Charles Ellicott Commentary Daniel 2:3

"And the king said unto them, I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit is troubled to know the dream." — Daniel 2:3 (ASV)

I have dreamed.— It has been questioned whether the king had really forgotten his dream, or whether he only pretended to have done so in order that he might prove the skill of his wise men. The conduct of the Chaldeans (Daniel 2:10) makes the latter hypothesis possible. However, it is more in accordance with what is stated about the anxious condition of the king’s mind to assume that he remembered a portion of the dream, but that he had lost the general outline of it.