'This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof
before the king. 37. Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God
of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and
glory. 38. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of
the field and the fowls of the heaven hath He given into thine
hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of
gold. 39. And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to
thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule
over all the earth. 40. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as
iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all
things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in
pieces and bruise. 41. And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes,
part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be
divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron,
forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. 42. And as
the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the
kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. 43. And whereas
thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves
with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another,
even as iron is not mixed with clay. 44. And in the days of these
kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never
be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people,
but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it
shall stand for ever. 45. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone
was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in
pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the
great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass
hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof
sure. 46. Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and
worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an oblation
and sweet odours unto him. 47. The king answered unto Daniel, and
said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord
of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal
this secret. 48. Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave
him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of
Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of
Babylon. 49. Then Daniel requested of the king, and he set
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, over the affairs of the province
of Babylon: but Daniel sat in the gate of the king.'--DANIEL ii.
36-49.
The colossal image, seen by Nebuchadnezzar in his dream, was a
reproduction of those which met his waking eyes, and still remain for
our wonder in our museums. The mingled materials are paralleled in
ancient art. The substance of the dream is no less natural than its
form. The one is suggested by familiar sights; the other, by pressing
anxieties. What more likely than that, 'in the second year of his reign'
(v. 1), waking thoughts of the future of his monarchy should trouble the
warrior-king, scarcely yet firm on his throne, and should repeat
themselves in nightly visions? God spoke through the dream, and He is
not wont to answer questions before they are asked, nor to give
revelations to men on points which they have not sought to solve. We may
be sure that Nebuchadnezzar's dream met his need.
The unreasonable demand that the 'Chaldeans' should show the dream as
well as interpret it, fits the character of the king, as an imperious
despot, intolerant of obstacles to his will, and holding human life very
cheap. Daniel's knowledge of the dream and of its meaning is given to
him in a vision by night, which is the method of divine illumination
throughout the book, and may be regarded as a lower stage thereof than
the communications to prophets of 'the word of the Lord.'
The passage falls into two parts: the image and the stone.