Daniel 2.11-Nebuchadnezzar's Wise Men Tell Him His Demand Is Too Difficult And Only The Gods Can Meet His Demand
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday February 14, 2012
Daniel: Daniel 2:11-Nebuchadnezzar’s Wise Men Tell Him His Demand Is Too Difficult And Only The Gods Can Meet His Demand
Lesson # 35
Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel 2:1.
This evening we will study of Daniel 2:11.
Daniel 2:1 Now in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; and his spirit was troubled and his sleep left him. 2 Then the king gave orders to call in the magicians, the conjurers, the sorcerers and the Chaldeans to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king. 3 The king said to them, “I had a dream and my spirit is anxious to understand the dream.” 4 Then the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic: “O king, live forever! Tell the dream to your servants, and we will declare the interpretation.” 5 The king replied to the Chaldeans, “The command from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you will be torn limb from limb and your houses will be made a rubbish heap. 6 But if you declare the dream and its interpretation, you will receive from me gifts and a reward and great honor; therefore declare to me the dream and its interpretation.” 7 They answered a second time and said, “Let the king tell the dream to his servants, and we will declare the interpretation.” 8 The king replied, “I know for certain that you are bargaining for time, inasmuch as you have seen that the command from me is firm 9 that if you do not make the dream known to me, there is only one decree for you. For you have agreed together to speak lying and corrupt words before me until the situation is changed; therefore tell me the dream, that I may know that you can declare to me its interpretation.” 10 The Chaldeans answered the king and said, “There is not a man on earth who could declare the matter for the king, inasmuch as no great king or ruler has ever asked anything like this of any magician, conjurer or Chaldean. 11 Moreover, the thing which the king demands is difficult, and there is no one else who could declare it to the king except gods, whose dwelling place is not with mortal flesh.” (NASB95)
“Moreover, the thing which the king demands is difficult” is composed of the conjunction wa (וְ) (waw), “moreover” which is followed by the feminine singular form of the noun mil∙lā(h) (מִלָּה) (mil-law´), “the thing” and then we have the relative particle dî (דִּי) (dee), “which” and this is followed by the masculine singular form of the noun mě∙lěḵ (מֶלֶךְ) (meh´-lek), “the king” and then we have the masculine singular peʿal (Hebrew: qal) active participle form of the verb šeʾēl (שְׁאֵל) (sheh-ale´), “demands” which is followed by the feminine singular form of the adjective yǎq∙qîr (יַקִּיר) (yak-keer´), “difficult.”
The conjunction wa is used in an emphatic sense meaning that the word is introducing a statement which intensifies upon the previous statement in verse 10, which records Nebuchadnezzar’s astrologers who represent his wise men, telling him that there is not a person on the face of the earth who could reveal his secret.
Consequently, they tell him that no great king or ruler in history has ever exacted a demand like his so unfairly of any occult priest, necromancer or astrologer.
Thus, the statement in verse 11 is intensifying upon the statement in verse 10 in that the wise men go from telling Nebuchadnezzar that there is not a human being on the face of the earth who could meet his demand to telling him flat out that it was humanly impossible.
The noun mil∙lā(h) means “demand” and refers to Nebuchadnezzar demanding that his wise men tell him the content of his recurring dream in order to avoid execution.
The noun mě∙lěḵ means “king” and of course is used with reference to Nebuchadnezzar referring to the fact that he was governmental head of Babylon.
The verb šeʾēl means “to exact” in the sense of calling for something forcibly since the word denotes a request with a strong implication that a positive response must be given or serious consequences will follow.
Here it refers to the act of Nebuchadnezzar exacting a demand of his wise men to make known the content of his recurring dream in order to escape being executed by him.
The adjective yǎq∙qîr means “impossible” and is used by the wise men to describe Nebuchadnezzar’s demand.
It denotes that they felt that the king’s demand was incapable of being met by any human being and insuperably difficult or in other words incapable of being solved.
They basically said this to the king in verse 10 when they said to him that there is not a human being on the face of the earth who could fulfill the king’s demand.
Here in verse 11 with the word yǎq∙qîr they come right out and say his demand is impossible to fulfill.
“And there is no one else who could declare it to the king except gods, whose dwelling place is not with mortal flesh” is composed of the conjunction wa (וְ) (waw), “and” which is followed masculine singular form of the adjective ʾā∙ḥǒrān (אָחֳרָן) (okh-or-awn´), “one else” and then we have the negative particle lā(ʾ) (לָא) (law), “no” which is negating the meaning of the particle of existence ʾî∙ṯǎy (אִיתַי) (ee-thah´ee), “there is” and then we have the relative particle dî (דִּי) (dee), “who” and this is followed by the third person masculine singular paʿʿel (Hebrew: piel) active imperfect form of the verb ḥǎwā(h) (חֲוָה) (khav-aw´), “could declare” and then we have the third person feminine singular pronomial suffix hî(ʾ) (הִיא) (hi), “it” which is followed by the preposition qǒḏām (קֳדָם) (kod-awm´), “to” and its object is the masculine singular form of the noun mě∙lěḵ (מֶלֶךְ) (meh´-lek), “the king” and then we have the conjunction lā∙hēn (לָהֵן) (law-hane´), “except” which is followed by the masculine plural noun ʾělāh (אֱלָהּ) (el-aw´), “gods” and then we have the relative particle dî (דִּי) (dee), “who” and this is followed by the masculine singular construct form of the noun meḏār (מְדָר) (med-awr), “dwelling place” and then we have the third person masculine plural pronomial suffix him∙mô (הִמֹּו) (him-mo´), “whose” which is followed by the preposition ʿim (עִם) (eem), “with” and its object is the masculine singular noun beśǎr (בְּשַׂר) (bes-ar´), “flesh” and then we have the negative particle lā(ʾ) (לָא) (law), “no” which is negating the meaning of the particle of existence ʾî∙ṯǎy (אִיתַי) (ee-thah´ee), “is” and lastly we have the third person masculine singular pronomial suffix hû(ʾ) (הוּא) (who), which is not translated.
This time the conjunction wa is a marker of reason meaning that it is introducing a statement that presents the reason why Nebuchadnezzar’s wise men are telling him that his demand to make known his recurring dream as well as its interpretation is humanly impossible to fulfill.
So the king of Babylon’s demand is impossible “because” only supernatural beings could meet his demand and not human beings, which the wise men were of course.
The adjective ʾā∙ḥǒrān means “no one” and is a reference to members of the human race and indicates that “no one” in the human race could fulfill Nebuchadnezzar’s demand to make known the content of his recurring dream as well as its interpretation.
The particle ʾî∙ṯǎy indicates the existence of something and is negated by the adjective ʾā∙ḥǒrān, which expresses negation and together, they deny the existence of a human being on the earth who could tell Nebuchadnezzar the content of his recurring dream as well as its interpretation.
The verb ḥǎwā(h) means “to reveal” and denotes the inability of anyone in the human race to reveal Nebuchadnezzar’s secret, which is the content of his dream and so the word refers to the act of revealing the content of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream to him.
The conjunction lā∙hēn means “except” since it functions as a contrastive conjunction meaning that it is contrasting the impossibility of any human being revealing the content of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream to him with that of the ability of the gods.
The noun ʾělāh means “gods” and refers to real or perceived supernatural beings that are not the true and living God and are in reality the fallen or non-elect angels, though unknown to the wise men.
The noun meḏār means “dwelling place” referring to the dwelling place of the gods, which is not among members of the human race according to the pagan wise men.
The noun beśǎr means “human race” and it is the object of the preposition ʿim, which is a marker of relation implying being in the same location.
Here it denotes that the gods do not live “among” or “with” members of the human race.
The particle ʾî∙ṯǎy indicates the existence of something and is negated by the negative particle lā(ʾ), which expresses negation.
Together, they deny the existence of something. Here they deny the existence of gods living among members of the human race.
The implication of the wise men’s statement in verse 11 is that they could not provide supernatural information which they claimed to provide the king.
Thus, affirming that which he suspected of them.
Another implication is that this admission revealed that they were not in contact with the gods which they also claimed for themselves.
Nebuchadnezzar did not tell his wise men the content of his dream because he feels that if they are so in touch with the gods, then the gods should be able to communicate the contents of his dream and not just give him the interpretation of it.
If he communicated the contents of his dream, then they could come up with any interpretation that fits their imagination.
Thus, he doesn’t trust them which is clearly indicated by his statement to them in verse 9 where calls them liars who will tell him something that is false.
So by demanding that they tell him what exactly he dreamed, Nebuchadnezzar could be sure that their interpretation of this dream is correct and the truth.
If they tell him the contents of the dream, he could be sure that he has received the correct interpretation of the dream in that the gods had in fact given them the interpretation of his dream and passed it along to him.
Now, here in verse 11, they admit to not being in contact with the gods.
Thus, they admit indirectly to deceiving the king.
They wanted the king to give them the content of the dream so as to interpret it and this interpretation would be from the gods so they claimed.
Thus, Nebuchadnezzar can see quite clearly that they have been lying to him which results in his issuing a decree that they would be put to death as recorded in verse 12.