Then came in all the king's wise men
The whole college of them, the persons before described; over whom, in Nebuchadnezzar's time, Daniel was the chief of the governors, ( Daniel 2:48 ) , these came in readily, in hope of getting both riches and honour: but they could not read the writing, nor make known to the king the
interpretation thereof;
for if they could not do the former, it must be impossible to do the latter; of the reason of which, various are the conjectures F16: as that, though these words were written in Chaldee, yet in characters, as the Samaritan or Phoenician, they did not understand; or were written without points, and so they knew not which were the proper ones to put to them; or they were written according to the position of the letters of the alphabet, called "athbash", of which (See Gill on Jeremiah 25:26), or the words were placed so as to be read backward, or else downward, and not straightforward; or they were all in one word; or only the initial letters of words; but the true reason was, that it was so ordained by the Lord, that they should not be able to read and interpret them; this being reserved for another man, Daniel, that he might have the honour, and God the glory.