Daniel 2:8

8 The king answered and said: I know for certain, that you seek to gain time, since you know that the thing is gone from me.

Daniel 2:8 Meaning and Commentary

Daniel 2:8

The king answered and said, I know of certainty
I see plainly and clearly what you are at, and am fully assured you mean nothing, but that ye would gain the time:
or buy ^F6, or redeem time, as in ( Ephesians 5:16 ) , prolong time, put off the answer to longer time; spin out time, as people do in buying and selling; or have it in their possession and power when to answer; and so by gaining time, or being master of it, might hope something would turn up to their advantage, and extricate them out of their present difficulties: because ye see the thing is gone from me;
the dream he could not remember; or because the decree was certain which he had determined concerning them; (See Gill on Daniel 2:5).

---

FOOTNOTES:

F6 (Nynbz Nwtna ande yd) "quod tempus vos emitis", Pagninus, Munster; "ementes", Montanus; "vos tempus redimere", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Daniel 2:8 In-Context

6 but if you tell the dream, and the meaning of it, you shall receive of me rewards, and gifts, and great honour: therefore, tell me the dream, and the interpretation thereof.

7 They answered again and said: Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will declare the interpretation of it.

8 The king answered and said: I know for certain, that you seek to gain time, since you know that the thing is gone from me.

9 If, therefore, you tell me not the dream, there is one sentence concerning you, that you have also framed a lying interpretation, and full of deceit, to speak before me till the time pass away. Tell me, therefore, the dream, that I may know that you also give a true interpretation thereof.

10 Then the Chaldeans answered before the king, and said: There is no man upon earth, that can accomplish thy word, O king; neither doth any king, though great and mighty, ask such a thing of any diviner, or wise man, or Chaldean.