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Section Introduction

The events of this chapter are dated in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar (v1). Nebuchadnezzar became king shortly after the Battle of Carchemish in 605 BC, so taking into account the Babylonian accession year, the second year of his reign would be 603 BC. Daniel would still be a young man in his late teens, by now having served in the Babylonian court for two to three years.

Wise men unable to tell Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (2:1-11)

It is often wrongly assumed or stated that Nebuchadnezzar had forgotten his dream, but this rather misses the point of what was happening. If Nebuchadnezzar told the dream to his wise men, and they then gave him the interpretation, he would have no way of knowing whether their interpretation was correct. They could have made up any explanation they liked, whether true or not (v9). However if they were able to tell him the dream correctly, he could then know with far more certainty that their interpretation was correct. It was a clever test of their abilities as wise men.

The Babylonian wise men are very aware that it was impossible for them to tell the king what he had dreamed (v4), so Nebuchadnezzar could see that they were just trying to gain time (v8), and that any interpretation they gave would simply be lies if he told them the dream (v9). Even these Chaldeans knew that only the gods could reveal the king’s dream to them (v10-11). They admit that they are unable to receive the revelation of the dream from the gods (or God). In this passage, the word 'Chaldeans' is being used in a restricted sense as a title of the wise men, while elsewhere in the book it is used to describe the Babylonians in general.

Through the Book of Daniel, there is a continuing contrast between the ineffectiveness of the wisdom of the Babylonians, and the true wisdom that God gave to Daniel. In the OT, there is generally a different attitude towards pagan wisdom when compared with the attitude towards pagan gods. The gods of the nations are totally and unconditionally condemned as abominations and idols which lead people into disgusting and immoral practices. The wisdom of the wise men from pagan nations is never condemned so severely, but merely shown to be far inferior to the wisdom that comes from God.

Part way through this passage the language changes from Hebrew to Aramaic. The first three verses are in Hebrew, and the Aramaic section begins with the reply of the Chaldeans, beginning, "O King, live forever!" (v4), and continues until the end of chapter seven.

All wise men to be executed (2:12-16)

Because of their failure to retell the king’s dream, Nebuchadnezzar flew into a rage and ordered all the wise men of Babylon to be executed. This would include Daniel and his three friends, who were now identified with the wise men. Daniel responds "with prudence and discretion" to Arioch, the chief executioner (v14), requesting an explanation, and asking for time to give the king the interpretation of his dream. He clearly had confidence that God would reveal both and dream and its interpretation to him. Mystery revealed to Daniel (2:17-23)

Daniel returned home and asked his three friends to join him in seeking mercy from God about this mystery, so that he, his friends, and all the wise men of Babylon will not be killed (v17). They prayed and trusted God that he would give wisdom and rescue them from the executioner. It was during the night that Daniel received visions from God which revealed the king’s dream, together with an explanation of its meaning. Daniel’s three friends are referred to by their Jewish names, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, probably because the context is a time of prayer and seeking God.

In response, Daniel gives praise to the sovereign God, who controls times and seasons, raises up kings and deposes them and gives wisdom to the wise, revealing deep and hidden things. His praise contains many of the important themes of the Book of Daniel. The God of Israel, the God of Daniel’s ancestors (v23), is the eternal God, who has all wisdom and power. It is God who controls the times and seasons, as well as the rise and fall of kingdoms, including Gentile kings. It is Daniel’s God who is sovereign over human history, who can reveal future events to his prophet. Daniel thanks God for answering his prayer, giving Daniel some of his own wisdom and power (v20, 23), revealing what Daniel asked for, and what the king wanted to know.

Daniel reports to the executioner (2:24)

After receiving wisdom from God, Daniel returns to Arioch the executioner, calling on him not to execute the wise men, and to bring him before the king, so he can interpret his dream. Daniel is not only concerned for his own life, and that of his friends, but also the other wise men of Babylon, who would otherwise be very unjustly executed at the whim of Nebuchadnezzar.

Daniel brought before Nebuchadnezzar (2:25-30)

Arioch then brings Daniel before the king, and introduces him as one of the exiles, who can tell the dream and its interpretation to the king. Both Arioch and the king assume that Daniel will tell the dream through his own abilities as a wise man (v26). In his introduction, Daniel makes it very clear that no human could do what the king was asking. It is only the God in heaven who is able to reveal these mysteries which Daniel is about to tell. We see Daniel giving glory and praise to the God of Israel before the pagan king of Babylon, who ruled the ancient world at the time (v28). Through the dream, this God has revealed to the king what will happen at the end of the days. Several of the visions that follow also concern the time of the end (8:17,18, 10:14, 12:4,9). It is important to understand this in the context of the whole book, and within the context of the history of Israel. It does not necessarily mean the final end of time at the second coming of Christ and the final judgement, so it important not to jump to conclusions.

Again Daniel is careful not to take any personal credit for interpreting the king’s dream. The revelation did not come because of his own wisdom, but to answer the king’s question. In this passage, we see the great skill Daniel had in conducting himself in the presence of the pagan ruler. He is respectful and gives honour to the king, without in any way compromising his position as one of God’s people, always giving praise and glory to the God of Israel.

Four views on the interpretation of Daniel’s visions

Before considering the meaning of the first of Daniel’s visions, it will be helpful to explain the different approaches to their interpretation. For each view, there is a simple time-line from the early 600's BC, through the inter-testamental period to the coming of Jesus, and on to the future.

1. Liberal Maccabean

Daniel	Antiochus IV	Jesus	2nd coming
		..................................
605         536	167-164	0	End
|	Daniel (looking back)

This view is mostly held by those who have a critical approach to the Bible, reject predictive prophecy, and date Daniel in the second century BC, after the rise of Antiochus Epiphanes. In this view, the visions are pseudo-predictive. They read as if they are predicting the future, when they are actually written after the events have occurred. In this view the four kingdoms are Babylon, Media, Persia and Greece, with Greece extending into the time of the Seleucids and the rise of Antiochus Epiphanes. The stone kingdom established by God was the independence won for the nation of Israel by Judas Maccabeus.

2. Traditional

Each of the following three views are held by those who do accept predictive prophecy, and date Daniel in the sixth century BC, so the visions look ahead into history and predict the future, at least from Daniel’s perspective.

Daniel	Antiochus IV	Jesus	2nd coming
		..................................
605         536	167-164	0	End
Daniel
|		Jesus and Kingdom of God

In the traditional view the four kingdoms are Babylon, Media-Persia, Greece and Rome, with Media and Persia together being considered as a single kingdom. The stone is the kingdom of God or church established by Jesus during his ministry on earth. The feet and toes are the later stages of the Roman empire as it began to fragment. The kingdom of God was established during the time of the Roman empire, and will come in its fullness when Jesus returns a second time.

3. Dispensational or Futurist

Daniel	Antiochus IV	Jesus	2nd coming
		..................................
605         536	167-164	0	End
Daniel	gap	AntiChrist, Kingdom
|		..................................

The four kingdoms are the same as the traditional view (Babylon, Media-Persia, Greece, and Rome). The feet and toes are a fifth empire, which rises after a lengthy gap in time, being the kingdom of Antichrist during the tribulation at the end of time. This will be a revived Roman Empire consisting of a coalition of nations (10 toes). At one time it was popular to teach that the ten toes are the European Union, especially when it had ten member nations. The stone kingdom is the Millennial reign of Christ established after his second coming.

4. Maccabean Messianic

Daniel	Antiochus IV	Jesus	2nd coming
		..................................
605         536	167-164	0	End
Daniel	Antiochus Epiphanes	Jesus and Kingdom of God
|

This view dates Daniel in the sixth century BC, who was given visions that look ahead into the intertestamental period, with a particular focus on the rise of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. The four kingdoms are Babylon, Media, Persia and Greece, with Media and Persia being separate kingdoms. The feet and toes describe the fragmentation of the Greek empire during the Seleucid period, and the stone kingdom is the kingdom of God established by Jesus after the time of the Greeks.

Having thought for many years that the traditional view gave the best explanation of the visions, in recent years I have moved more towards the fourth view, what I have called the Maccabean Messianic, as this seems to give a better fit with the historical events.

This table shows the different interpretations of the statue

The Dream and its Interpretation (2:31-45)

The head of gold is Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel addresses him saying, "you are the head of gold" (v38). Under Nebuchadnezzar Babylon had become a powerful kingdom with great wealth. Nebuchadnezzar was succeeded by a number of kings in quick succession, none of whom had his power, so the kingdom rapidly declined in strength. About the second kingdom, Daniel says, "after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours" (v39). He predicts that this kingdom will rise after Nebuchadnezzar’s death, not after the remaining Babylonian kings.

The second kingdom of silver is only described briefly, as being inferior to Nebuchadnezzar’s (v39). The Median empire became stronger after the death of Nebuchadnezzar in 562 BC, rising in strength as Babylon declined. Media was a major power for the brief period of about twelve years until 550 BC, when it merged with Persia under Cyrus. However it was never as magnificent as Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon, so it is described as being inferior to his kingdom.

The dream describes the rise and fall of kingdoms, but instead of describing their order of existence until their destruction, it gives them in the order while each was the most prominent and powerful. In this way, more than one of the kingdoms can be contemporary. For example, Media became strong while Babylon declined. Persia became the dominant world power from 550 BC, well before the Fall of Babylon in 539 BC. Media grew more powerful after the death of Nebuchadnezzar and was expected to overthrow Babylon. This is predicted by Isaiah and Jeremiah:
"See, I am stirring up the Medes against them (Babylon), ...
And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor and pride of the Chaldeans,
will be like Sodom and Gomorrah ... (Is 13:17)
"The Lord has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes,
because his purpose concerning Babylon is to destroy it ..." (Jer 51:11).

In 550 BC, Media’s king was overthrown by Cyrus, one of his vassals, who united Media and Persia, so Babylon fell to the united forces of the Medes and the Persians (Dan 5:28). Persia quickly became the dominant kingdom of the two.

In the dream, the third kingdom of bronze will rule over the whole earth (v39). Persia certainly ruled over a huge area, becoming the largest of all the kingdoms, even larger than Greece. In the dream and explanation, the second and third kingdoms are linked together, and described only briefly. The second, Media, was only short-lived, and absorbed by the third, Persia.

The fourth kingdom with legs of iron shall crush and shatter all the previous three kingdoms (v40). Alexander the Great of Greece certainly did crush and shatter kingdoms, his powerful armies were well-balanced and unbeatable. Over a ten-year period, he conquered the whole area of territory that had previously been under the control of Babylon, the Medes and the Persians.

This kingdom will have two periods. The first is a period of great strength and victory, represented by the legs of iron. This is followed by a second period of being partly strong and partly brittle, represented by the feet of iron and clay. Greece was strong only during the life-time of Alexander, who died in 323 BC, after which it retained some strength, but was seriously weakened by divisions, particularly between the Seleucids in Syria and the Ptolemies in Egypt.

The explanation of the iron and clay is that they "will mix with one another in marriage" (v43). Alexander’s plan was to unite all his kingdom under Hellenic culture by intermarriage between the different peoples within his kingdom. However, this policy was never completed, and especially resisted by the Jews.

This policy was continued by the Seleucids and Ptolemies who frequently made marriage alliances between their families in attempts to make peace. The Greek empire was unable to hold together, just as iron and clay do not hold together (v43).

The fourth kingdom is often thought to represent the Roman Empire. The Roman armies were certainly strong, but they were not irresistible. The Romans were prevented from expanding into the east, into much of the area formerly part of the Babylonian, Median and Persian empires, through a number of defeats by the Parthians. The Romans did not shatter and crush the three previous kingdoms, while Greece under Alexander certainly did. The bulk of the Roman Empire was located further west, and they never conquered the much of the territory that had been under the control of Babylon, Media and Persia. The dream ends with the stone which broke all the previous kingdoms (v34, 45). This is the kingdom of God, which ultimately will bring all the other kingdoms to an end. This kingdom is not cut from any human hand (v34). It strikes the statue on its brittle feet and breaks the whole statue into pieces. All the remnants of the four kingdoms are destroyed by it (v35a), then the stone becomes a great mountain that fills the earth (v35b).

Jesus was born at a time when Rome was still expanding. Its greatest strength did not come until about over one hundred years later, under Trajan in the second century AD. In the New Testament, Jesus described the kingdom of God as being like a mustard seed (Mk 4:30-32), or a seed planted in the ground (Mk 4:26-29), so it starts very small, but grows and expands to fill the whole earth by the time of the final harvest. At present the stone is still growing and filling the earth, and this will continue until the second coming of Jesus.

The king’s response (2:46-49)

The response of King Nebuchadnezzar is quite remarkable, and illustrates an important theme of the Book of Daniel. He falls on his face and worships Daniel, declaring that Daniel’s God is God of all the gods and Lord over the kings, and the one who reveals mysteries (v47). Here we have a pagan king, a worshipper of Babylonian gods such as Marduk, declaring that Yahweh is the supreme God, who is sovereign over all other gods and over all kings, including himself. Daniel is also promoted to become the chief of all the wise men of Babylon, and ruler over the whole province of Babylon. Daniel has become the most important person in the Babylonian Empire below Nebuchadnezzar. At this time of great success, Daniel remembers his three friends who supported him in praying for revelation from God (2:17), and the king appointed them over the affairs of the province of Babylon. These three friends are the main characters in the following account about the fiery furnace.

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