not only for God, but for his three companions who had shared the
burden of prayer with Daniel.)
Daniel 2:27 – 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;
in the presence of – qodam
(Aramaic) (before; in front of)
Daniel had come before the king; he was in front of the king, facing him.
The secret – raz
Used 8 times in Daniel 2; thus a passage that
emphasises the secret knowledge and wisdom that only God could know and
deliver. A major theme of Daniel Ch.2 is that God is the only one who may know
all secrets, the one from whom no secret is hidden.
Daniel states that none of the wise men, astrologers, magicians, soothsayers, would be able to tell the king such a secret as this. Even if the king demanded such a secret from them, they could not tell him. This is leading up to a key statement in this passage: that a God who knows all secrets does exist, the God in heaven, and if this secret is to be made known, then such knowledge and wisdom can only come from the God in heaven (see Vs 28 below).
Daniel 2:28 – 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;
shall be – hava’ (Peal tense)
(Aramaic) (to come to pass; become; be; come into being; come to be) That is, that
which will come to pass; prophecy.
latter – ‘achariyth (Aramaic) (end;
latter)
Corresponding to the Hebrew ‘achariyth (end;
latter time – prophetic of the future) In Vs 28 here it would relate to the
end-times according to prophecy.
The Chaldeans had said that only the gods could have such knowledge and
understanding of the king’s dream (Daniel 2:11) but were apparently unable to approach such gods to find out. Most
likely they were even unsure whether or not the gods
themselves could answer the king’s demand. What they had made clear is that it
was impossible for any man to have such knowledge on his own.
Daniel 2:11 – 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.
If they could have known for certain that the gods could reveal such
knowledge, then they would have sought the answer from them, especially if
their lives were forfeit if they failed to find out what the king wanted to be
told.
Now Daniel makes it absolutely clear that such
a God who knows all hidden (or secret) knowledge does exist; it is the God in
heaven whom he worships who is able to reveal such hidden knowledge. If
Nebuchadnezzar needs to know what he is asking for, then it will be made
known to him. In particular, Daniel states that this
information that the king requires is of events in the future, in fact, right
up to the end-times of the world (“the latter days”).
And in order to demonstrate the absolute
knowledge of his God, Daniel proceeds to tell the king what God has revealed to
him concerning Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (and the visions of his head).
the visions of thy head – Probably referring to the “thoughts” that came into
the king’s mind in Vs 29 below.
Daniel 2:29 – 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.
came (into your mind) – cᵉliq
(Aramaic) (came up; ascended)
Literally “came up” or “ascended” but could be written as “came into thy mind” as per the KJV.
The LXX (Bagster) says “O king: thy thoughts upon thy bed arose as to what must
come to pass hereafter ….” and the LXX (Pietersma/Wright)
says “O king, your thoughts upon your bed
ascended to what must happen after this”.
The Interlinear LXX says: “You, O king, your thoughts upon your bed ascended to what must
take place after these (things).”
Barnes says: “The Chaldee
is, "thy thoughts ascended" - סלקוּ
selı̂qû. So
the Greek: "Thy thoughts ascended (ἀνέβησαν anebēsan)
upon thy couch."”
It
does not seem clear why such thoughts should ascend, but it does seem more
logical that thoughts should come into one’s mind or thinking, rather than
ascending.
what
should come to pass hereafter – Those events which could be termed prophecy, or the
foretelling of those things that are yet to happen. Daniel is proclaiming the
king’s dream to be about events of the future.
The
king’s thoughts that came into his mind were foretelling events yet to happen
(= prophecy), and it was the God in heaven who reveals secrets (because He
knows all things) who has made known to the king those things that are yet to
occur. That is, genuine prophecy such as this is of God; only God may know the
future which is otherwise hidden from all others.
Daniel 2:30 – 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.
heart – lᵉbab (Aramaic) (heart;
mind)
The Hebrew equivalent is lebab (mind;
will; heart; soul; understanding; conscience; heart of moral character; seat of
appetites; seat of emotions, passions; seat of courage)
Thus it refers to Nebuchadnezzar’s deepest
thoughts.
But as for Daniel, this secret or hidden knowledge and understanding has
not been revealed to him because he was wiser than any other living. Daniel
cannot claim to have been wiser than any others because the secret was revealed
to him.
for (their) sakes – dibrah
(Aramaic) (reason; cause) Thus, “for this reason (or cause)”, or “for the sake of making the interpretation known to
the king …”
Barnes says: “The literal translation
is, "but (להן lâhēn) on account of the thing that they might
make known the interpretation to the king."”
But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me because I might have
wisdom above all others, but for the sake of making the interpretation known to
you, the king, such that you might (would) know what you were thinking in your
dream. (And probably know why as well.)
Daniel 2:31 – 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.
great – chad (Aramaic) (one; number one; indefinite article “a”) + saggiy’ (Aramaic) (great; much; many, exceeding) This is actually two Aramaic words, thus “one great”.
image – or “idol”
a great image – literally “one great image”,
emphasising the unique greatness of this image.
So why not just “a great image”? It is likely that it has
to refer to a one-ness, a unity of this image or idol. Thus, even though
it was made up of many parts, it was still but one image as a
whole.
In the NT Greek there are words that signify many parts acting together
as one. They have the prefix syn (or derivations of it). Such words
denote a synthesis (Greek synthesis from syn = together + tithenai = to put, to place).
A very similar phrase is repeated straight after: “a
great image. This great image” where “This” replaces the
previous “one”. Thus “one great image. This great image …”
So, “this great image which was one great image …”
In fact, this image is made up of many sections that represent different
historical eras which all must be seen as parts of one whole. They were not
isolated aspects of history but had to be seen as developing from the head down
to the feet and toes. We’ll look further at how these
sections fit together as one when we look at Daniel 2:36-45 next week.
brightness – or “splendour”
excellent – yattiyr (Aramaic) (pre-eminent;
surpassing; extreme; extraordinary)
Thus it was an image of extraordinary splendour,
or of surpassing brightness.
form – or “appearance”
terrible – dᵉchal (Aramaic) (fearful;
terrible) It caused terror. When the KJV was translated, terrible probably meant
fear so great as to overwhelm the mind. It would strike terror into the
hearts of those seeing it.
Nebuchadnezzar must have had this reaction (of the dream being terrible)
in mind when he desperately wanted to know what the dream represented. In those
days dreams were supposed to be portents of either good tidings or doom. Like
the two dreams Joseph interpreted while in prison for the chief butler
(cupbearer) and the chief baker. For the butler the news was good; for the
baker the news was bad, very bad in fact, (Genesis Ch.40)
Daniel 2:32-33 – 32This image’s
head [was] of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, 33His legs of
iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.
Note that in the original Aramaic, “breast” is plural, thus “breasts”.
As the picture moves downward, we go from gold to silver to brass to iron and finally to a mixture of iron and clay. It is the perceived value of each section which appears to reduce as we go downward. However, it is not necessarily the value that is important here, but the characteristics of the material which comprises each individual section.
Gold (the head) – In fact, fine or good quality gold. It is a precious metal and therefore was often highly desirable for kings and queens to have it to boast of their fortunes. The ark of the covenant was coated in gold, and much of the tabernacle in the wilderness had fittings and vessels of pure gold and furniture overlaid with pure gold. Even the high priest’s ceremonial clothing would have been worth a fortune in gold.
Every part of Solomon’s temple was overlaid with gold,
1 Kings 6:21-22 – 21So Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold: and he made a partition by the chains of gold before the oracle; and he overlaid it with gold. 22And the whole house he overlaid with gold, until he had finished all the house: also the whole altar that [was] by the oracle he overlaid with gold.
…. and while many vessels were made of brass, some items
were made of solid gold. In
fact, Solomon had so much gold that his drinking vessel were all made of gold.
Nothing else was considered good enough, not even silver.
1 Kings 10:21 – And all king Solomon’s drinking
vessels [were of] gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest
of Lebanon [were of] pure gold; none [were of] silver: it was
nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon.
Thus gold
represented glory and kingly majesty.
Gold doesn’t corrode readily, and is resistant to most harsh
chemicals including acids. This makes it ideal for delicate electrical
connectors, especially in computers.
Silver (breasts and arms) – While silver is
also a precious metal, it was of far less value than gold. It is an even better
conductor of electricity than gold. While less valuable than gold, it was still
much used for important items such as vessels used and stored in the temple.
1 Kings 7:51 – So was ended all the work that
king Solomon made for the house of the Lord. And Solomon brought in the things
which David his father had dedicated; [even] the silver, and the gold,
and the vessels, did he put among the treasures of the house of the Lord.
Brass (belly and thighs – upper legs)–
Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. It
is likely that this was actually bronze, an alloy of
copper and tin. (It may originally have been copper and arsenic.) Our ancient
historical ages are often measured by the metal they used at that time for
tools and weapons. Thus we have the stone age, then
the bronze age, and then the iron age. Brass (or probably Bronze) is a stronger
metal than either gold or silver (both of which in their pure forms are
relatively soft and would be more or less useless for
tools or weapons). However, brass (bronze) is also much more common. While only
the very rich (usually kings and rulers) could have gold and silver, brass
(bronze) was a metal that many more could obtain.
Iron (legs – probably from the knee down)–
This is much stronger than the previous metals and also
more common again (once they were able to refine it into a metal usable for
tools and weapons). It was the strongest of all the materials listed for this
great image. No other metal at that time could match iron’s strength for
weaponry.
Iron and
clay (feet) – Strength
(iron) and weakness (clay) put together. In fact, while iron was the strongest
of these materials, clay was equally the weakest of all of them.
clay – chacaph (Aramaic) (clay;
potsherd) Its Hebrew equivalent is chacpac (scale-like;
flake-like; scaled-off) derived from a word meaning “to peel”.
The idea of the iron/clay mixture appears to be great strength in
places, with clay used to fill in the gaps between the strong iron.
Daniel 2:34 – 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.
thou sawest till – or “you were watching until”. Thus, while the king kept on watching (in his vision), he saw a stone cut out of a mountain without the use of any hands. This then assumes that it is God who does the cutting out of the stone, as no human (hands) had anything to do with this cutting out.
Daniel 8:25b – …. he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.
2 Corinthians 5:1 – For we know that if our earthly house of [this] tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
was cut out – Daniel 2:45 says that it “was cut out of the mountain”. It doesn’t say where the mountain was but it must have been near enough to have been part of this vision of the king. It is likely that it refers to Mount Zion, God’s holy mountain.
Psalm 48:1-2 – 1Great [is] the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, [in] the mountain of his holiness. 2Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, [is] mount Zion, [on] the sides of the north, the city of the great King.
brake them to pieces – dᵉqaq (Aramaic) (to break into pieces) or utterly shattered them. It doesn’t mean merely broken into some pieces, but shattered as glass might be shattered if hit hard enough, like broken car windscreens used to shatter.
smote the image upon his feet – It hits the feet, breaking the iron and clay to pieces. Dried clay (especially unfired clay) is very brittle and easily shatters into small pieces. This would seem to make the image unstable and possibly fall, but it doesn’t actually say this. In fact, Vs 35 below suggests that the stone then proceeds to break up the image from the bottom upward.
Daniel 2:35 – 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.
broken to pieces – dᵉqaq (Aramaic) As used in Vs 34 above.
After the feet are broken up, the stone apparently continues its destructive course upward, breaking up seemingly in order the iron, brass (bronze), silver and gold sections. They are broken up into such small pieces that they are like chaff. Chaff is so light that it literally can be blown to one side when thrown into the air. The OT threshing floor was usually built in an area where wind could blow through. When wheat was harvested, the grain had to be separated from the rest of the plant. In the OT they would either run oxen over the wheat to trample and break it up, or they might trample it themselves. Then they would often use a winnowing fan or fork to throw the trampled wheat into the air. The wheat grain would fall downward while the chaff (the dry parts of the wheat other than the grain) would blow away to one side. This was carried out on a threshing floor.
In the Bible the winnowing fan represents the separation of wheat (God’s people) from the chaff.
Matthew 3:12 – Whose fan (ptuon – winnowing fan or shovel) [is] in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
Jeremiah 51:1-2 – 1Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will raise up against
Babylon, and against them that dwell in the midst of
them that rise up against me, a destroying wind; 2And will send unto
Babylon fanners, that shall fan her, and shall empty her land: for in the day
of trouble they shall be against her round about.
The empires which the image represented were in their day the most powerful in the known world, yet even they would not last forever. One day they would become like the chaff which would just blow away in the breeze.
The same applies to all mankind: everything we have will either last or be destroyed by fire.
1 Corinthians 3:11-15 – 11For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; 13Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. 14If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. 15If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
Isaiah 33:11 – Ye shall conceive chaff, ye shall bring forth stubble: your breath, [as] fire, shall devour you.
The stone therefore broke up the image into pieces so small that they literally blew to one side when blown by the wind. The wind in this vision then spread this chaff around like dust such that it could not be discerned as an image any more. That is, the image was not only destroyed, but literally disintegrated, effectively totally gone.
became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth – This alludes to God’s kingdom which cannot be broken by such a stone, a kingdom that will last forever.
Daniel 2:44 – 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.
All earthly kingdoms will eventually fall, but God’s kingdom will stand for ever.
Anything bound by time will change in time, and anything that will eventually change in time may be termed “temporal” or “temporary”; things that will not change in time may be termed “eternal”.
2 Corinthians 4:18 – While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen [are] temporal; but the things which are not seen [are] eternal.
1 Peter 2:6-8 – 6Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. 7Unto you therefore which believe [he is] precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, 8And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, [even to them] which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.
Hebrews 1:8 – But unto the Son [he saith], Thy throne, O God, [is] for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness [is] the sceptre of thy kingdom.
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