Page 62 - Daniel

interpret his dream. Daniel and his friends were not among the advisors
the king summoned, though they had graduated “at the top of their
class.” They were excluded because they would have been among the
lower echelon of royal advisors due to their young age.

REVELATION OF THE DREAM AND ITS INTERPRETATION
DEMANDED BY THE KING (2:4–6)

2:4–6 Then the Chaldeans said to the king in Aramaic, “O king, live
forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will show the
interpretation.” The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, “The

word from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and
its interpretation, you shall be torn limb from limb, and your houses
shall be laid in ruins. But if you show the dream and its interpretation,
you shall receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor.
Therefore show me the dream and its interpretation.”

Nebuchadnezzar gave his advisors a seemingly impossible task: to tell

him both the dream and its interpretation. The KJV of verse 5, “the thing
is gone from me,” has led some interpreters to feel that Nebuchadnezzar
had forgotten his dream. But this is probably not correct. What had
“gone from” Nebuchadnezzar was not the dream, but his command that
the advisors tell him both the dream and its interpretation. With the
wise men before him, the king announced that he has dreamed a dream,
using the singular of “dream,” indicating either that he had only one

dream or that only one of his many dreams was significant prophetically.
The Chaldeans, acting as spokesmen for the group, then addressed the
king. The phrase “in Aramaic” introduces the extended section written in

Aramaic instead of Hebrew, beginning with verse 4 and continuing
through chapter 7. Aramaic is similar to Hebrew, but also differs from it.
Although some have questioned whether the officials would have spoken
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Aramaic rather than Akkadian in the court at Babylon, Aramaic was the
diplomatic language of the time. It seems reasonable to assume the court
included individuals, like Daniel, from outside Babylon, which would
make the use of Aramaic very appropriate. The Aramaic section of

Daniel deals with prophecy of primary interest to the Gentiles; thus this