Daniel 2:35 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Daniel 2:35
Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.
iron · noun, common both genders singular determined + particle of affirmation
clay
חַסְפָּ֨אchas.Pa'
H2635
a clod · noun, common both genders singular determined + particle of affirmation
brass
נְחָשָׁ֜אne.cha.Sha'
H5174
copper · noun, common both genders singular determined + particle of affirmation
silver
כַּסְפָּ֣אkas.Pa'
H3702
silver (from its pale color) · noun, common both genders singular determined + particle of affirmation
gold
וְדַהֲבָ֗אve.da.ha.Va'
H1722
gold · conjunction + noun, common both genders singular determined + particle of affirmation
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
Isaiah 2:2-3 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shal…
Psalms 37:10 For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.
Hosea 13:3 Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of…
Revelation 20:11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for…
Job 6:17 What time they wax warm, they vanish: when it is hot, they are consumed out of their place.
Isaiah 11:9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the s…
Isaiah 41:15-16 Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make…
Psalms 1:4-5 The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Daniel 2:31-45
Daniel here gives full satisfaction to Nebuchadnezzar concerning his dream and the interpretation of it. That great prince had been kind to this poor prophet in his maintenance and education; he had been brought up at the king's cost, preferred at court, and the land of his captivity had hereby been made much easier to him than to others of his brethren. And now the king is abundantly repaid for all the expense he had been at upon him; and for receiving this prophet, though not in the name of a prophet, he had a prophet's reward, such a reward as a prophet only could give, and for which that wealthy mighty prince was now glad to be beholden to him. Here is,
I. The dream itself, Dan 2:31, Dan…
broken . . . together--excluding a contemporaneous existence of the kingdom of the world and the kingdom of God (in its manifested, as distinguished from its spiritual, phase). The latter is not gradually to wear away the former, but to destroy it at once, and utterly (Th2 1:7-10; Th2 2:8). However, the Hebrew may be translated, "in one discriminate mass."
chaff--image of the ungodly, as they shall be dealt with in the judgment (Psa 1:4-5; Mat 3:12).
summer threshing-floors--Grain was winnowed in the East on an elevated space in the open air, by throwing the grain into the air with a shovel, so that the wind might clear away the chaff.
no place . . . found for them-- (Rev 20:11; compar…
The stone - became a great mountain - There is the kingdom אבן eben, of the stone, and the kingdom of the mountain. See at the end at the chapter.
John Gill on Daniel 2:35
Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together,.... The feet, the basis of the image, being broken, the whole body of it fell, and with its own weight was broken to pieces; an emblem this of the utter dissolution of all the monarchies and kingdoms of the earth, signified by these several metals:
and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; which is exceeding small and light:
and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them; for the several metals, and the monarchies signified by them, which were no more: the allusion is to the manner of winnowing corn in the eastern countries upon mountains, when the chaff was carrie…
The Church Fathers
"His holy hill" is his holy church. It is that mountain which, according to Daniel's vision, grew from a very small stone till it overtook the kingdoms of the earth and grew to such a size that it "filled the face of the earth."
If therefore the great God showed future things by Daniel, and confirmed them by His Son; and if Christ is the stone which is cut out without hands, who shall destroy temporal kingdoms, and introduce an eternal one, which is the resurrection of the just; as he declares, "The God of heaven shall raise up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed,"-let those thus confuted come to their senses, who reject the Creator (Demiurgum), and do not agree that the prophets were sent beforehand from the same Father from whom also the Lord came, but who assert that prophecies originated from diverse powers.
It talks of a mountain, and the mountain is veiled to the party of Donatus.… The holy Daniel saw a vision and wrote down what he saw, and he said that he had seen a stone hewn out of a mountain without hands. It is Christ, coming from the nations of the Jews, which was also a mountain, you see, because it has the kingdom.… What is the mountain over which the heretics stumbled? Listen to Daniel again: "And that stone grew and became a great mountain, such that it filled all the face of the earth." How right the psalm is to say to Christ the Lord as he rises again, "Be exalted over the heavens, O God, and let your glory be over the whole earth." What is your glory over the whole earth? Over the whole earth is your church, over the whole earth your bride.
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
Babylon — The Greek form of BABEL; Semitic form Babilu, meaning “The Gate of God.” In the Assyrian tablets it means “The city of the dispersion of the tribes.” The monumental list of its kings reaches back to…
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…
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).
pieces
דָּ֣קוּDa.ku
H1855
to crumble or (trans.) crush · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine plural
together
כַחֲדָ֡הkha.cha.Dah
H2298
as card. one · preposition + cardinal number, both genders singular absolute
became
וַהֲווֹ֙va.ha.Vo
H1934
to exist · conjunction + verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine plural
chaff
כְּע֣וּרke.'Ur
H5784
chaff (as the naked husk) · preposition + noun, common both genders singular absolute
of
מִןmin-
H4481
properly · preposition
summer
קַ֔יִטKa.yit
H7007
harvest · noun, common both genders singular absolute
threshingfloors
אִדְּרֵי'i.de.rei-
H147
ample · noun, common masculine plural construct
wind
רוּחָ֔אru.Cha'
H7308
wind · noun, common both genders singular determined + particle of affirmation
carried
וּנְשָׂ֤אu.ne.Sa'
H5376
to lift · conjunction + verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
them
הִמּוֹן֙hi.mOn
H1994
they · personal pronoun, 3rd person masculine plural
away
נְשָׂאnᵉsâʼ
H5376
to lift
that
וְכָלve.khol
H3606
properly · conjunction + noun, common both genders singular construct
no
לָאla'-
H3809
not (the simple or abs. negation) · negative particle
place
אֲתַ֖ר'a.Tar
H870
a place · noun, common both genders singular absolute
found
הִשְׁתֲּכַ֣חhish.ta.Khach
H7912
to discover (literally or figuratively) · verb, perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
stone
וְאַבְנָ֣אve.'av.Na'
H69
a stone · conjunction + noun, common both genders singular determined + particle of affirmation
smote
מְחָ֣תme.Chat
H4223
to strike in pieces · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
image
לְצַלְמָ֗אle.tzal.Ma'
H6755
an idolatrous figure · preposition + noun, common both genders singular determined + particle of affirmation
became
הֲוָ֛תha.Vat
H1934
to exist · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
great
רַ֖בrav
H7229
abundant · adjective, both genders singular absolute
mountain
לְט֥וּרle.Tur
H2906
a rock or hill · preposition + noun, common both genders singular absolute
filled
וּמְלָ֥תu.me.Lat
H4391
to fill · conjunction + verb, qal perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
whole
כָּלkol-
H3606
properly · noun, common both genders singular construct
earth
אַרְעָֽא'ar.'A'
H772
the earth · noun, common both genders singular determined + particle of affirmation
Daniel 2:31-35
31. Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.
31. Tu rex videbas, et ecce imago una grandis, imago illa magna, et splendor ejus [145] pretiosus [146] stabat coram te et species ejus terribilis.
32. This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,
32. Hujus imaginis caput ex auro bono, [147] pectus ejus et brachia ejus ex argento, venter ejus et femora ejus ex aere, oes
33. His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.
33. Crura ejus ex ferro, [148] pedes ejus partim ex ferro, et partim testa.…
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…
covered (literally filled) the whole earth: Cp. Gen 1:28; Exod 1:7; Matt 28:18-20. This new kingdom would replace all other kingdoms.
Rashi on Daniel 2:35
Then...crumbled together Then all the types of metals and the clay that were in it crumbled together.
and they were like chaff from the threshing floors of the summer [as translated,] and they were like chaff from the threshing floors of the summer.
and the wind carried them off [as translated,] and the wind carried them off.
and no place was found for them i.e., their original place was unknown, and it was unrecognizable that they were ever there.
became a huge mountain [as translated,] became a huge mountain.
