Because of its very familiarity, the main outline of this remarkable revelation will be treated in relatively brief fashion. Indeed, the only valid reason for spending time on it here is the often-unrecognised fact that certain features of the king’s dream seem traditionally to have been misconstrued.
“Thou art this head of gold” explains why king Nebuchadnezzar should have been so very insistent in his demands for an elucidation of the vision. Of course, before this, he had had many another dreams, which had been dismissed from serious attention (if not already gone from memory). But this one was stamped in his mind and was a worry to him because the image, which he had seen, had his own features: “Thou art this head of gold.”
The AV reading of the king’s words has misled many readers: “The thing is gone from me.“This is not equivalent to: ‘I have forgotten what the dream was about.’ Had it been so, there would have been none of this royal excitement.
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Author: Harry Whittaker
Keywords: Nebuchadnezzar's image, Nebuchadnezzar's dream, dream of Nebuchadnezzar, head of gold, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, Roman empire, Babylonian empire, Persian empire, Grecian empire, Greek empire, belly of brass, legs of iron, iron and clay, feet of iron and clay, feet of clay, kingdoms of men, kingdom of men
Bible reference(s): Daniel 2
Source: Visions in Daniel.
Page indexed by: inWORD Bible Software.