Context No. 652 of 4322 · Daniel (Greek)
Context · Reflection
Daniel (Greek) 2:7-11: in context
7They answered the second time and said, “Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.” 8The king answered, “I know of a certainty that you are trying to gain time, because you see the thing has gone from me. 9But if you don’t make known to me the dream, there is but one law for you; for you have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak before me, until the situation changes. Therefore tell me the dream, and I will know that you can show me its interpretation.” 10The Chaldeans answered before the king, and said, “There is not a man on the earth who can show the king’s matter, because no king, lord, or ruler, has asked such a thing of any magician, enchanter, or Chaldean. 11It is a rare thing that the king requires, and there is no other who can show it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.”
The book of Daniel is set in the exile, when Babylon has carried Judah off and a few young Judeans serve in the king's court. In this chapter Nebuchadnezzar has had a dream that will not let him rest, and he makes an impossible demand of his magicians and Chaldeans: not only interpret the dream, but first tell him what it was, without a word from him. These verses are their reply. They cannot. No king has ever asked such a thing.
The king thinks they are stalling for time, and they may be. But their last line is more than an excuse. Such a thing, they say, only the gods could reveal, and the gods do not dwell with flesh. That is the premise the whole chapter is about to overturn. Daniel will be given both the dream and its meaning, because, as he tells the king, there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries (2:28). The experts name the distance between heaven and earth exactly, and then Daniel's God closes it.
The wise men were sure the divine keeps its distance from flesh. Where have I settled it that God stays far off, and stopped expecting him to speak?
Sources
- Daniel 2:27-30: Daniel's answer, that a God in heaven reveals the mysteries the wise men could not
- Daniel 5:7-8: the same failure repeated under Belshazzar, when no wise man can read the writing on the wall
- The Chaldeans here as a class of Babylonian astrologers and diviners, the sense the term carries through Daniel