Daniel 2.31-Nebuchadnezzar Saw A Single Immense Statue, One Of Impressive Size, Extraordinarily Bright Standing In Front Of Him, Which Was Intimidating
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday March 29, 2012
Daniel: Daniel 2:31-Nebuchadnezzar Saw A Single Immense Statue, One Of Impressive Size, Extraordinarily Bright Standing In Front Of Him Which Was Intimidating
Lesson # 55
Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel 2:31.
This evening we will begin to note Daniel’s description of the content of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, which appears in Daniel 2:31-35.
Daniel 2:31 “You, O king, were looking and behold, there was a single great statue; that statue, which was large and of extraordinary splendor, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was awesome. 32 The head of that statue was made of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. 34 You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.” (NASB95)
This pericope provides the content of the dream, which consisted of two objects, an image of a man and a stone cut without hands out of the side of a mountain indicating that it was not human in origin.
This evening we will study Daniel 2:31, in which Daniel tells the king that he was in a trance like state staring at single immense statue, one of impressive size, extraordinarily bright facing toward him and directly in front of him and was intimidating to the king.
Daniel 2:31 “You, O king, were looking and behold, there was a single great statue; that statue, which was large and of extraordinary splendor, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was awesome.” (NASB95)
“You, O king, were looking and behold, there was a single great statue” is composed of the second person masculine singular form of the personal pronoun ʾǎnt (אַנְתְּ) (ant), “you” which is followed by the masculine singular form of the noun mě∙lěḵ (מֶלֶךְ) (meh´-lek), “king” and then we have the masculine singular peʿal (Hebrew: qal) active participle form of the verb ḥǎzā(h) (חֲזָה) (khaz-aw´), “looking” which is followed by the second person masculine singular peʿal (Hebrew: qal) active perfect form of the verb hǎwā(h) (הֲוָה) (hav-aw´), “were” and then we have the conjunction wa (וְ) (waw), “and” which is followed by the interjection ʾǎlû (אֲלוּ) (al-oo´), “behold” and then we have the masculine singular form of the noun ṣelēm (צְלֵם) (tseh´-lem), “a statue” which is followed by the masculine singular cardinal number ḥǎḏ (חַד) (khad), “single” and this is followed by the masculine singular adjective śǎg∙gî(ʾ) (שַׂגִּיא) (sag-ghee´), “great” which is modifying the masculine singular form of the noun ṣelēm (צְלֵם) (tseh´-lem), “a statue.”
The verb hǎwā(h) is employed with the participle form of the verb ḥǎzā(h), “looking” in order to make a periphrastic tense expressing continuous and habitual action.
The use of this verb hǎwā(h) with the participle form of another verb is the Aramaic way of expressing continuous action and is frequently found in the book of Daniel.
This construction in Daniel 2:31 emphasizes that Nebuchadnezzar was in a trance like state and could not take his eyes off of this vision.
The verb hǎwā(h) is used like the Hebrew verb hā∙yā(h), which means “to be.”
Here the former denotes existing in a certain state or condition.
Here it denotes Nebuchadnezzar’s trance like state when he received this revelation from God about the future of planet earth in a vision.
The verb ḥǎzā(h) means “to stare” in the sense of steadily looking at something with studious attention and with openmouthed wonder and amazement and is used with Nebuchadnezzar as its subject.
Here it refers to the king looking at a prophetic revelatory vision which was concerning the future with studious attention and with open mouth wonder and amazement.
The interjection ʾǎlû means “behold” since it is used as a discourse marker to introduce a description of a vision, implying emphasis.
Here the word is used to introduce a description of the content of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream with emphasis.
It draws the attention of the reader in order to mark that what the king saw was impressive and astounding.
The noun ṣelēm appears twice in Daniel 2:31 and in both instances, the word means “statue” and not “idol” and was in human form as indicated by Daniel’s description of it in verses 31-33.
In verse 31, he describes it as being immense in size and standing in front of him with an awesome appearance.
In verse 32, the statue is described as having a head of gold, a breast and arms of silver, a belly and thighs of bronze.
In verse 33, Daniel describes the statue as having legs of iron and its feet were composed partly of iron and clay.
The noun ṣelēm is modified by the cardinal number ḥǎḏ, which means “single” emphasizing the continuity and integral relationship of the kingdoms represented in the statue.
This means that though one kingdom might pass away, elements of it would be found in the kingdom, which follows it.
The adjective śǎg∙gî(ʾ) is modifying the noun ṣelēm and means “enormous, immense” referring to the size or the height and width of the statue.
Here it denotes the great spatial size of the statue that Nebuchadnezzar was viewing.
This word suggests an exceeding of all ordinary bounds in size or amount or degree with the implication of abnormality or monstrousness.
This indicates that the statue was larger than any statue he had ever been seen on the face of the earth.
The word denotes that the size of this statue was not normal in the sense that nothing on earth could be compared to it, which indicates it was intimidating and amazing from the king’s perspective.
“That statue, which was large and of extraordinary splendor” is composed of the masculine singular form of the demonstrative pronoun dik∙kēn (דִּכֵּן) (dik-kane´), “that” which is followed by the masculine singular form of the adjective rǎḇ (רַב) (rab), “great” and then we have the conjunction wa (וְ) (waw), “and” which is followed by the masculine singular construct form of the noun zîw (זִיו) (zeev), “splendor” and then we have the third person masculine singular pronomial suffix hû(ʾ) (הוּא) (who), which is not translated and is followed by the masculine singular form of the noun yǎt∙tîr (יַתִּיר) (yat-teer´), “extraordinary.”
The demonstrative pronoun dik∙kēn is used in an adjectival sense and means “one” referring to the statue.
The demonstrative pronoun dik∙kēn is modified by the adjective rǎḇ, which means “impressive” and describes the immense size of the statue that Nebuchadnezzar saw in the vision as one that made a great impression on him as evidenced by his desire to understand the statue’s meaning.
It also describes the immense size of the statue as having the power to incite awe in a person.
The noun zîw denotes that the statue was dazzlingly bright indicating the statue was a bright shining object.
The noun yǎt∙tîr means “extraordinary” and is describing the brightness of the statue as going beyond what is usual for a statue or for this world.
It denotes that the brightness of the image was exceptional or unusual, which fits with the fact that the image of the statue originated from God.
This word denotes that the brightness of the statue deviated from the norm in the sense that nothing on earth could be compared to the brightness of the statue, which Nebuchadnezzar saw.
“Was standing in front of you, and its appearance was awesome” is composed of the masculine singular peʿal (Hebrew: qal) active participle form of the verb qûm (קוּם) (koom), “was standing” and then we have the preposition lĕ (לְ) (lamed) which is followed by the preposition qǒḇēl (קֳבֵל) (kob-ale´), which is followed by the second person masculine singular pronomial suffix -ḵ (־ךְ), “you.”
The verb qûm means “to stand” indicating that this statue was standing in front of Nebuchadnezzar.
The preposition lĕ is a marker of direction indicating that the statue was facing “towards” Nebuchadnezzar.
It is joined with the preposition qǒḇēl, which means “in front of” indicating that the statue was “in front of” Nebuchadnezzar.
Therefore, these two words literally indicate that the statue was facing the king and directly in front of him.
“And its appearance was awesome” is composed of the conjunction wa (וְ) (waw), “and” which is followed by the masculine singular construct form of the noun rēw (רֵו) (rave), “appearance” which is modified by the third person masculine singular pronomial suffix hû(ʾ) (הוּא) (who), “its” and then we have the masculine singular peʿil (Hebrew: qal passive) passive participle form of the verb deḥǎl (דְּחַל) (deh-khal´), “was awesome.”
The conjunction wa is emphatic meaning that the word is introducing a clause which describes the impression that this statue made on Nebuchadnezzar.
The word introduces a statement which says that the statue was intimidating to the king as this immense, extraordinarily bright statue in human form towered over him.
This statement presents the effect that this statue had on the king.
The description of the statue and the statement introduced by wa indicate that the latter is meant to be emphatic.
The noun rēw means “appearance” in the sense of a manifestation or in other words what something looks like as a sensory perception or memory.
The verb deḥǎl means “to be intimidating” and describes the statue which Nebuchadnezzar saw in the vision as inducing fear in him.
It also implies that the statue induced a sense of inferiority in the king.
The statue is composed of five different substances: (1) gold (2) silver (3) bronze (4) iron (5) clay.
The head is the most valuable substance followed by the chest and arms, then stomach and thighs which is followed by the lower legs and then lastly the feet and toes.
So the substances which compose each part of the body were telling Nebuchadnezzar something as well as to Daniel and the reader, namely, the substances descend in value as you go from the head to the feet.
The diminishing value of the metals in the statue from gold to silver to bronze to iron represents a decrease in the character of authority and rulership.
Consequently, the substances from head to foot go from being soft to harder and then very soft.
This is significant since it indicates that the character of authority and rulership of the first kingdom was superior to the second, third and fourth kingdoms, the second superior to the third and fourth kingdoms, the third superior to the fourth.
The first was the only self-contained unit, the second and third contained one unit and two parts, the third two parts and the fourth contained two parts and ten segments.
However, although the value of the metals decreases in value, the strength of these metals increase, which indicates that Rome was more powerful than Alexander’s Greece, Media-Persia and Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon.
Alexander’s Greece was more powerful than Media-Persia and Babylon and Media-Persia was more powerful than Babylon.
Daniel’s interpretation and history in verses 36-45 indicate that the head of gold was Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon, the chest and arms of silver represented the Media-Persian Empire.
The stomach and thighs of bronze represented Alexander’s Greek empire, the legs of iron represented the Roman Empire and the feet and toes composed of iron and clay represent the Revived Form of the Roman Empire.
Daniel progressed from the top to the bottom of the image, which represented the passage of time, thus the upper parts portrayed earlier time and the lower parts represented later time.
The fact that the statue was in human form would appeal to Nebuchadnezzar’s frame of reference since he built statues to Marduk, which occupied an important place in the city of Babylon.
Also, figures composed of composite metals were well known in the Mesopotamia region.
Statues that were representations of men were built in the region which was similar to the vision in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.
Thomas Constable writes “Several features are noteworthy. First, the head is the only member of the body made of only one metal. All the other parts had more than one substance with the exception of the arms. For example, the upper torso was silver but bronze lower down. The same was true of the legs and feet. Second, there is a consistently decreasing value to the substances beginning at the top and proceeding to the bottom of the image. Third, the image was top-heavy. The specific gravity of gold is about 19, silver about 11, brass about 8.5, and iron 7.8.80 Fourth, the substances progress from the softest to the hardest, top to bottom. The feet are a non-adhering combination of very hard and hard but fragile materials. The clay in view may have been baked clay that the Babylonians used as tiles in construction projects.” (Constable, Thomas L., Notes on Daniel-2007 Edition, page 28; copyright 2007; Published by Sonic Light: http://www.soniclight.com) Below is a chart composed by Constable.
Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream Statue
Head Gold Valuable Soft Self-contained unit Heavy Smallest
Chest and Arms Silver Less valuable Harder 1 unit and 2 parts Lighter Larger
Abdomen and thighs Bronze Even less valuable Even harder 1 unit and 2 different parts Even lighter Even larger
Lower legs Iron Still less valuable Still harder 2 parts Still lighter Still larger
Feet and toes Iron and clay Least valuable Very hard and very soft 2 parts and 10 segments Lightest Largest