Nebuchadnezzar's Second Dream
Background
Kings Proclamation
The King’s Dream
Nebuchadnezzar’s words “after the name of my god” have been understood to mean that the king never truly came to accept Yahweh as his god, even after this encounter. Yet the phrase could mean no more than that Daniel was named after the gods of Nebuchadnezzar’s country, Babylon, or may be taken to describe the king’s condition as a Marduk worshiper at the time of the dream.
Another noteworthy fact is that after thirty years Daniel was still “chief” of the king’s counselors (“magicians”), which evidences that he must have performed his duties admirably. Nebuchadnezzar expressed his confidence in Daniel’s skills as an interpreter of dreams (“no mystery [rāz] is too difficult for you”). He then prepared to relate the dream and asked Daniel to reveal its interpretation (pĕšar).
The watchers or messengers??
The King’s Request and Daniel’s Revelation
Daniel was visibly shaken when he heard the dream, so much so that the king attempted to comfort the prophet by telling him not to let the dream or its meaning alarm him. “Greatly perplexed” is a translation of the Aramaic ʾeštômam, which means to be “appalled” or “astounded.” Daniel was not “perplexed” but “astounded” by the horror of what he immediately knew the dream foretold. He was so upset by it that he was silent for a short while (“for a time”).
Nebuchadnezzar is specifically named as the person who would behave like an animal. The king would “be driven away from people” because of his strange behavior and “live with the wild animals.” “Wild animals” would better be translated “the animals of the field,” a literal rendering of the Aramaic. Nebuchadnezzar would live outside in the fields among grazing animals, particularly cattle (“eat grass like cattle”). Certainly the monarch would not live among lions, tigers, and wild animals of that sort. As for the king’s diet, it may not have consisted solely of “grass,” for the Aramaic word ʿăśab also includes vegetables and other herbs.
The word translated “cattle” (tôrîn) refers particularly to “bulls” or “oxen” and indicates that Nebuchadnezzar’s type of lycanthropy would be the delusion that he was a bull or an ox, sometimes referred to more precisely as “boanthropy.” At night Nebuchadnezzar would not come inside like a man but would remain in the open field. Consequently in the mornings he would be “drenched with the dew of heaven.”
Such insane behavior would continue for seven years (“seven times”) until the king repented of his pride and acknowledged (“comes to know”) that the Most High God is sovereign.
Fulfillment of the Dream
In v. 30 Nebuchadnezzar referred to the city as “the great Babylon” (cf. Rev 14:8 and 18:2), and indeed it was great. Babylon was one of the preeminent cities of history and during Nebuchadnezzar’s reign undoubtedly was the most magnificent (and probably the largest) city on earth. Herodotus, the ancient Greek historian, visited Babylon about one hundred years after Nebuchadnezzar’s time and was overwhelmed by its grandeur. Over two hundred years later, Alexander the Great planned to make the city the headquarters for his vast empire.
Babylon was a rectangularly shaped city surrounded by a broad and deep water-filled moat and then by an intricate system of double walls. The first double-wall system encompassed the main city. Its inner wall was twenty-one feet thick and reinforced with defense towers at sixty-foot intervals while the outer wall was eleven feet in width and also had watchtowers. Later Nebuchadnezzar added another defensive double-wall system (an outer wall twenty-five feet thick and an inner wall twenty-three feet thick) east of the Euphrates that ran the incredible distance of seventeen miles and was wide enough at the top for chariots to pass.43 The height of the walls is not known, but the Ishtar Gate was forty feet high, and the walls would have approximated this size. A forty-foot wall would have been a formidable barrier for enemy soldiers.
Eight gates provided access to the city, the most celebrated of which was the Ishtar Gate on the north side. This was a massive double tower rising to a height of forty feet and decorated with dragons of Marduk and bulls of Hadad. According to Whitcomb, there were “557 [of these] animals in bright colors against a glazed blue background.” Wiseman relates that the Ishtar Gate “led to the sacred procession way [one thousand yards long] leading south to the citadel to Esagila, the temple of Marduk, and the adjacent ziggurat Etemenanki.” This huge seven-level ziggurat towered 288 feet into the air.46 A bridge (ca. four hundred feet long) spanned the Euphrates River and connected the east and west parts of the city. Fifty-three temples are said to have been present within Babylon.
Nebuchadnezzar had at least three palaces at Babylon, the principal residence being located in the southern citadel and covering about 350 by 200 yards. This palace included a beautifully decorated throne room (described in the next chapter).
Babylon also boasted the famous “hanging gardens,” which the ancient Greeks considered one of the seven wonders of the world. According to the Babylonian historian Berosus, Nebuchadnezzar constructed these for his wife (Amytis) who had left the mountains of her native Media for the alluvial plains of Babylonia. Her husband, in effect, built a mountain in the city to remind his wife of her homeland. “These were elevated gardens, high enough to be seen beyond the city walls. They boasted many different kinds of plants and palm trees. Ingenious hoists had been contrived by which to raise water to the high terraces from the Euphrates River.”49 From the roof of his palace the king gazed out upon all of this grandeur, and his heart became filled with pride.
Nebuchadnezzar boasted that it was he who “built” this “great Babylon,” and statements by Berosus, cuneiform inscriptions, and other discoveries at Babylon combine in their testimony that Nebuchadnezzar carried out extensive building operations. “Most of the bricks taken out of Babylon in the archaeological excavations bear the name and inscription of Nebuchadnezzar stamped thereon. One of the records of Nebuchadnezzar sounds almost like the boast which Daniel recorded … (Dan. 4:30); it reads, ‘The fortifications of Esagila and Babylon I strengthened and established the name of my reign forever.’ ”
Many outstanding achievements may be attributed to Nebuchadnezzar, but sadly he failed to give God the glory for his blessings. His heart was filled with pride and self-importance, and he began to boast of his own greatness and ability. The first person pronouns are conspicuous in v. 30. “I [emphatic in Aram., “I, myself”] have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty” (italics added). In his pride the king took for himself the glory that rightly belonged to God and invited divine judgment.