Daniel Chapter 4 Verse 18

18 This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, saw. And you, O Belteshazzar, declare the interpretation, because all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known to me the interpretation, but you are able, for the spirit of the holy gods is in you.”

The king turns at last to Daniel for the interpretation of the dream because the other wise men could not interpret it.

But why couldn’t they interpret it? The meaning seems very clear.

The portrayal of a man in his pride as a lofty tree is common in the Old Testament.

Isaiah 2:12-13 For the Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up and high; 13 against all the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up; and against all the oaks of Bashan;

Isaiah 10:34 He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an axe, and Lebanon with its majestic trees will fall.

Ezekiel used a very similar picture to describe Assyria just a few years before Nebuchadnezzar had this dream. (See Ezekiel 31:3–17.)

Why couldn’t the other wise men interpret the image?

They may not have been familiar with the imagery that must have been very clear to any Hebrew. This is possible but unlikely. The image seems very clear. (Indeed, it was so clear to Nebuchadnezzar that he was terrified by it.)

God may have kept them from understanding it so that Daniel would be chosen to explain it to the king.

The most likely possibility is that they understood exactly what the dream meant but they were too cowardly to explain it to the king.

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