Albert Barnes Commentary Daniel 2:10

"The Chaldeans answered before the king, and said, There is not a man upon the earth that can show the king`s matter, forasmuch as no king, lord, or ruler, hath asked such a thing of any magician, or enchanter, or Chaldean." — Daniel 2:10 (ASV)

The Chaldeans answered before the king, and said - Perhaps the “Chaldeans” answered because they were the highest in favor, and were those in whom most confidence was usually placed in such matters. See the notes at Daniel 2:2. On such an occasion, those who were supposed to be able to interpret the dream, if anyone could, and on whom most reliance was usually placed, would likely be put forward to announce their inability to do this.

There is not a man upon the earth that can show the king’s matter - Chaldee, על־יבשׁתא ‛ al - yabesh^e thâ’ - “upon the dry ground.” Compare Genesis 1:10. The meaning is that the matter was utterly beyond human power. It was something to which no one who practiced the arts of divination laid claim. They undoubtedly supposed that experts in that art as great as the world could produce might be found among the wise men assembled at the court of Babylon, and if these men failed, they inferred that all others would fail.

This was, therefore, a decided confession of their inability in the matter, but they meant to lessen the impact of that humiliating confession, and perhaps to appease the king’s wrath, by affirming that the matter was wholly beyond human abilities and that no one could be expected to do what was demanded.

“Therefore there is “no king, lord, nor ruler, that asked such things” - No one had ever made a similar demand. The matter is so clear, man’s inability to make such a disclosure is so manifest, that no ruler of any rank had ever made such a request. They undoubtedly intended to convince the king that the request was so unreasonable that he would not insist on it. They were urgent, for their lives depended on it, and they believed that they had justice on their side.