Daniel 2.39-Daniel Tells Nebuchadnezzar That A Second Kingdom Will Arise, Inferior To His And A Third One Of Bronze Will Rule The Earth
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday April 24, 2012
Daniel: Daniel 2:39-Daniel Tells Nebuchadnezzar That A Second Kingdom Will Arise, Inferior To His And A Third One Of Bronze Will Rule The Earth
Lesson # 64
Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel 2:31.
This evening we will note Daniel 2:39, which records Daniel telling the king that following his empire there will arise another kingdom, which will be inferior to his kingdom.
He also tells the king that following this second empire, will arise a third kingdom, which will rule the entire earth.
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. 36 This was the dream; now we will tell its interpretation before the king. 37 “You, O king, are the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength and the glory. 38 And wherever the sons of men dwell, or the beasts of the field, or the birds of the sky, He has given them into your hand and has caused you to rule over them all. You are the head of gold. 39 After you there will arise another kingdom inferior to you, then another third kingdom of bronze, which will rule over all the earth.” (NASB95)
“After you there will arise another kingdom inferior to you” is composed of the conjunction wa (וְ) (waw), which is not translated and followed by the preposition b- (בְּ־) (beth) “after” and then we have the masculine singular noun ʾǎṯǎr (אֲתַר) (a-tar), which is not translated and followed by the second person masculine singular pronoun -ḵ (־ךְ), “you” and then we have the second person masculine singular peʿal (Hebrew: qal) active imperfect form of the verb qûm (קוּם) (koom), “there will arise” which is followed by the feminine singular form of the noun mǎl∙ḵûṯ (מַלְכוּת) (mal-kooth), “kingdom” and then we have the feminine singular form of the adjective ʾā∙ḥǒrān (אָחֳרָן) (okh-or-awn´), “another” which is followed by the feminine singular noun ʾǎrǎʿ (אֲרַע) (ar-ah´), “inferior” and then we have the preposition min (מִן) (min), “to” and its object is the second person masculine singular pronominal suffix -ḵ (־ךְ) (huh), “you.”
The conjunction wa is a marker of a sequence of closely related events meaning that it is introducing a statement that marks the next major world empire that will appear on the pages of history after Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon.
The preposition b- is employed with the noun ʾǎṯǎr and together they are used in a temporal sense meaning “after” and are introducing a clause that presents the next major world empire that will appear “after” Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon.
The verb qûm means “to arise” in the sense of coming to the forefront in history and denotes that after Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon another empire will arise in the sense that they will come to the forefront.
The noun mǎl∙ḵûṯ means “kingdom” and denotes the territorial sphere of this second empire’s authority or control and is used to designate the territorial sphere of this empire, which will arise in history after Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon.
It refers to the political boundaries of this second empire, which were determined by the extent to which this second empire exercised its authority.
This word denotes that the second kingdom after Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom consisted of the nations, cities, villages and farmland it controlled.
The noun ʾǎrǎʿ means “inferior” and usually means “earth” but in Daniel 2:39, the word has a sense of direction and literally means “lower than you, earthward, downward” and is usually translated here as “inferior.”
Thus the word denotes that this second kingdom which will follow Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon would be “inferior” to Babylon.
“Then another third kingdom of bronze, which will rule over all the earth” is composed of the conjunction wa (וְ) (waw), “then” which is followed by the feminine singular form of the noun mǎl∙ḵûṯ (מַלְכוּת) (mal-kooth), “kingdom” and then we have the feminine singular form of the adjective telî∙ṯāy (תְּלִיתָי) (tel-ee-thah´ee), “third” which is followed by the feminine singular form of the adjective ʾā∙ḥǒrān (אָחֳרָן) (okh-or-awn´), “another” and then we have the particle dî (דִּי) (dee), “of” which is followed by the masculine singular form of the noun neḥāš (נְחָשׁ) (nekh-awsh´), “bronze” which is followed by the relative use of the particle dî (דִּי) (dee), “which” and then we have the third person feminine singular peʿal (Hebrew: qal) active imperfect form of the verb šelēṭ (שְׁלֵט) (shel-ate´), “will rule” and then we have the preposition b- (בְּ־) (beth) “over” and then we have the singular construct form of the noun kōl (כֹּל) (kole) “all” which is modifying feminine singular noun ʾǎrǎʿ (אֲרַע) (ar-ah´), “the earth.”
The conjunction wa is a marker of a sequence of closely related events meaning that it is introducing a statement that marks the next major world empire that will appear on the pages of history after the second kingdom which immediately follows Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon.
The noun mǎl∙ḵûṯ means “kingdom” and denotes the territorial sphere of this third empire’s authority or control and is used to designate the territorial sphere of this empire, which will arise in history after Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon.
It refers to the political boundaries of this third empire, which were determined by the extent to which this second empire exercised its authority and denotes that the third empire consisted of the nations, cities, villages and farmland it controlled.
The adjective telî∙ṯāy means “third” in a sequence indicating that Daniel is telling Nebuchadnezzar that there will be a “third” kingdom after the second kingdom.
The adjective ʾā∙ḥǒrān means “another” and indicates that this third kingdom is distinct or different from Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon and the second kingdom, which history tells us was Medo-Persia.
As was the case in Daniel 2:32 and 35, the noun neḥāš here in Daniel 2:39 means “bronze,” and is used to describe Alexander the Great’s Greek Empire, which immediately followed the Medo-Persian Empire.
The verb šelēṭ means “to rule” and here it is used with the third kingdom as its subject and the inhabitants of the entire earth are its object and indicates that this third kingdom “will rule” over the inhabitants of the entire earth.
It denotes that God had delegated authority to this third kingdom to exercise authority over members of the inhabitants of the entire earth.
The noun ʾǎrǎʿ means “earth” referring to the inhabitants of the entire earth and specifically human beings and is modified by the noun kōl, which denotes totality indicating that the inhabitants of “the entire” earth will be under the jurisdiction of this third empire with no exceptions or distinctions.
The noun ʾǎrǎʿ is the object of the preposition b-, which is a marker of exercising authority over something or someone (IBHS 11.2.5.f), which would indicate that this third empire will rule “over” the inhabitants of the entire earth and specifically human beings.
Daniel 2:39 contains two statements with the first recording Daniel telling Nebuchadnezzar that after his kingdom there will arise another kingdom which will be inferior to his kingdom.
Since Daniel told the king at the end of Daniel 2:38 that he was the head of gold of the statue in his dream, this second kingdom is represented by the silver arms of the statue.
History records that this part of the statue represented the Medo-Persian Empire.
It was inferior since it lacked the inner unity of Babylon because the Medes and the Persians, though united, never fused into one people.
Since the metals of the statue decrease in value but increase in strength, the silver arms of the statue indicate that the character of authority in rulership of the Media-Persian Empire was superior to the third and fourth kingdoms, which history records were Greece and Rome respectively and inferior to only Babylon.
However, its power or strength was superior to Babylon but inferior to Greece and Rome.
The Medo-Persian empire was founded by Cyrus, who started out as the king of Anshan in Persia.
He fused the Iranian tribes into a great military machine.
He married the daughter of the king of Media and added Media to his empire.
Then, the Medo-Persian army conquered the Babylonians in 539 B.C.
Under Cryus, they defeated the Babylonian army outside the city of Babylon.
According to Babylonian and Persian records, the people of Babylon threw open the gates of the city, welcoming the Persian army as deliverers from the despotic reigns of Nabonidus and Belshazzar.
They gave Cyrus a triumphal entry complete with palm branches.
The Persian kings were good-natured but weak. Most imitated the corruption of Babylon.
In Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, the arms of silver represented two distinct nations, namely, Media and Persia that together defeated Babylon.
Although the Medo-Persia Empire lasted over 200 years (539-330 B.C.) longer than the Neo-Babylonian Empire of 87 years (626-539), the Medo-Persian Empire was inferior to it, as silver is compared with gold.
History confirms that the Medo-Persian Empire, and the empire of Alexander which followed, lacked the central authority and fine organization which characterized the Babylonian Empire, thus the Babylonian Empire was greater.
In the second statement that appears in Daniel 2:39, Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar that after the second empire, there will be a third kingdom of bronze, which will rule the earth.
This description makes clear that the second empire is represented by the silver arms of the statue and that the third empire is represented by the bronze belly and thighs of the statue.
History records that the bronze belly and thighs of the statue represent Alexander the Great’s Greek Empire.
Alexander the Great began to rule in 336 B.C.
He defeated the Persians and conquered many nations while at the same time spreading Greek culture and language throughout these territories.
He attempted to follow the Babylonian example, but this led to gross immorality and early death in 323 B.C. at the age of thirty-three.
In Daniel 8:5-8, Alexander the Great’s empire is described under the figure of the shaggy goat with a big horn.
This horn was followed by four horns according to this passage which represented Alexander’s four generals who divided his empire after he died.
Alexander’s four general were Antipater who took control of Macedon-Greece, Lysimachus who possessed Thrace-Asia Minor, Seleucus was in Asia and Ptolemy ruled in Egypt, Cyrenaica and Palestine.
The eastern sections of the Seleucid realm revolted from the central authority in Antioch.
However, it was gradually absorbed by the Parthians as far as Mesopotamia.
The remainder of the Greek Empire was annexed by Rome after Antiochus the Great was defeated at Magnesia in 190 B.C.
Macedon was annexed by Rome in 168 and Greece was permanently subjugated in 146.
The Seleucid realms were annexed by Pompey the Great in 63 B.C.
Egypt became a Roman province after the Battle of Actium in 31 B.C.
Therefore, the Greek empire represented by the silver belly and thighs in the statue of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream lasted between 250 and 300 years before the Roman Empire defeated it.
Since the metals of the statue decrease in value but increase in strength, the bronze belly and thighs of the statue indicate that the character of authority in rulership of Alexander’s Greece was inferior to Media-Persia and Babylon and yet superior to Rome, which is the fourth kingdom.
However, its power or strength was superior to Media-Persia and Babylon and inferior only to Rome.
There has been some controversy among interpreters regarding this third empire.
Some have argued that Greece is the fourth empire, and they treat the Medes as a separate kingdom.
This interpretation is partly due to denying the possibility of prophesy.
It is also the result of assuming that Daniel was written about 164 B.C. when the Roman Empire had not come to the forefront yet.
However, Media and Persia are usually regarded as one empire.
The Median kingdom had been mostly absorbed by the Persians by the time Cyrus II conquered Babylon in 539 B.C.
Most conservative scholars identify them as Media-Persia, Greece, and Rome.