Daniel 2:27

27 And Daniel answered before the king, and said, The mystery which the king asks is not of the wise men, magicians, enchanters, soothsayers to declare to the king.

Daniel 2:27 Meaning and Commentary

Daniel 2:27

Daniel answered in the presence of the king
Boldly, and without fear: and said, the secret which the king hath demanded:
so he calls it, to show that it was something divine, which came from God, and could only be revealed by him, and was not to be found out by any art of man: cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers
show unto the king;
this he premises to the revelation of the secret, not only to observe the unreasonableness of the king's demand upon them, and the injustice of putting men to death for it; but that the discovery of the whole might appear to be truly divine, and God might have all the glory; it being what no class of men whatever could ever have made known unto him. The last word, rendered "soothsayers" {u}, is not used before; the Septuagint version leaves it untranslated, and calls them Gazarenes; and so Saadiah says, it is the name of a nation or people so called; but Jarchi takes them to be a sort of men that had confederacy with devils: the word signifies such that "cut" into parts, as the soothsayers, who cut up creatures, and looked into their entrails, and by them made their judgment of events; or as the astrologers, who cut and divide the heavens into parts, and by them divide future things; or determine, as Jacchiades says, what shall befall men; for the word is used also in the sense of determining or decreeing; hence, Saadiah says, some interpret it of princes, who by their words determine the affairs of kingdoms: by some it is rendered "fatalists" F23, who declare to men what their fate will be; but neither of these could show this secret to the king.


FOOTNOTES:

F21 (Nyrzg) sectores, Cocceius, Gejerus.
F23 "Fatidici", Munster, Tigurine version; "qui de homine determinant hoc, vel illo modo ipsi eventurum esse", Jacchiades.

Daniel 2:27 In-Context

25 Then Arioch in haste brought in Daniel before the king, and said to him, I have found a man of the children of the captivity of Judea, who will declare the interpretation to the king.
26 And the king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Baltasar, Canst thou declare to me the dream which I saw, and the interpretation thereof?
27 And Daniel answered before the king, and said, The mystery which the king asks is not of the wise men, magicians, enchanters, soothsayers to declare to the king.
28 But there is a God in heaven revealing mysteries, and he has made known to king Nabuchodonosor what things must come to pass in the last days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are as follows,
29 O king: thy thoughts upon thy bed arose what must come to pass hereafter: and he that reveals mysteries has made known to thee what must come to pass.

The Brenton translation of the Septuagint is in the public domain.