Nebuchadnezzar Demands His Dream and Daniel Reveals the Mystery

(Daniel 2:2:) "To tell the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king." They all came so that not one of them would have any advantage over the others. He began to speak with them, as it is said, "And the king said to them: I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit is troubled to know the dream. And the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic: O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will declare its interpretation" (Daniel 2:3-4). Nebuchadnezzar said to them: I know the dream. If I tell it to you, you will tell me words of lies, and you will say, "This is its interpretation." Rather, you tell the dream, and then I will know that you are telling me its interpretation, as it is said, "But declare to me the dream and its interpretation" (Daniel 2:6). "They answered a second time and said: Let the king tell the dream to his servants, and we will declare the interpretation" (Daniel 2:7). Nebuchadnezzar said to them: I tell you, "Tell me," and you tell me, "Tell us." Thus you suppose that you will talk with me until noon and then go away. "That if you do not make the dream known to me, there is but one verdict for you" (Daniel 2:9). One decree I am issuing against you, and you shall be killed. "And you have prepared yourselves to speak lying and corrupt words before me" (Daniel 2:9): you have come in to speak words of falsehood before me — "until the time changes" (Daniel 2:9). "The Chaldeans answered before the king and said: There is no man on the dry land who is able to declare the king's matter, inasmuch as no king, however great and mighty, has asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or Chaldean. And the matter that the king asks is difficult, and there is no other who can declare it before the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh" (Daniel 2:10-11). When the Holy Temple was standing, a person would seek a matter and inquire through the Urim and Thummim. When the God of the world dwelt with flesh, a person would seek a matter, and He would say to him: Go and inquire of Him. They said, "Its dwelling is not with flesh" (Daniel 2:11). "And the matter that the king asks is difficult (yaqqira)" (Daniel 2:11): prophecy is required, and "yaqqira" means nothing other than prophecy, just as you say, "And the word of the LORD was rare (yaqar) in those days" (1 Samuel 3:1). "And there is no other who can declare it before the king" (Daniel 2:11): "And there is no other" (ve-aharan) — read it as "and Aaron" (ve-Aharon). They said to him: Had you one of the descendants of the children of Aaron, he would wrap himself in the Urim and Thummim and tell you. "Because of this the king was angry and exceedingly furious" (Daniel 2:12). He was filled with wrath against them. He said to them: So beautiful was the Holy Temple, and you gave me the counsel to destroy it! Immediately, "and he commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon" (Daniel 2:12). The decree went forth thus, as it is said, "And the decree went out that the wise men were to be slain, and they sought Daniel and his companions to be slain" (Daniel 2:13). Rabbi Yose son of Rabbi Hanina said: "And they sought Daniel and his companions to be slain." Daniel began to say to Arioch, "Why is the decree so urgent from before the king? Then Arioch made the matter known to Daniel" (Daniel 2:15). Daniel said to him: I will show him the matter. "Then Arioch in haste brought Daniel in before the king" (Daniel 2:25). Nebuchadnezzar said to him: "Are you able to make known to me the dream that I saw and its interpretation?" (Daniel 2:26). Daniel answered him immediately and interpreted it for him. But his son Belshazzar said to Daniel, when he came before him to interpret for him what the hand of the writing had inscribed, then he said to him, "Are you that Daniel who is of the children of the captivity of Judah?" (Daniel 5:13). Therefore Rabbi Yose expounds that Nebuchadnezzar too said to him thus: "Are you that Daniel?" (Daniel 2:26). Now did he not recognize him, that he said to him, "Are you that Daniel?" Rather, he said to him: Have you the power to tell me this thing? He said to him: Yes. He said to him: When? He said to him: Not in thirty days, not in twenty days — but wait for me one night. "Then Daniel went to his house and made the matter known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions" (Daniel 2:17), so that they would pray with him, as it is said, "to seek mercy from before the God of heaven" (Daniel 2:18). "Then to Daniel the mystery was revealed in a vision of the night. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven" (Daniel 2:19). In this world, prophecy was given to one in a thousand, but in the world to come prophecy will rest upon every person, as it is said, "And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy" (Joel 3:1).