Daniel 2:28 - meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Daniel 2:28
But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these;
properly · noun, common both genders singular absolute
God
אֱלָ֤הּ'e.Lah
H426
God · noun, common both genders singular absolute
heaven
בִּשְׁמַיָּא֙bish.mai.Ya'
H8065
the sky (as aloft · preposition + noun, common masculine plural determined + particle of affirmation
revealeth
גָּלֵ֣אga.Le'
H1541
to denude (especially in a disgraceful sense) · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
secrets
רָזִ֔יןra.Zin
H7328
to attenuate · noun, common masculine plural absolute
known
וְהוֹדַ֗עve.ho.Da'
H3046
to know (properly · conjunction + verb, hiphil perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
king
לְמַלְכָּא֙le.mal.Ka'
H4430
a king · preposition + noun, common both genders singular determined + particle of affirmation
Nebuchadnezzar
נְבֽוּכַדְנֶצַּ֔רne.vu.khad.ne.Tzar
H5020
Nebukadnetstsar (or -retstsar · proper noun, a man's name
what
מָ֛הmah
H4101
properly · interrogative pronoun
be
לֶהֱוֵ֖אle.he.Ve'
H1934
to exist · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
latter
בְּאַחֲרִ֣יתbe.'a.cha.Rit
H320
later · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct
days
יוֹמַיָּ֑אyo.mai.Ya'
H3118
a day · noun, common masculine plural determined + particle of affirmation
dream
חֶלְמָ֨ךְchel.Makh
H2493
a dream · noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
visions
וְחֶזְוֵ֥יve.chez.Vei
H2376
a sight · conjunction + noun, common masculine plural construct
head
רֵאשָׁ֛ךְre.Shakh
H7217
the head · noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
upon
עַֽל'al-
H5922
above · preposition
bed
מִשְׁכְּבָ֖ךְmish.ke.Vakh
H4903
a bed · noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
these
דְּנָ֥הde.Nah
H1836
this · demonstrative particle
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Genesis 40:8 And they said unto him, We have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter of it. And Joseph said unto them, Do not interpretations belong…
Daniel 10:14 Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision is for many days.
Amos 4:13 For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness,…
Genesis 49:1 And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.
Daniel 2:22 He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him.
Genesis 41:16 And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace.
Daniel 2:18 That they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of t…
Daniel 4:5 I saw a dream which made me afraid, and the thoughts upon my bed and the visions of my head troubled me.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Daniel 2:24-30
We have here the introduction to Daniel's declaring the dream, and the interpretation of it.
I. He immediately bespoke the reversing of the sentence against the wise men of Babylon, Dan 2:24. He went with all speed to Arioch, to tell him that his commission was now superseded: Destroy not the wise men of Babylon. Though there were those of them perhaps that deserved to die, as magicians, by the law of God, yet here that which they stood condemned for was not a crime worth of death or of bonds, and therefore let them not die, and be unjustly destroyed, but let them live, and be justly shamed, as having been nonplussed and unable to do that which a prophet of the Lord could do. Note, Since God…
God--in contrast to "the wise men," &c. (Dan 2:27).
revealeth secrets-- (Amo 3:7; Amo 4:13). Compare Gen 41:45, Zaphnath-paaneah, "revealer of secrets," the title given to Joseph.
the latter days--literally, "in the after days" (Dan 2:29); "hereafter" (Gen 49:1): It refers to the whole future, including the Messianic days, which is the final dispensation (Isa 2:2).
visions of thy head--conceptions formed in the brain.
Adam Clarke on Daniel 2:28
There is a God in heaven - To distinguish him from those idols, the works of men's hands; and from the false gods in which the Chaldeans trusted.
In the latter days - A phrase which, in the prophets, generally means the times of the Messiah. God is about to show what shall take place from this time to the latest ages of the world. And the vision most certainly contains a very extensive and consecutive prophecy; which I shall treat more largely at the close of the chapter, giving in the mean time a short exposition.
John Gill on Daniel 2:28
But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets,.... By this Daniel meant to inform the king that there was but one God, in opposition to the notion of polytheism, that obtained among the Heathens; that this one God is in heaven, and presides over all persons and things on earth; and that to him alone belongs the revelation of secrets, and not to Heathen gods, or to any magician, astrologer, &c.; and of this kind was the king's dream, a secret impenetrable by men:
and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days: in the latter days of his monarchy, which should be subverted, and succeeded by another; and in ages after that, during the Persian, Grecian, and Ro…
The Church Fathers
Verse 28. "But there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries." Therefore it is only in vain that thou inquirest (other MSS have: "that he inquire") of men as to something which is known only to God in heaven. Also, by indirectly drawing Nebuchadnezzar away from the worship of many gods, Daniel directs him to the knowledge of the one (true) God. "Who hath shown thee, King Nebuchadnezzar, what is going to take place (the Vulg. reads: "the things which are going to take place") in the last times." Avoiding the blemish of adulation but cleaving to the truth, he courteously suggests that it is to the king, for it was to him that God had revealed secrets concerning what was to occur in the last times. Now either these "last days" are to be reckoned from the time when the dream was revealed to Daniel until the end of the world, or else at least this inference is to be drawn, that the over-all interpretation of the dream applies to that final end when the image and statue beheld is to be ground to powder. "Thy dream and the visions of thy head upon thy bed were as follows." He does not say, "The visions of thine eyes," lest we should think it was something physical, but rather: "of thy head." "For the eyes of a wise man are in his head" (Ecclesiastes 2:14), that is to say in the princely organ of the heart, just as we read in the Gospel: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they are ones who shall see God" (Matthew 5:8). Again: "What are ye meditating in your hearts?" (Matthew 9:4). To be sure, other authorities in treating of this chapter, conjecture that the authoritative part of the soul (to hegemonikon) lies not in the heart but, as Plato says, in the brain.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Bible — Bible, the English form of the Greek name Biblia, meaning “books,” the name which in the fifth century began to be given to the entire collection of sacred books, the “Library of Divine Revelation.”…
Chaldee language — Employed by the sacred writers in certain portions of the Old Testament, viz., Dan. 2:4-7, 28; Ezra 4:8-6:18; 7:12-26; Gen. 31:46; Jer. 10:11. It is the Aramaic dialect, as it is sometimes called, as…
Prayer — Is converse with God; the intercourse of the soul with God, not in contemplation or meditation, but in direct address to him. Prayer may be oral or mental, occasional or constant, ejaculatory or…
Secret · UNCLASSIFIED SCRIPTURES RELATING TO — UNCLASSIFIED SCRIPTURES RELATING TO
Visions · Mentioned in scripture: To Nebuchadnezzar — Mentioned in scripture: To Nebuchadnezzar
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Daniel 2:27
27. Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, shew unto the king;
27. Respondit Daniel regi, et dixit, Arcanum quod rex postulat sapientes, magi, astrologi, genethliasi non possunt indicare regi.
28. But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these;
28. Sed est Deus in coelis, qui revelat arcana; et indicavit regi Nebuchadnezzar quid futurum sit in fine [142] dierum somnium tuum, et visio capitis tuisuper lectum…
Daniel's willingness to declare his dream to the king; his prayer for a revelation of the secret, and the answer to his prayer; his explanation before the king.
Dan 2:14
Through Daniel's judicious interview of Arioch, the further execution of the royal edict was interrupted. וּטעם עטא התיב, he answered, replied, counsel and understanding, i.e., the words of counsel and understanding; cf. Pro 26:16. The name Arioch appears in Gen 14:1 as the name of the king of Ellasar, along with the kings of Elam and Shinar. It is derived not from the Sanscr. ârjaka, venerabilis, but is probably formed from ארי, a lion, as נסרך from nisr = נשׁר. רב־טבּחיּא is the chief of the bodyguard, which was regarded…
a God in heaven: Daniel proclaimed one true God who rules all things (2:20-21), not a limited local deity such as the ones the Babylonians worshiped. The God of Daniel’s ancestors (2:23) is the God in heaven who reveals secrets. The Babylonian gods could not do this. • what will happen: In the ancient world, dreams were often understood as revealing the future.
Rashi on Daniel 2:28
But there is...and He lets Nebuchadnezzar know He revealed this secret to me, and through me let the king know that his dream refers to future events.
your dream and the visions of your head on your bed which are on your bed.
