Daniel 2:38

38 y dondequiera que habiten los hijos de los hombres, las bestias del campo o las aves del cielo, El los ha entregado en tu mano y te ha hecho soberano de todos ellos; tú eres la cabeza de oro.

Daniel 2:38 Meaning and Commentary

Daniel 2:38

And wheresoever the children of men dwell
Not in every part of the habitable world, but in every part of his large dominion inhabited by men: the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the heaven, hath he given
into thine hand;
all parks, chases, and forests (so that none might hunt or hawk without his permission), as well as the persons and habitations of men, were at his dispose; showing the despotic power and sovereign sway he had over his subjects: and hath made thee ruler over all:
men, beasts, and fowl: he not only conquered the Egyptians, Tyrians, and Jews, and other nations about them; but, according to Megasthenes ^F12 he exceeded Hercules in strength, and conquered Lybia and Iberia, and carried colonies of them into Pontus; and, as Strabo ^F13 says, carried his arms as far as the pillars of Hercules: thou art this head of gold;
or who was represented by the golden head of the image he had seen in his dream; not he personally only, but his successors Evilmerodach and Belshazzar, and the Babylonish monarchy, as possessed by them; for this refers not back to the Assyrian monarchy, from the time of Nimrod, but to its more flourishing condition in Nebuchadnezzar and his sons; called a "head", because the first of the monarchies; and golden, in comparison of other kingdoms then in being, and because of the riches of it, which the Babylonians were covetous of; hence Babylon is called the golden city, ( Isaiah 14:4 ) and it may be, because not so wicked and cruel to the Jews as the later monarchies were: from hence the poets have been thought by some to have taken their notion of the golden, silver, and iron ages, as growing worse and worse; but this distinction is observed by Hesiod, who lived many years before this vision was seen.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F12 Apud Euseb. Prepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 41. p. 456.
F13 Geograp. I. 15. p. 472.

Daniel 2:38 In-Context

36 Este es el sueño; ahora diremos ante el rey su interpretación.

37 Tú, oh rey, eres rey de reyes, a quien el Dios del cielo ha dado el reino, el poder, la fuerza y la gloria;

38 y dondequiera que habiten los hijos de los hombres, las bestias del campo o las aves del cielo, El los ha entregado en tu mano y te ha hecho soberano de todos ellos; tú eres la cabeza de oro.

39 Después de ti se levantará otro reino, inferior a ti, y luego un tercer reino, de bronce, que gobernará sobre toda la tierra.

40 Y habrá un cuarto reino, tan fuerte como el hierro; y así como el hierro desmenuza y destroza todas las cosas, como el hierro que tritura, así él desmenuzará y triturará a todos éstos.