Daniel 2

ARC · Chapter 2/12

¹E no segundo anno do reinado de Nabucodonozor sonhou Nabucodonosor sonhos; e o seu espirito se perturbou, e passou-se-lhe o seu somno.

²E o rei mandou chamar os magos, e os astrologos, e os encantadores, e os chaldeos, para que declarassem ao rei os seus sonhos: os quaes vieram e se apresentaram diante do rei.

³E o rei lhes disse: Tive um sonho; e para saber o sonho está perturbado o meu espirito.

⁴E os chaldeos disseram ao rei em syriaco: Ó rei, vive eternamente! dize o sonho a teus servos, e declararemos a interpretação.

⁵Respondeu o rei, e disse aos chaldeos: A coisa me tem escapado; se me não fizerdes saber o sonho e a sua interpretação, sereis despedaçados, e as vossas casas serão feitas um monturo;

⁶Mas se vós me declarardes o sonho e a sua interpretação, recebereis de mim dons, e dadivas, e grande honra; portanto declarae-me o sonho e a sua interpretação.

⁷Responderam segunda vez, e disseram: Diga o rei o sonho a seus servos, e declararemos a sua interpretação.

⁸Respondeu o rei, e disse: Conheço eu certamente que vós quereis ganhar tempo; porque vêdes que a coisa me tem escapado.

⁹De maneira que, se me não fazeis saber o sonho, uma só sentença será a vossa; pois vós preparastes palavras mentirosas e perversas para as proferir na minha presença, até que se mude o tempo: portanto dizei-me o sonho, para que eu entenda que me podeis declarar a sua interpretação.

¹⁰Responderam os chaldeos na presença do rei, e disseram: Não ha ninguem sobre a terra que possa declarar a palavra ao rei; pois nenhum rei ha, grande ou dominador, que requeresse coisa similhante d'algum mago, ou astrologo, ou chaldeo.

¹¹Porque a coisa que o rei requer é difficil; nem ha outro que a possa declarar diante do rei, senão os deuses, cuja morada não é com a carne.

¹²Por isso o rei muito se irou e enfureceu; e ordenou que matassem a todos os sabios de Babylonia.

¹³E saiu o mandado, e sairam a matar os sabios; e buscaram a Daniel e aos seus companheiros, para que fossem mortos.

¹⁴Então Daniel fallou avisada e prudentemente a Arioch, capitão da guarda do rei, que tinha saido para matar os sabios de Babylonia.

¹⁵Respondeu, e disse a Arioch, prefeito do rei: Porque se apressa tanto o mandado da parte do rei? Então Arioch fez saber a coisa a Daniel.

¹⁶E Daniel entrou; e pediu ao rei que lhe désse tempo, para declarar a interpretação ao rei.

¹⁷Então Daniel foi para a sua casa, e fez saber a coisa a Hananias, Misael e Azarias, seus companheiros:

¹⁸Para que pedissem misericordia ao Deus do céu, sobre este segredo, afim de que Daniel e seus companheiros não perecessem, juntamente com o resto dos sabios de Babylonia.

¹⁹Então foi revelado o segredo a Daniel n'uma visão de noite: então Daniel louvou o Deus do céu.

²⁰Fallou Daniel, e disse: Seja bemdito o nome de Deus desde o seculo até ao seculo, porque d'elle é a sabedoria e a força;

²¹E elle muda os tempos e as horas; elle remove os reis e estabelece os reis: elle dá sabedoria aos sabios e sciencia aos entendidos.

²²Elle revela o profundo e o escondido: conhece o que está em trevas, e com elle a luz mora.

²³Ó Deus de meus paes, te louvo e celebro eu, que me déste sabedoria e força; e agora me fizeste saber o que te pedimos, porque nos fizeste saber a coisa do rei.

²⁴Por isso Daniel entrou a Arioch, ao qual o rei tinha constituido para matar os sabios de Babylonia: entrou, e disse-lhe assim: Não mates os sabios de Babylonia; introduze-me na presença do rei, e declararei ao rei a interpretação.

²⁵Então Arioch depressa introduziu a Daniel na presença do rei, e disse-lhe assim: Achei um d'entre os filhos dos captivos de Judah, o qual fará saber ao rei a interpretação.

²⁶Respondeu o rei, e disse a Daniel (cujo nome era Belteshazzar): Podes tu fazer-me saber o sonho que vi e a sua interpretação?

²⁷Respondeu Daniel na presença do rei, e disse: O segredo que o rei requer, nem sabios, nem astrologos, nem magos, nem adivinhos o podem declarar ao rei;

²⁸Mas ha um Deus nos céus, o qual revela os segredos; elle pois fez saber ao rei Nabucodonozor o que ha de ser no fim dos dias; o teu sonho e as visões da tua cabeça na tua cama são estas:

²⁹Estando tu, ó rei, na tua cama, subiram os teus pensamentos, ácerca do que ha de ser depois d'isto. Aquelle pois que revela os segredos te fez saber o que ha de ser.

³⁰E a mim, não pela sabedoria que em mim haja, mais do que em todos os viventes, me foi revelado este segredo, mas para que a interpretação se fizesse saber ao rei, e para que entendesse os pensamentos do teu coração.

³¹Tu, ó rei, estavas vendo, e eis aqui uma grande estatua: esta estatua era grande, e o seu esplendor era excellente, e estava em pé diante de ti; e a sua vista era terrivel.

³²A cabeça d'aquella estatua era de oiro fino; o seu peito e os seus braços de prata; o seu ventre e as suas coxas de cobre;

³³As pernas de ferro; os seus pés em parte de ferro e em parte de barro.

³⁴Estavas vendo, até que uma pedra foi cortada, sem mão, a qual feriu a estatua nos pés de ferro e de barro, e os esmiuçou.

³⁵Então foi juntamente esmiuçado o ferro, o barro, o cobre, a prata e o oiro, e se fizeram como pragana das eiras do estio, e o vento os levou, e não se achou logar algum para elles; mas a pedra, que feriu a estatua, se fez um grande monte, e encheu toda a terra.

³⁶Este é o sonho; tambem a interpretação d'elle diremos na presença do rei

³⁷Tu, ó rei, és rei de reis: pois o Deus do céu te tem dado o reino, a potencia, e a força, e a magestade.

³⁸E onde quer que habitem filhos de homens, bestas do campo, e aves do céu, t'os entregou na tua mão, e fez que dominasses sobre todos elles; tu és a cabeça de oiro.

³⁹E depois de ti se levantará outro reino, inferior ao teu; e outro terceiro reino, de metal, o qual dominará sobre toda a terra.

⁴⁰E o quarto reino será forte como ferro; da maneira que o ferro esmiuça e enfraquece tudo, como o ferro, que quebranta todas estas coisas, assim esmiuçará e quebrantará.

⁴¹E, quanto ao que viste dos pés e dos dedos, em parte de barro de oleiro, e em parte de ferro, isso será um reino dividido; comtudo haverá n'elle alguma coisa da firmeza do ferro, porquanto viste o ferro misturado com barro de lodo.

⁴²E os dedos dos pés, em parte de ferro e em parte de barro, querem dizer: por uma parte o reino será forte, e por outra será fragil.

⁴³Quanto ao que viste do ferro misturado com barro de lodo, misturar-se-hão com semente humana, mas não se apegarão um ao outro, assim como o ferro se não mistura com o barro.

⁴⁴Mas, nos dias d'estes reis, o Deus do céu levantará um reino que não será jámais destruido; e este reino não será deixado a outro povo: esmiuçará e consumirá todos estes reinos, mas elle mesmo estará estabelecido para sempre.

⁴⁵Da maneira que viste que do monte foi cortada uma pedra, sem mãos, e ella esmiuçou o ferro, o cobre, o barro, a prata e o oiro, o Deus grande fez saber ao rei o que ha de ser depois d'isto; e certo é o sonho, e fiel a sua interpretação.

⁴⁶Então o rei Nabucodonozor caiu sobre o seu rosto, e adorou a Daniel, e ordenou que lhe sacrificassem offerta de manjares e perfumes suaves.

⁴⁷Respondeu o rei a Daniel, e disse: Certo é que o vosso Deus é Deus de deuses, e o Senhor dos reis, e o revelador dos segredos, pois podeste revelar este segredo.

⁴⁸Então o rei engrandeceu a Daniel, e lhe deu muitos e grandes dons, e o poz por governador de toda a provincia de Babylonia, como tambem por principe dos prefeitos sobre todos os sabios de Babylonia.

⁴⁹E pediu Daniel ao rei, e constituiu elle sobre os negocios da provincia de Babylonia a Sadrach, Mesach e Abed-nego; porém Daniel estava á porta do rei.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Nebuchadnezzar has a disturbing dream and demands that his wise men not only interpret it but guess its very content, on pain of death. Only Daniel, with God's help, manages to reveal and interpret the statue with a head of gold, representing the empires yet to come.

Explanation

The king's absurd demand — to guess a dream he himself barely remembered — exposes the total inability of the pagan wise men to face an impossible request without genuine divine revelation. The statue made of different metals (gold, silver, bronze, iron, iron mixed with clay) represents a sequence of world empires, historically identified as Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome, all destined to be replaced by a kingdom established by God himself, which 'shall never be destroyed' (v.44). Daniel's response, giving all glory to God rather than to himself (v.28,30), models genuine humility in the face of exceptional gifts and success.

Fun facts

This is the oldest and most detailed biblical prophecy about a specific sequence of world empires, and its structure of four kingdoms is picked up and expanded in the vision of the four beasts in Daniel 7.
The 'stone cut without hands' that destroys the statue and becomes a great mountain (v.34-35,45) is traditionally interpreted as a reference to the eternal kingdom established by God through the Messiah.

Verse-by-verse explanation

Daniel 2:1The troubling dream robs the king of sleep right at the start of the chapter — a detail that explains why Nebuchadnezzar reacts so impatiently and threateningly afterward: he was exhausted and anguished, not merely curious.
Daniel 2:2‘Chaldeans’ here does not mean the Babylonian people in general, but a specific class of wise men linked to astrology and dream interpretation — one of several groups of court advisors.
Daniel 2:3The king repeats to his advisors the same distress from the start of the chapter, making clear that the problem is not only discovering the dream’s meaning, but also not being able to remember exactly what he dreamed.
Daniel 2:4Here the original text switches from Hebrew to Aramaic — the King James Version records this by saying the Chaldeans spoke ‘in Syriack,’ an old name for Aramaic — and the rest of the book continues in that language through the end of chapter 7. It is the only large portion of the Hebrew Bible written this way, the international language of diplomacy and trade at the time.
Daniel 2:5‘The thing is gone from me’ suggests that the king himself had forgotten the details of the dream, which is why he demands that the wise men guess its content, not just its meaning — a nearly impossible test.
Daniel 2:6Offering generous rewards alongside the threat of death from the previous verse shows Nebuchadnezzar’s style of rule: enormous prizes for those who serve well, brutal punishment for those who fail.
Daniel 2:7The wise men press the obvious request — hear the dream first, then interpret it — without realizing that the king’s own demand was already the trap: he wanted proof that they truly had supernatural power.
Daniel 2:8The king suspects, rightly, that the wise men are just stalling: without knowing the dream, they have no way to invent a convincing interpretation, and buying time was their only possible strategy.
Daniel 2:9The king’s logic is harsh but consistent: if the wise men could really decipher dreams by divine power, they should be able to discover the dream’s very content, not just risk a generic guess at its interpretation.
Daniel 2:10The Chaldeans’ answer is an indirect confession of the limits of their own art: no king had ever asked this before, because no human system of divination could guess the content of a dream that was never told.
Daniel 2:11By saying that only gods ‘whose dwelling is not with flesh’ could answer, the Chaldeans themselves admit that the request is beyond local Babylonian religion — which sets the stage for Daniel’s entrance into the story.
Daniel 2:12The order to kill all the wise men of Babylon, not just those who answered poorly, shows the typical exaggeration of royal fury in biblical court tales — a blanket danger that threatens Daniel even though he bears no direct blame.
Daniel 2:13Daniel and his three friends, who had not even been called for the first attempt at interpretation, end up threatened with death simply for belonging to the general category of the court’s ‘wise men.’
Daniel 2:14Arioch, the captain in charge of carrying out the order, is the officer Daniel approaches first — instead of reacting with panic, he uses calm and diplomacy with someone who had the power to kill him on the spot.
Daniel 2:15Asking ‘why the decree was so hasty’ was Daniel’s way of gaining information and time at once — and it works: Arioch, perhaps relieved to find someone willing to try, explains the whole situation.
Daniel 2:16Getting direct access to the king without being summoned was an unusual privilege — it suggests Daniel already had some reputation or trust built up at court since the events of chapter 1.
Daniel 2:17Before anything else, Daniel seeks out his three friends — the same scene of solidarity and shared faith already seen in the food test of chapter 1 repeats here, now under threat of death.
Daniel 2:18Asking for ‘mercies of the God of heaven’ is a communal prayer: the four together, not Daniel alone, seek the answer — a detail showing that the dream’s interpretation comes as a group’s response, not an isolated talent.
Daniel 2:19The revelation comes at night, in a vision — a common means in the Bible of divine communication during sleep, unlike the king’s own dream, which needed an outside interpreter to be understood.
Daniel 2:20This hymn of praise interrupts the narrative to celebrate the answer received — a common biblical pattern, in which gratitude comes even before the solution is told to the king.
Daniel 2:21Declaring that God ‘removeth kings, and setteth up kings’ is the central theme the rest of the book of Daniel will repeat in different forms: empires rise and fall, but final control rests in other hands.
Daniel 2:22Saying that the light ‘dwelleth with him,’ not merely that He uses it, is a poetic way of affirming that nothing is truly hidden from Him, not even thoughts kept ‘in the darkness.’
Daniel 2:23Calling Him ‘the God of my fathers’ ties the answer received in Babylon to the same faith inherited from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — Daniel does not see this as a new power, but as continuity with the ancient covenant.
Daniel 2:24Before taking any glory for himself, Daniel uses his discovery to save the lives of the other wise men of Babylon — people of another religion and culture who had not even managed to help the king.
Daniel 2:25Arioch rushes to take partial credit for the discovery (‘I have found a man’), a realistic touch of court politics: he wants to look good before the king even though he solved nothing himself.
Daniel 2:26The king addresses Daniel by his Babylonian name, Belteshazzar, showing that in the court’s daily life this was the name in use, even though the narrator prefers the Hebrew name Daniel throughout the rest of the text.
Daniel 2:27Daniel begins by confirming what the other wise men had already admitted: no human system of divination could meet this demand — he does not present himself as a better expert, but as one with a different source.
Daniel 2:28‘In the latter days’ is an expression that, in biblical Aramaic, points to a more distant and decisive future, not necessarily the end of the world — the text itself does not spell out the exact timeframe.
Daniel 2:29The dream grows out of a very human worry of the king’s — thinking about the future of his own empire before falling asleep — which God uses as a starting point to reveal something greater than the king had ever thought to ask.
Daniel 2:30Daniel avoids any personal credit, insisting that the revelation did not come because he was wiser than others — a direct contrast with the arrogance Nebuchadnezzar himself will display later in the book.
Daniel 2:31The statue in the dream, made of increasingly less noble metals from top to bottom — gold, silver, bronze, iron, iron mixed with clay — represents a succession of empires, until all are destroyed at once by a stone that becomes a mountain.
Daniel 2:32The sequence of metals, from gold at the top to weaker materials below, represents empires that follow one another in decreasing power — traditionally identified as Babylon, Media-Persia, Greece, and Rome, though the exact details are debated.
Daniel 2:33Mixing iron with clay in the statue’s feet already anticipates, still within the dream’s description, the weakness explained later: a power with the strength of iron but unable to stay fully united.
Daniel 2:34A stone ‘cut out without hands’ points to something of non-human origin, which strikes precisely the statue’s most fragile point, the feet, to bring down the whole structure at once.
Daniel 2:35The image of ‘the chaff of the summer threshingfloors’ describes the featherlight husks left over after threshing wheat, carried off by the wind without a trace — a vivid way of saying the earlier empires vanish without leaving a trace.
Daniel 2:36After narrating the whole dream scene, Daniel makes a formal pause before moving to the explanation — a common structure in dream reports in ancient literature, separating description from interpretation.
Daniel 2:37The traditional identification of the statue’s four kingdoms — Babylon, Media-Persia, Greece, and Rome — though different reading traditions, Jewish and Christian, offer variations on exactly which empires match each metal, the text itself directly names only Babylon as the head of gold.
Daniel 2:38Calling Nebuchadnezzar ruler over ‘the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven’ uses language recalling the dominion given to humanity in Genesis 1 — now applied, in exaggerated form, to a single empire.
Daniel 2:39Calling the second kingdom ‘inferior’ probably refers to less glory or centralization, not smaller size — traditionally identified with the Medo-Persian empire that succeeds Babylon.
Daniel 2:40The fourth kingdom, generally identified with Rome in the traditional reading, is described here only by iron’s destructive force — without yet indicating, in this verse, the fragility the following verses reveal in the feet.
Daniel 2:41The iron mixed with clay, which ‘shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay,’ describes a final kingdom that is divided and unstable — strong in some respects, fragile in others, unable to stay united despite its appearance of strength.
Daniel 2:42Spelling out strength and fragility in the very same toes suggests a final empire internally divided, something interpretive tradition associates with political alliances that never truly hold, without naming specific nations.
Daniel 2:43‘They shall mingle themselves with the seed of men’ is usually read as marriage alliances between rival dynasties that keep on distrusting one another — political union that never becomes cohesion, like iron that will not stick to clay.
Daniel 2:44The stone that destroys the entire statue and becomes a mountain filling the earth represents, in the text itself, a kingdom established by God that would never be destroyed — the central image of the vision — this definitive replacement of temporary human empires with something permanent.
Daniel 2:45Closing by saying that ‘the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure’ works like a signature of authenticity: the guarantee that Daniel’s reading is not just one opinion among many, but comes from a reliable source.
Daniel 2:46Nebuchadnezzar falls down before Daniel and orders offerings made to him as though he were a god — an exaggerated gesture from an awestruck pagan king, which the rest of the book never treats as something Daniel calmly accepted.
Daniel 2:47Nebuchadnezzar falling down before Daniel and promoting him governor over all Babylon is the classic ending of this kind of court story: the young captive, once threatened with death alongside the other wise men, ends up raised to the highest position under the king himself.
Daniel 2:48Becoming governor of the province of Babylon and chief of all the court’s wise men places Daniel in a position of real political power, not merely that of a religious advisor or an occasional dream interpreter.
Daniel 2:49By requesting posts for his three friends, Daniel uses his new influence to benefit the whole group — a gesture that directly sets up the scene in the next chapter, where they appear in prominent positions.