Daniel 2:15

“Why is the decree from the king so harsh?” he asked. At this time Arioch explained the situation to Daniel.

BSB

Parallel translations

4 additional translations

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KJV

He answered and said to Arioch the king’s captain, Why is the decree so hasty from the king? Then Arioch made the thing known to Daniel.

ASV

he answered and said to Arioch the king’s captain, Wherefore is the decree so urgent from the king? Then Arioch made the thing known to Daniel.

YLT

He hath answered and said to Arioch the king's captain, `Wherefore is the sentence so urgent from before the king?' Then Arioch hath made the thing known to Daniel,

DBT

he answered and said to Arioch the king's captain, Why is the decree so rigorous from the king? Then Arioch made the thing known to Daniel.

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Verse 15. "And he inquired of him who had received authority from the king as to why so cruel a decree had gone forth from the presence of the king." Knowing that Daniel and the three youths possessed a knowledge and intelligence tenfold as great as that of all the soothsayers of Chaldea put together, the Chaldeans concealed from them the king's inquiry, lest they should receive preference over them in the matter of interpreting the dream. On this account Daniel inquired concerning the cruelty of the decree, being ignorant of the cause of his own peril.

Jerome· St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, CHAPTER TWO, 420patristic

Related commentary

And he answered and said to Arioch the king's captain,....

John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)reformed

He answered and said to Arioch the kings captain - The word captain - a different word from what occurs in Dan 2:14, שׁליטא shallı̂yṭa' - denotes one who has rule or dominion; one who is powerful or mighty; and it would be applied only to one who sustained a post of honor and responsibility. See the use of the word שׁלט shālaṭ, as meaning to rule, in Neh 5:15; Ecc 2:19; Ecc 6:2; Ecc 8:9; Est 9:1; Psa 119:1

Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)evangelical

Why is the decree so hasty--Why were not all of us consulted before the decree for the execution of all was issued? the thing--the agitation of the king as to his dream, and his abortive consultation of the Chaldeans. It is plain from this that Daniel was till now ignorant of the whole matter.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871reformed

And whereas the rest of the wise men had insisted upon it that it was utterly impossible for him ever to have his demand gratified, which did but make him more outrageous, Daniel undertakes, if he may but have a little time allowed him, to give the king all the satisfaction he desired,

Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710puritan

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2 linked verses

The verses this one reaches2

Daniel 3:22
The king’s command was so urgent and the furnace so hot that the fiery flames killed the men who carried up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
John 13:27
And when Judas had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Then Jesus said to Judas, “What you are about to do, do quickly.”

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Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread — the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.

Who & where

PersonBabylonian Exile (6th century BCE)DanielExilic prophet and Judean court official serving under Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Darius the Mede, and Cyrus; traditionally named…

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About this book

Daniel in the Lions' Den — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain

Daniel — A Hebrew exile at Babylonian and Persian courts sees empires rise and fall, a Son of Man coming with clouds, and seventy weeks locating Messiah in time. The canon's densest apocalyptic text — and its most interpretively contested.

Canon: Old Testament
Author: Daniel (traditional — Jesus cites ‘Daniel the prophet’ in Matt 24:15); critical scholarship dates composition to the 2nd c. BC Maccabean period (both positions surfaced)
Date: Traditional: 6th c. BC. Critical: c. 165 BC. Site default: traditional; critical view surfaced at depth 2