Daniel 4.9-Nebuchadnezzar Addresses Daniel As Belteshazzar And Requests He Consider His Dream And Interpret It
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday September 4, 2012
Daniel: Daniel 4:9-Nebuchadnezzar Requests That Daniel Consider His Dream And Interpret It
Lesson # 115
Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel 4:9.
This evening we will study Daniel 4:9 which records Nebuchadnezzar requesting Daniel consider the content of his dream and interpret it for him.
Daniel 4:1 “King Nebuchadnezzar, to each and every person belonging to the nations, ethnicities and language groups, who are living throughout the entire earth: May your prosperity increase! 2 It is pleasing to me to make known the miraculous signs, yes, and wondrous signs at that, which the Most High God performed on my behalf. 3 How great are His miraculous signs! Indeed, how great are His wondrous signs! His kingdom is eternal. In other words, His governmental dominion is from generation to generation. 4 I myself, Nebuchadnezzar was content in my house, specifically prosperous in my palace. 5 I saw a dream, which caused me to be frightened, specifically revelations on my bed. Indeed, visions in my mind caused me to be terrified. 6 Therefore, from me a command was issued for the purpose of causing each and every one of the city of Babylon’s wise men to be brought into my presence in order that they could make known to me the dream’s interpretation. 7 So when the occult priests, necromancers, astrologers as well as diviners entered, I communicated the content of the dream before them but they could not make its interpretation known to me. 8 Then Daniel entered my presence whose name was Belteshazzar according to my God’s name and in addition one who possesses God’s Holy Spirit in him. Next, I communicated the content of the dream before him. 9 ‘O Belteshazzar, chief over the wise men, because I myself know personally that God’s Holy Spirit is in you so that any mystery is by no means too difficult for you, please consider the content of my dream, which I saw. Also, please communicate its interpretation.’ (My translation)
Daniel 4:9 ‘O Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians, since I know that a spirit of the holy gods is in you and no mystery baffles you, tell me the visions of my dream which I have seen, along with its interpretation.’ (NASB95)
“O Belteshazzar” is expressing Nebuchadnezzar’s emotion when addressing Daniel in the sense that the king is desperate for an answer to what the dream meant since he senses it concerns him.
“Chief of the magicians” is composed of the masculine singular construct form of the noun rǎḇ (רַב) (rab), “chief” which is followed by the masculine plural construct form of the noun ḥǎk∙kîm (חַכִּים) (khak-keem´), “magicians.”
The noun rǎḇ describes Daniel as the “chief” or the “commander” over the wise men and is in the construct state meaning that it is governing the noun ḥǎk∙kîm which follows expressing a genitive relationship.
The genitive relationship is one of subordination indicating that Daniel was the commander “over the” the wise men.
The noun ḥǎk∙kîm is a reference to the four groups mentioned in Daniel 4:7, which are the occult priests, necromancers, astrologers and diviners.
“Since I know that a spirit of the holy gods is in you” is a causal clause which presents the reason why Nebuchadnezzar is requesting that Daniel consider his dream which terrified him and interpret this dream for him.
“I know” is composed of the first person singular personal pronoun ʾǎnā(h) (אֲנָה) (an-aw´), “I” and then we have the first person singular peʿal (Hebrew: qal) active perfect form of the verb yeḏǎʿ (יְדַע) (yed-ah´), “know.”
The independent personal pronoun ʾǎnā(h) serves to emphasize Nebuchadnezzar’s personal experience with Daniel which has convinced the king that Daniel possessed God’s Holy Spirit within him so that absolutely no mystery baffled him.
The verb yeḏǎʿ means “to know personally” and denotes that Nebuchadnezzar “knew personally” that Daniel possessed God’s Holy Spirit within him so that absolutely no mystery baffled him since Daniel told the king the content of his dream in chapter two and interpreted this dream for him.
“A spirit of the holy gods” is composed of the feminine singular construct form of the noun rûaḥ (רוּחַ) (roo´-akh), “a spirit of” which is followed by the masculine plural noun ʾělāh (אֱלָהּ) (el-aw´), “gods” which is modified by the masculine plural adjective qǎd∙dîš (קַדִּישׁ) (kad-deesh´), “holy.”
As was the case in Daniel 4:8, this expression means “God’s Holy Spirit” rather than “a spirit of the holy gods” which is indicated by the fact that in Daniel 4:9, the king uses this expression to describe the basis for the fact that absolutely no mystery is too difficult for Daniel.
Now, Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged that Daniel’s God is a revealer of mysteries in Daniel 2:47.
Thus, the fact that the king associated the revealing of mysteries to Daniel’s God indicates that when Nebuchadnezzar uses the expression rûaḥ qǎd·dî·šînʾělā·hîn in Daniel 4:8-9, he is describing Daniel as possessing God’s Holy Spirit rather being indwelt with a spirit of the gods.
“And no mystery baffles you” is a marker of result meaning that the conjunction wa, “and” is introducing a statement which presents the result of Nebuchadnezzar’s previous description of Daniel that God’s Holy Spirit is in him.
“No mystery” is composed of the singular construct form of the noun kōl (כֹּל) (kole), “no” which is modifying the masculine plural form of the noun rāz (רָז) (rawz), “mystery.”
The noun rāz means “mystery” and refers to the interpretation of the king’s dream and is modified by the singular construct form of the noun kōl, which means “any” since it denotes totality indicating that Nebuchadnezzar is describing Daniel as possessing God’s Holy Spirit so that he is by no means baffled by “any” mystery.
“Baffles” is composed of the negative particle lā(ʾ) (לָא) (law), “not” which is negating the meaning of the masculine singular peʿal (Hebrew: qal) active participle form of the verb ʾǎnǎs (אֲנַס) (an-as´), “baffles.”
The verb ʾǎnǎs means “to be too difficult, to be too hard” and its meaning is emphatically negated by the negative particle lā(ʾ), which is a marker of emphatic negation and thus these two words denote that any mystery “is by no means too difficult” for Daniel.
“The visions of my dream” is composed of the second person singular peʿal (Hebrew: qal) active imperative form of the verb ḥā∙zā(h) (חָזָה), which is not translated and followed by the masculine singular form of the noun ḥē∙lěm (חֵלֶם) (khay´-lem), “dream” which is modified by the first person singular pronominal suffix -î (־י) (ee), “my.”
At this point in Daniel 4:9, the Masoretic Text (MT), which is the traditional rabbinical text of the Hebrew Bible dating from the medieval period, has the masculine plural construct form of the noun ḥězû (חֱזוּ) (khay´-zev), “the visions of.”
This would indicate that Nebuchadnezzar is requesting that Daniel communicate to him both the content of his dream and its interpretation but the problem with this is that Nebuchadnezzar actually does tell Daniel the content of the dream and then asks him for its interpretation as recorded in Daniel 4:10-18.
In actuality, the original more than likely has the second person singular peʿal (Hebrew: qal) active imperative form of the verb ḥā∙zā(h) (חָזָה), which is very close in spelling to ḥězû (חֱזוּ) (khay´-zev), “the visions of.”
The verb ḥā∙zā(h) (חָזָה) means “to consider, perceive” in the sense of giving thought to in order to reach an interpretation and implies sustained purposeful concentration and attention to details.
This verb indicates that the king is requesting that Daniel give a sustained purposeful consideration to the content of his dream and its details in order to provide for him an interpretation.
The imperative mood of the verb is not an imperative of command even though Nebuchadnezzar has authority over Daniel but rather it is an imperative of request since the king is not in a position of strength but rather of weakness.
The king is desperate to know what the dream meant since he is sure it concerns him and Daniel is the only one in his kingdom who has the ability to interpret this dream for him.
Also, the king knows the dream is from Daniel’s God and since Daniel is God’s servant, the king must get the interpretation from Daniel.
“Tell” is the second person singular peʿal (Hebrew: qal) active imperative form of the verb ʾǎmǎr (אֲמַר) (am-ar´), which denotes Daniel “communicating” to Nebuchadnezzar the interpretation of his dream.
This too is not an imperative of command for the same reasons we noted why the imperative mood of the verb ḥā∙zā(h) was an imperative of request rather than command.
Daniel 4:9 ‘O Belteshazzar, chief over the wise men, because I myself know personally that God’s Holy Spirit is in you so that any mystery is by no means too difficult for you, please consider the content of my dream, which I saw. Also, please communicate its interpretation.’ (My translation)
Nebuchadnezzar’s two requests make clear that the king is desperate to know what the dream meant since he is sure it concerns him and Daniel is the only one in his kingdom who has the ability to interpret this dream for him.
On two separate occasions, Nebuchadnezzar was told by God that He was sovereign over him.
In chapter two, Daniel interpreted his dream and told the king that God gave him his authority, power and success and was thus sovereign over him and then in chapter three, by miraculously delivering Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego from his power, God was telling the king that He was sovereign over him.
Now, he receives another supernatural revelation, which bothers his conscience since in this revelation-vision, the king saw a messenger coming down from out of heaven, which tells the king that the message conveyed by the messenger in this vision was from God.
Therefore, Nebuchadnezzar knows that God is speaking to him again and his conscience has convicted him that he has not been obedient to the previous revelations given to him in that he has yet to acknowledge God’s sovereignty over his life.
So the king knows with this revelation or vision that God is dealing with him and is not happy with him which is reflected in Daniel’s interpretation, which said that the king would be deposed for seven years until he acknowledged that God was sovereign over him.
