Albert Barnes Commentary Daniel 2:27

"Daniel answered before the king, and said, The secret which the king hath demanded can neither wise men, enchanters, magicians, nor soothsayers, show unto the king;" — Daniel 2:27 (ASV)

Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, The secret which the king has demanded, cannot the wise men ... show to the king — Daniel regarded it as a settled and indisputable point that the solution could not be hoped for from the Chaldean sages. The highest talent which the realm could furnish had been applied and had failed. It was clear, therefore, that there was no hope that the difficulty would be removed by human skill.

Besides this, Daniel would also seem to intimate that the matter, from the necessity of the case, was beyond the reach of human powers. Concerning both the question of whether a forgotten dream could be recalled, and the actual “signification” of a dream as remarkable as this, the whole matter was beyond human ability.

The wise men, the astrologers ... — On these words, see the notes at Daniel 1:20. All these words occur in that verse, except גזרין (gâzerı̂yn) — rendered “soothsayers.” This is derived from גזר (gezar) — “to cut, to cut off;” and then “to decide, to determine.” It is thus applied to those who decide or determine the fates or destiny of men; that is, those who “by casting nativities from the place of the stars at one’s birth, and by various arts of computing and divining, foretold the fortunes and destinies of individuals.”

See Gesenius, “Com. z. Isa.” 2:349-356, Section 4, Von den Chaldern und deren Astrologie. On page 555, he has given a figure showing how the heavens were “cut up,” or “divided,” by astrologers in the practice of their art.

Compare the phrase numeri Babylonii, in Horace, “Carm.” I. xi. 2. The Greek is γαζαρηνῶν (gazarēnōn) — the Chaldee word in Greek letters. This is one of the words — not very few in number — which the authors of the Greek version did not attempt to translate. Such words, however, are not useless, as they serve to throw light on the question of how the Hebrew and Chaldee were pronounced before the vowel points were affixed to those languages.