Danielchapter 2
49 verses · BSBDaniel book hub →
Speaks with:Daniel 2×16Daniel 5×8Daniel 4×5Daniel 3×5Daniel 1×5Daniel 7×4
Summary
Chapter summary
Nebuchadnezzar demands the dream itself, not only its interpretation, and when his wise men protest that no one on earth can do it 'except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh,' he decrees their death. Daniel receives the secret in a night vision and answers with a doxology: God 'changeth the times and the seasons; he removeth kings, and setteth up kings.' The dream is a colossus (head of gold, breast of silver, belly of brass, legs of iron, feet mixed with clay) struck by a stone cut out without hands that grinds it to chaff and becomes a mountain filling the earth. 'In the days of those kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed' (2:44).
Context
Prophecy · Daniel — Daniel overview
- A. 1–13 A dream forgotten and a death sentence for the wise
- B. 14–23 A night of prayer and a blessing when the answer came
- C. 24–30 There is a God in heaven who reveals secrets
- D. 31–35 The great image and the stone cut without hands
- E. 36–45 Gold, silver, bronze, iron — and a kingdom that stands forever
- F. 46–49 Nebuchadnezzar bows and Daniel is promoted
The outline
A.A dream forgotten and a death sentence for the wisevv. 1 to 13
Read vv. 1 to 13 →B.A night of prayer and a blessing when the answer camevv. 14 to 23
Read vv. 14 to 23 →C.There is a God in heaven who reveals secretsvv. 24 to 30
Read vv. 24 to 30 →D.The great image and the stone cut without handsvv. 31 to 35
Read vv. 31 to 35 →E.Gold, silver, bronze, iron — and a kingdom that stands forevervv. 36 to 45
Read vv. 36 to 45 →F.Nebuchadnezzar bows and Daniel is promotedvv. 46 to 49
Read vv. 46 to 49 →
The world behind this chapter
Daniel 2The history
Babylon had a whole profession devoted to dreams. Scribes kept dream manuals — long lists pairing an image with its meaning — alongside omen texts that read the future in a sheep's liver, a stray dog, or the movement of a planet. A king with a troubling dream had experts on staff, and they had reference books.
That is what makes Nebuchadnezzar's demand so brutal. He does not ask for the meaning. He asks them to tell him the dream itself. The manuals were useless. The experts admit it in the text: no one on earth can do this.
The dream is a statue made of four metals, each less valuable than the one above it, and Babylon is the head of gold. That image would have landed hard in that room. Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon really did glitter — his inscriptions boast of overlaying gates and shrines with gold, and the Ishtar Gate's glazed blue brick with its gold-colored bulls and dragons was the entrance to his processional street.
Then a stone cut without hands smashes the whole statue and grows into a mountain that fills the earth. To a Babylonian audience the point was unmissable: the gold head is the top of the sequence, and the sequence ends.
What it meant to them
To the exiles this chapter said their captors were on a clock. Babylon was not the shape of the world forever; it was one metal in a statue that was going to come down.
It also said something about where wisdom actually lives. The best-trained experts in the most learned city on earth hit a wall, and a captive teenager prayed and was given the answer. The God of a defeated people was reading the mind of the king who defeated them.
Sources cited
- D. J. Wiseman, Nebuchadrezzar and Babylon
- Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
- Chuck Missler, Learn the Bible in 24 Hours
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Daniel 2. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Connections from this chapter
v. 28 · Named here
There is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets
person/daniel→MannaFest topical index
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.