Daniel 2.48-Nebuchadnezzar Rewards Daniel With Many Gifts, Grants Him Authority Over The Entire Province Of Babylon And Makes Him Prefect Over The Wise Men Of Babylon
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday May 17, 2012
Daniel: Daniel 2:48-Nebuchadnezzar Rewards Daniel With Many Gifts, Grants Him Authority Over The Entire Province Of Babylon And Makes Him Prefect Over The Wise Men Of Babylon
Lesson # 75
Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel 2:48.
This evening we will study Daniel 2:48, which records Nebuchadnezzar promoting Daniel and bestowing on him a significant number of gifts for telling him the content and interpretation of his dream.
Specifically, Nebuchadnezzar made him ruler over the entire province of the city of Babylon as well as the chief over his senior officials, over each and every one of the city of Babylon’s wise men.
Daniel 2:48 Then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts, and he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon. (NASB95)
“Then the king promoted Daniel” is composed of the temporal adverb ʾěḏǎ∙yin (אֱדַיִן) (ed-ah´-yin), “then” and then we have the masculine singular form of the noun mě∙lěḵ (מֶלֶךְ) (meh´-lek), “the king” which is followed by the preposition lĕ (לְ) (leh), which is not translated and its object is the masculine singular proper noun dā∙niy∙yē(ʾ)l (דָּנִיֵּאל) (daw-nee-yale), “Daniel” and this is followed by the third person masculine singular paʿʿel (Hebrew: piel) active perfect form of the verb reḇā(h) (רְבָה) (reb-aw´), “promoted.”
The temporal adverb ʾěḏǎ∙yin is a temporal coordinator and means “then” since it shows consecutive events in the narrative.
The word introduces a statement that tells the reader that Nebuchadnezzar promoted Daniel to a high governmental position and bestowed upon him many marvelous gifts.
This temporal adverb thus indicates that this took place after Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged that Daniel’s God is the God ruling over the gods, the Lord ruling over the kings of the earth and a revealer of mysteries because Daniel was able to reveal the mystery of his dream.
The verb reḇā(h) means “to make great in position, honor and status, to place someone in a high position, which brings honor and status to that person.”
Therefore, it denotes that Nebuchadnezzar “placed” Daniel “in a high governmental position, which brought him honor and status” in Babylonian society.
The word indicates that the king “made” Daniel “great in Babylonian society in terms of honor and status.”
How the king did this is explained later on in the verse which says that he granted Daniel authority over the entire province of Babylon and made him prefect over the wise men of Babylon.
“And gave him many great gifts” is composed of the conjunction wa (וְ) (waw), “and,” which is followed by the feminine plural form of the noun mǎt∙tenā(h) (מַתְּנָה) (mat-ten-aw´), “gifts” which is modified by the feminine plural form of the adjective rǎḇ (רַב) (rab), “many” and then we have the feminine plural form of the adjective śǎg∙gî(ʾ) (שַׂגִּיא) (sag-ghee´), “great” which is followed by the third person masculine singular peʿal (Hebrew: qal) active perfect form of the verb yehǎḇ (יְהַב) (yeh-hab´), “gave” and then we have the preposition lĕ (לְ) (leh), “to” and its object is the third person masculine singular pronominal suffix hû(ʾ) (הוּא) (who), “him.”
The verb yehǎḇ means “to give” in the sense of imparting something to someone or “bestow” something upon someone and thus denotes that Nebuchadnezzar “gave” Daniel many wonderful gifts.
The pronominal suffix hû means “him” and refers of course to Daniel and is the object of the preposition lĕ which is a marker of advantage meaning that it is marking out Daniel as benefiting from Nebuchadnezzar giving him many wonderful gifts.
The noun mǎt∙tenā(h) is in the plural and means “gifts” referring to something of great value that is given to another implying gratitude for a service rendered.
Here it refers to the gifts of great value which were given out of gratitude by Nebuchadnezzar to Daniel as a reward for telling him the content and interpretation of his dream.
This word is modified by the adjective rǎḇ, which means “number” since it denotes the quantity or number of something and is also modified by the adjective śǎg∙gî(ʾ), which means “significant” since it denotes a large number or quantity of something.
Therefore, these three words denote that Nebuchadnezzar bestowed upon Daniel “a significant number” of gifts out of gratitude for telling him the content and interpretation of his dream.
“And he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon” is an explicative clause since the conjunction wa, “and” is introducing a statement, which clarifies the preceding statements that said that Nebuchadnezzar made Daniel great in his kingdom and bestowed upon him many significant gifts.
This statement explains in detail how the king made Daniel great in his kingdom and what were some of these significant gifts he gave him.
“He made him ruler” is the third person masculine singular hafʿel (Hebrew: hiphil stem) active perfect form of the verb šelēṭ (שְׁלֵט) (shel-ate´), “he made ruler” and then we have the third person masculine singular pronominal suffix hû(ʾ) (הוּא) (who), “him.”
The verb šelēṭ means “to make or cause someone to be a ruler or to be in authority” and is used with Nebuchadnezzar as its subject and Daniel as its object indicating that Nebuchadnezzar caused Daniel to have authority over the entire province of Babylon.
It denotes that Nebuchadnezzar had delegated authority to Daniel so that he exercised authority over all the inhabitants of the province of Babylon.
“Over the whole province of Babylon” is composed of the preposition ʿǎl (עַל) (al), “over” and its object is the singular construct form of the noun kōl (כֹּל) (kole), “whole” which is modifying the feminine singular construct form of the noun meḏî∙nā(h) (מְדִינָה) (med-ee-naw´), “the province of” and then we have the feminine singular proper noun bā∙ḇěl (בָּבֶל) (baw-bel´), “Babylon.”
The proper noun bā∙ḇěl refers to the province of Babylon as indicated by the noun meḏî∙nā(h), “province,” which is modifying it.
The Babylonian empire was divided into provinces or satrapies, of which Babylon was one.
Thus, this proper noun refers to the province of the city of Babylon.
The noun meḏî∙nā(h) means “province” referring to a governmental administrative district and here it refers to the province of the city of Babylon.
This word is modified by the noun kōl, which denotes totality indicating that Nebuchadnezzar gave Daniel authority over the “entire” province of the city of Babylon.
It indicates that all the inhabitants of the province of the city of Babylon were under Daniel’s authority with no exceptions.
This noun meḏî∙nā(h) is also the object of the preposition ʿǎl, which is a marker of authority meaning that Nebuchadnezzar gave Daniel authority “over” the entire province of Babylon.
“And chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon” clarifies as to what Daniel meant when he wrote that the king made him ruler over the entire province of the city of Babylon.
“Chief prefect” is composed of the noun rǎḇ (רַב) (rab), “chief” which is modifying the masculine plural noun seḡǎn (סְגַן) (seg-an´), “prefect.”
The noun seḡǎn is in the plural and means “senior officials” in Nebuchadnezzar’s government, which are identified as the wise men of the city of Babylon.
The noun rǎḇ describes Daniel as an individual who was given by Nebuchadnezzar supreme authority over his wise men and thus, describes Daniel as the “chief” or the “commander” over the wise men.
The noun rǎḇ is in the construct state meaning that it is governing the noun seḡǎn which follows expressing a genitive relationship.
The genitive relationship is one of subordination meaning that the noun seḡǎn specifies that which is subordinated to or under the dominion of the head noun, which in our context, is the singular form of the noun rǎḇ.
This indicates that Nebuchadnezzar made Daniel the commander “over the” senior officials in his government who were the wise men.
This construction denotes that Nebuchadnezzar made Daniel his chief over his senior officials, which were the wise men.
“Over all the wise men of Babylon” is composed of the preposition ʿǎl (עַל) (al), “over” and this is followed by the noun kōl (כֹּל) (kole), “all” which is modifying the masculine plural construct form of the noun ḥǎk∙kîm (חַכִּים) (khak-keem´), “the wise men of” and then we have the feminine singular proper noun bā∙ḇěl (בָּבֶל) (baw-bel´), “Babylon.”
The noun ḥǎk∙kîm is not only a reference to the four groups mentioned in Daniel 2:2, namely, occult priests (ḥǎr∙ṭōm), necromancers (ʾǎš∙šāp̄), witches (kā∙šǎp̄) and astrologers (kǎś∙dîm) but also it is a reference to all the other dignitaries or diplomats.
This is indicated by the fact that Daniel 2:13 records Arioch, the executioner looking for Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah who did not belong to these four groups.
The adjective kōl is modifying the noun ḥǎk∙kîm and denotes totality but is used in a distributive sense meaning “each and every.”
Here it refers to the totality of Nebuchadnezzar’s wise men indicating that the king gave Daniel authority over “each and every one” of the Babylonian wise men as the chief of his senior officials with no exceptions.
Daniel 2:48 continues to show that Nebuchadnezzar was a man of his word.
If you recall, in Daniel 2:10, Nebuchadnezzar promised his occult priests, witches, necromancers and astrologers that he would reward one of them if they could tell him the content of his recurring dream.
This tremendous promotion that Nebuchadnezzar gave Daniel indicates how impressed the king was by Daniel telling him the content and interpretation of his dream since usually such promotions were reserved for Chaldean nobility and not a Jew who was a captive of Babylon.
Not only this but it would give Daniel further opportunities to evangelize the king since he would be reporting directly to Nebuchadnezzar and spending time with him talking about the affairs of the empire.
Furthermore, this promotion would provide Daniel an opportunity to serve as a mediator between the king and the exiles from Judah who would soon be brought to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar in 597 and 586 B.C.
This promotion that Nebuchadnezzar gave Daniel as a result of the latter communicating to the former the content and interpretation of his dream parallels that of Joseph being rewarded for interpreting Pharaoh’s dream (See Genesis 41).
Like Joseph’s elevation to power as a result of God giving him the ability to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams so Daniel’s elevation to power as a result of God giving him the ability to know and interpret Nebuchadnezzar’s dream reveals the spiritual principle recorded in Proverbs 21:1.
Proverbs 21:1 The king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He wishes. (NASB95)
Of course, God is responsible for Daniel’s promotion, which the Lord would use to evangelize the king, the wise men and the Babylonian people and to aid the Jewish exiles who will be coming to Babylon in the near future.
Daniel as well as his three friends have endured undeserved suffering and now were being rewarded by God for their faithfulness during their adversity.
When Nebuchadnezzar issued the order to execute the wise men of the city of Babylon which put Daniel and his three friends under the sentence of death, this placed Daniel and his three friends under undeserved suffering, which was to test their faith and ultimately to bless them.
Now, we see in Daniel 2:46-49, these four being rewarded by God through Nebuchadnezzar who is God’s servant (cf. Jeremiah 27:5-6; cf. Romans 13:1-7).
The Lord rewards the believer after his faith has been tested (cf. James 1:12).
So in Daniel 2:46-49, we have God rewarding Daniel and his three friends for their faith in Him during their time of great adversity, which the Lord permitted in order to strengthen their faith in Him and to reward them.
By rewarding them, God would also be helping Nebuchadnezzar, the wise men and the Babylonian Empire as well as the Jewish exiles who would be coming to Babylon in the near future.