Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.
1. (1) The troubling dream.
Now in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; and his spirit was so troubled that his sleep left him.
a. In the second year: It is difficult to understand the exact time this speaks of. Some commentators say this happened while Daniel was in his three-year training course; others say that it was soon after he finished.
i. The ancient Babylonians spoke of the beginning and end of the reign of their kings in a way that often overlapped years. Therefore, the year 602 B.C. could be both the second year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign and after three years of training for the Hebrew youths.
b. His spirit was so troubled that his sleep left him: There was something disturbing about this dream and Nebuchadnezzar knew that it was unusually significant.
2. (2-9) Nebuchadnezzar demands to know the dream and its interpretation from his wise men.
Then the king gave the command to call the magicians, the astrologers, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans to tell the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king. And the king said to them, “I have had a dream, and my spirit is anxious to know the dream.” Then the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic, “O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will give the interpretation.” The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, “My decision is firm: if you do not make known the dream to me, and its interpretation, you shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made an ash heap. However, if you tell the dream and its interpretation, you shall receive from me gifts, rewards, and great honor. Therefore tell me the dream and its interpretation.” They answered again and said, “Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will give its interpretation.” The king answered and said, “I know for certain that you would gain time, because you see that my decision is firm: if you do not make known the dream to me, there is only one decree for you! For you have agreed to speak lying and corrupt words before me till the time has changed. Therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that you can give me its interpretation.”
a. Make known the dream to me: It is hard to say if Nebuchadnezzar really remembered the dream or not. Perhaps he had a general sense of it but only a vague remembrance of the details.
b. Therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that you can give me its interpretation: Nebuchadnezzar couldn’t know for certain that the wise men gave a correct interpretation of the dream. But he could test their ability to tell what he dreamed.
i. Despite their protests, Nebuchadnezzar didn’t ask too much of these magicians, the astrologers, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans. These men made their living on their supposed ability to contact the gods and gain secrets from the spirit realm. If they were really what they claimed to be, they should be able to tell Nebuchadnezzar both the dream and its interpretation.
c. You shall be cut in pieces: The harsh threat of Nebuchadnezzar and the method of execution he described are both perfectly consistent with the character of ancient eastern monarchs.
i. Archer described one method of dismemberment: four trees were bent inwards and tied together at the top. The victim was tied to these four trees with a rope at each limb. Then the top rope was cut and the body snapped into four pieces.
d. The Chaldeans: This is the first mention of the Chaldeans as a class of soothsayers to the king. Critics take the use of this word as a mistake that only a second century B.C. writer would make. Critics suppose that in Daniel’s day, the term Chaldean was only used as a racial designation, describing what the Chaldeans thought was the master race who ruled Nebuchadnezzar’s superpower empire.
i. But linguistic research has demonstrated that the Babylonian word for an astrologer-priest and their word for their supposed master race were homonyms, both having the sound Chaldean (kas-du in Babylonian), but each retaining their own meaning. This is the same way that the English sound tu can mean to, two, or too.
ii. Daniel’s understanding of this is clear from the text, because he also used the term Chaldean in its racial sense (Daniel 3:8 and 5:30).
e. Then the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic: From Daniel 2:4-7:28, the Biblical text is in Aramaic – not Hebrew. This is the only section of the Bible written in Aramaic. This was the language of the Babylonian Empire.