The king answered the Chaldeans, The thing is gone from me: if you don’t make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill.
Parallel translations
- KJV The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, The thing is gone from me: if ye will not make known unto me the dream, with the interpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill.
- BSB The king replied to the astrologers, “My word is final: If you do not tell me the dream and its interpretation, you will be cut into pieces and your houses will be reduced to rubble.
- NKJV The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, “My decision is firm: if you do not make known the dream to me, and its interpretation, you shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made an ash heap.
- NASB The king replied to the Chaldeans, “The command from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you will be torn limb from limb and your houses will be turned into a rubbish heap.
- NLT But the king said to the astrologers, “I am serious about this. If you don’t tell me what my dream was and what it means, you will be torn limb from limb, and your houses will be turned into heaps of rubble!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The king demands they reveal the dream itself, on pain of death and ruin. He tests whether their power is real.
Overview
By withholding the dream's content, Nebuchadnezzar forces an impossible test that would prove genuine divine insight. The harsh threat shows the absolute, fearsome power of an ancient despot. The stage is set to expose pagan wisdom as fraudulent and to display the God who truly reveals.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Ezra 6:11I have also made a decree that whoever alters this message, let a beam be pulled out from his house, and let him be lifted up and fastened on it; and let his house be made a dunghill for this.
- Dan 3:29Therefore I make a decree, that every people, nation, and language, which speak anything evil against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill; because there is no other god who is able to deliver after this sort.
- 2 Kgs 10:27They broke down the pillar of Baal, and broke down the house of Baal, and made it a latrine, to this day.
- Ps 50:22“Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you into pieces, and there be no one to deliver.
- Ps 58:7Let them vanish like water that flows away. When they draw the bow, let their arrows be made blunt.
- 1 Sam 15:33Samuel said, “As your sword has made women childless, so your mother will be childless among women!” Then Samuel cut Agag in pieces before Yahweh in Gilgal.
- Deut 13:16You shall gather all its plunder into the middle of its street, and shall burn with fire the city, and all every bit of its plunder, to Yahweh your God. It shall be a heap forever. It shall not be built again.
- Dan 2:12For this cause the king was angry and very furious, and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.
- Josh 6:26Joshua commanded them with an oath at that time, saying, “Cursed is the man before Yahweh, who rises up and builds this city Jericho. With the loss of his firstborn he will lay its foundation, and with the loss of his youngest son he will set up its gates.”
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Christ at the center
Daniel sees the stone cut without hands that shatters the kingdoms, and 'one like a son of man' given everlasting dominion — titles and visions Jesus claims as his own.
How Daniel 2:5 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.