John Calvin Commentary Daniel 2:5

"The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, The thing is gone from me: if ye make not known unto me the dream and the interpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill." — Daniel 2:5 (ASV)

Here the king requires from the Chaldeans more than they claimed to provide him. For although their boasting, as we have said, was foolish in promising to interpret any dream, yet they never claimed the power of narrating anyone's dreams to them. The king, therefore, seems to me to act unjustly in not regarding what they had until now professed, and the limits of their art and skill, if indeed they had any skill!

When he says—the matter or speech had departed from him—the words admit of a twofold sense. For מלתה, millethah, may be taken for an edict, as we will see later; and so it might be read, has flowed away.

But since the same form of expression will be shortly repeated when it seems to be used of the dream (Daniel 2:8), this explanation is suitable enough, as the king says his dream had vanished. So I leave the point undecided.

It is worth noticing again what we said yesterday: terror had so seized the king that it deprived him of rest. And yet, he was not so informed that the slightest trace of the revelation remained. It was just as if an ox, stunned by a severe blow, should toss itself about and roll over and over.

Such is the madness of this wretched king, because God was harassing him with dreadful torments, while all the time the memory of the dream was completely obliterated from his mind. Hence he confesses—his dream had escaped him; and although the Magi had prescribed the limits of their skill, yet because they boasted of being interpreters of the gods, he did not hesitate to demand from them what they had never professed.

This is the just reward of arrogance, when men, puffed up with perverse confidence, assume before others more than they should, and, forgetful of all modesty, wish to be regarded as angelic spirits. Without the slightest doubt, God wished to make a laughingstock of this foolish boasting, which was conspicuous among the Chaldeans, when the king sharply demanded that they relate his dream, as well as offer an interpretation of it.

He afterwards adds threats, clearly tyrannical. Unless they interpret the dream, their life is in danger. No common punishment is threatened; instead, he says they would become “pieces”—if we take the meaning of the word to signify pieces. If we think it means “blood,” the sense will be the same.

This wrath of the king is clearly furious; indeed, Nebuchadnezzar in this respect surpassed the cruelty of all wild beasts. What fault could be imputed to the Chaldeans if they did not know the king’s dream? Surely, they had never professed this, as we will see later; and no king had ever demanded what was beyond human capability.

We perceive how the king manifested a brutal rage when he pronounced death and every cruel torture upon the Magi and sorcerers. Tyrants, indeed, often give free rein to their lust, and think everything is lawful for themselves; from which also come these words of the tragedian: "Whatever he wishes is lawful."

And Sophocles says, with evident truth, that anyone entering a tyrant’s threshold must cast away his liberty; but if we were to collect all examples, we would scarcely find one like this. It follows, then, that the king’s mind was impelled by diabolical fury, urging him to punish the Chaldeans who, with respect to him, were innocent enough.

We know them to have been impostors, and the world to have been deluded by their deceptions, which made them deserving of death, since by the precepts of the Law it was a capital crime for anyone to pretend to the power of prophecy by magic arts (Leviticus 20:6). But, as far as the king was concerned, they could not be charged with any crime.

Why, then, did he threaten them with death? Because the Lord wished to show the miracle which we will see later.

For if the king had allowed the Chaldeans to depart, he could have immediately buried that anxiety which tortured and excruciated his mind. The matter, too, would have been less noticed by the people. Therefore, God tortured the king’s mind until he rushed headlong in his fury, as we have said.

Thus, this atrocious and cruel denunciation must have aroused all men; for there is no doubt that the greatest and the least trembled together when they heard of such vehemence in the monarch’s wrath. This, therefore, is the complete meaning, and we must note the purpose of God’s providence in thus allowing the king’s anger to burn without restraint.