51 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision,.... That is, after Daniel and his companions had importunately sought the Lord by prayer, the secret of the king's dream, and the interpretation of it, were made known to Daniel, and to him only; he being the person designed in Providence to be raised to great honour and dignity by means...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Daniel answered and said,.... That is, he began his prayer, as Jacchiades observes, or his thanksgiving, and expressed it in the following manner: blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: a form of blessing God, or a wish that he may be blessed by men for evermore; for there is that in his name, in his nature, in his perfections, and in his...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he changeth the times and the season,.... Not only of day and night, summer and winter, and times and seasons of prosperity and adversity; but all the changes and revolutions in states and kingdoms, in all times and ages, are from him; and particularly those pointed at in the following dream, in the Babylonian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
He revealeth the deep and secret things,.... The purposes of his own heart, which are the deep things of God, and the secrets that belong to him, and which are opened in providence by the execution of them; the "arcana imperii", or secrets of state, committed to men designed for government; the secrets or mysteries of grace, the deep things of the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
I thank thee, and praise thee, O thou God my fathers,.... His remote ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and more near progenitors, to whom God had made promises, and revealed his secrets in time past, and still continued his favours to Daniel; for which he was abundantly thankful, and owned and confessed the goodness of God to him, and praised...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Therefore Daniel went in unto Arioch,.... Into his apartments at court, or wherever he was in quest of the wise men, of which Daniel had knowledge; this he did as soon as the secret was revealed to him, though not before he had given thanks to God: whom the king had ordained to destroy the wise men of Babylon; this is a description of Arioch, from...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste,.... As knowing how impatient the king was to have his dream, and the interpretation of it, told him; and how pleasing this would be to him, and be a means of ingratiating and establishing him in his affections, as well as for the sake of saving the lives of the wise men: and said thus unto...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar,.... The name given him by the prince of the eunuchs, Daniel 1:7, and by which he was known to Nebuchadnezzar; and very likely he called him now by this name, which is the reason of its being mentioned: art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen, and the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Daniel answered in the presence of the king,.... Boldly, and without fear: and said, the secret which the king hath demanded: so he calls it, to show that it was something divine, which came from God, and could only be revealed by him, and was not to be found out by any art of man: cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
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...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
As for thee, O king,.... So far as thou hast any concern in this matter, or with respect to thee, the following was thy case; these the circumstances and situation in which thou wert: thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, which should come to pass hereafter; as he lay on his bed, either sleeping or waking, very probably the latter, his...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But as for me,.... As to the part I have in this affair, I can ascribe nothing to myself; it is all owing to the God of heaven, the recovery of the dream, and its interpretation: this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living: not that he thought or affirmed that he had more wisdom than any man living, as the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thou, O king, sawest,.... Or, "wast seeing" (z); not with the eyes of his body, but in his fancy and imagination; as he was dreaming, he thought he saw such an appearance, so it seemed to him, as follows: and behold a great image; or, "one great image" (a); not painted, but a massive statue made of various metals, as is afterwards declared: such,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
This image's head was of fine gold,.... The prophet begins with the superior part of this image, and descends to the lower, because of the order and condition of the monarchies it represents: this signifies the Babylonian monarchy, as afterwards explained; called the "head", being the first and chief of the monarchies; and compared to "fine gold",...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
His legs of iron,.... A coarser metal than the former, but very strong; and designs the strong and potent monarchy of the Romans, the last of the four monarchies, governed chiefly by two consuls: and was divided, in the times of Theodosius, into the eastern and western empire, which may be signified by the two legs: his feet part of iron and part...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands,.... Or, "wast seeing" (e); the king continued looking upon the image that stood before him, as he thought, as long as he could see it, till he saw a "stone": an emblem of the Messiah, as it often is in Scripture, Genesis 49:24, because of his strength, firmness, and duration; and so it is...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
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...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
This is the dream,.... Which Nebuchadnezzar dreamed, but had forgot, and was now punctually and exactly made known to him; for the truth of which he is appealed unto; for, no doubt, by this account, the whole of his dream, and every circumstance of it, were brought to his mind: and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king; for...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thou, O king, art a king of kings,.... Having many kings subject and tributary to him, or would have; as the kings of Judah, Ammon, Moab, and others, and who were even his captives and prisoners; see Jeremiah 52:32. Jarchi and Saadiah join this with the next clause, "the God of heaven", and interpret it of him thus, thou, O King Nebuchadnezzar,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And wheresoever the children of men dwell,.... Not in every part of the habitable world, but in every part of his large dominion inhabited by men: the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the heaven, hath he given into thine hand; all parks, chases, and forests (so that none might hunt or hawk without his permission), as well as the persons and...