Daniel 2:7
New International Version
Once more they replied, “Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will interpret it.”

New Living Translation
They said again, “Please, Your Majesty. Tell us the dream, and we will tell you what it means.”

English Standard Version
They answered a second time and said, “Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will show its interpretation.”

Berean Standard Bible
They answered a second time, “Let the king tell the dream to his servants, and we will give the interpretation.”

King James Bible
They answered again and said, Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will shew the interpretation of it.

New King James Version
They answered again and said, “Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will give its interpretation.”

New American Standard Bible
They answered a second time and said, “Let the king tell the dream to his servants, and we will declare the interpretation.”

NASB 1995
They answered a second time and said, “Let the king tell the dream to his servants, and we will declare the interpretation.”

NASB 1977
They answered a second time and said, “Let the king tell the dream to his servants, and we will declare the interpretation.”

Legacy Standard Bible
They answered a second time and said, “Let the king say the dream to his servants, and we will declare the interpretation.”

Amplified Bible
They answered again, “Let the king tell the dream to his servants, and we will explain its interpretation [to you].”

Christian Standard Bible
They answered a second time, “May the king tell the dream to his servants, and we will make known the interpretation.”

Holman Christian Standard Bible
They answered a second time, “May the king tell the dream to his servants, and we will give the interpretation.”

American Standard Version
They answered the second time and said, Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
They answered again, and they were saying to him: “Let the King tell his Servants the dream, and we shall show its interpretation!”

Brenton Septuagint Translation
They answered the second time, and said, Let the king tell the dream to his servants, and we will declare the interpretation.

Contemporary English Version
"Your Majesty," they said, "if you will only tell us your dream, we will interpret it for you."

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

English Revised Version
They answered the second time and said, Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will shew the interpretation.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Once more they said, "Your Majesty, tell us the dream, and we'll tell you its meaning."

Good News Translation
They answered the king again, "If Your Majesty will only tell us what the dream was, we will explain it."

International Standard Version
They replied again, "Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we'll disclose its meaning."

JPS Tanakh 1917
They answered the second time and said: 'Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will declare the interpretation.'

Literal Standard Version
They have answered a second time, and are saying, “Let the king tell the dream to his servants, and we show the interpretation.”

Majority Standard Bible
They answered a second time, “Let the king tell the dream to his servants, and we will give the interpretation.”

New American Bible
Again they answered, “Let the king tell his servants the dream and we will give its meaning.”

NET Bible
They again replied, "Let the king inform us of the dream; then we will disclose its interpretation."

New Revised Standard Version
They answered a second time, “Let the king first tell his servants the dream, then we can give its interpretation.”

New Heart English Bible
They answered the second time and said, "Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation."

Webster's Bible Translation
They answered again and said, Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation of it.

World English Bible
They answered the second time and said, “Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.”

Young's Literal Translation
They have answered a second time, and are saying, 'Let the king tell the dream to his servants, and the interpretation we do shew.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Nebuchadnezzar's Dream
6But if you tell me the dream and its interpretation, you will receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. So tell me the dream and its interpretation.” 7They answered a second time, “Let the king tell the dream to his servants, and we will give the interpretation.” 8The king replied, “I know for sure that you are stalling for time, because you see that my word is final.…

Cross References
Daniel 2:4
Then the astrologers answered the king in Aramaic, "O king, may you live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will give the interpretation."

Daniel 2:8
The king replied, "I know for sure that you are stalling for time, because you see that my word is final.

Daniel 4:7
When the magicians, enchanters, astrologers, and diviners came in, I told them the dream, and they could not interpret it for me.


Treasury of Scripture

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

Let.

Daniel 2:4,9
Then spake the Chaldeans to the king in Syriack, O king, live for ever: tell thy servants the dream, and we will shew the interpretation…

Ecclesiastes 10:4
If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place; for yielding pacifieth great offences.

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Daniel 2
1. Nebuchadnezzar, forgetting his dream,
5. requires it of the Chaldeans, by promises and threats.
10. They acknowledging their inability are judged to die.
14. Daniel obtaining some respite finds the dream.
19. He blesses God.
24. He staying the decree is brought to the king.
31. The dream.
36. The interpretation.
46. Daniel's advancement.














(7) Let the king tell.--The request was reasonable enough, according to the principles of Babylonian sorcery. Nebuchadnezzar's doubts, however, were awakened, and he was not sure of the veracity of his magicians. He speaks with great common sense (Daniel 2:9), "If you can tell me the dream, I shall be sure that your interpretation is correct."

Verse 7. - They answered again and said, Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation of it. The Septuagint Version here is, "And they answered the second time, saying, O king, tell the dream, and thy servants will judge of these things." Theodotion, the Peshitta, and the Vulgate agree with the Massoretic. The wise men are unable to satisfy the king's demands. Ewald comments on the fact that none of them had the inventiveness to make up a dream, and tell the king that had been his dream. He admits himself that there might have been risk of the king discovering the deception, if no flash of reviving memory in his mind answered to their invention. On our hypothesis that the king had not forgotten his dream, but was testing their powers, it was not only in the highest degree hazardous, but it was certain of failure. They must have known the case to be as we imagine it, or, when they were sentenced to death, they would have run the hazard, on the plea, "If we perish, we perish." There was a chance, though a faint one, of success in the attempt to palm off upon the king their own imaginings for his dream; there was a certainty of death if they did nothing. All they can do, however, is simply to repeat what they before said, "Tell us the dream, and we will find the interpretation of it." Nebuchadnezzar has often been denounced as specially foolish and tyrannical on account of this demand which he made of the wise men; but tyrannical though he was, and foolish though he seems at times, looked at from our elevation, this demand of his is not an example either of his folly or his tyranny. These soothsayers enjoyed great honour and great revenues, on the assumption that they possessed certain powers of foreseeing the future. He demands of them, instead of an enigmatical statement of what was coming on the earth, that they tell him what he had dreamed. They professed to be able to discover thefts, and where stolen property was; they professed to point out men who were devising evil against another. If their claims were true, they could surely tell the king his dream. They were thus employed and honoured in order that they should foretell to the king any fortune, good or bad, impending himself or the natron. His dream presumably foretold the future; they affirmed that they knew the future; they surely might tell the king what prophecy was made to him in his dream. Believing in the reality of their powers with all the faith of a fanatic, their refusal could only mean to him treason. They did not tell him his dream, not because they could not, but because they would not, in order that the disaster - for such he would be sure the dream portended - might not be averted by timely sacrifices. If the elaborate treatises on magic and divination which have come to us, so far as has been discovered, only in fragments, were complete, it is not impossible that we might be able to tell what interpretation these wise men would have put on the dream, had they been told it. It would be a curious exercise, for certainly Daniel's interpretation would not be the result. We must return to the versions for a little, in one respect the Septuagint is closer to the Massoretic than Theodotion, by having λέγοντες, the participle, instead of εϊπαν. We direct attention to this, with a view to the phenomenon we find in the succeeding clause. The Septuagint rendering is given above. The most noticeable thing which the reader will find about this rendering is the change of person in the last clause. As it stands in the Massoretic text, it is certainly the first person plural Imperfect pael of חוה; but in Syriac the preformative נ was the sign of the third person in the imperfect, as well as of the first person plural; hence, if there were a little uncertainty as to the end of the word, it was an easy mistake to one who was reading from a manuscript in Eastern Aramaic, but an impossible one for a scribe translating from a manuscript written in Chaldee, or Western Aramaic. It cannot be urged plausibly that the change might simply result from a free translation, for the slavish accuracy of the rest of the verse precludes that escape. As the reading of the Greek is confirmed by the version of Paulus Tel-lensis, the probability is slight of a various reading. This is another evidence that Daniel was originally written in Eastern, not Western Aramaic. It may be observed that while in the Massoretic text the verb "tell" (y'emar) is put in the imperfect, in the Septuagint it is translated as it' it were. imperative. The difference between the third person imperfect and the second person imperative is the presence, in the case of the former, of the preformative y (י), which is absent in the other. That is a thing that might easily happen, that, (yodh) might be dropped or inserted mistakenly; consequently, this affords no evidence that the Septuagint translator took liberties with his text. The question may be put, how tar these soothsayers knew they were impostors. Most likely they were unconscious of anything approaching imposition. We know the elaborate rules by which they determined the exact meaning of every sign and portent. We know how prone men are to supplement such rules by a native faculty for foreseeing what is likely to happen, and how, further, explanations may be devised to save the credit of these canons of interpretation, even when most hopelessly proved to be false by events. Archdeacon Rose appeals to modern spiritualists as examples in point, regarding both the Chaldean soothsayers and modern spiritualists as equally impostors. We feel inclined to regard them as so far alike in this - that most of both classes imposed most on themselves. The presence of these false prophets is an evidence of the existence of the true prophets at some time, at all events; there would be no counterfeit coin were there no genuine money.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
They answered
עֲנ֥וֹ (‘ă·nōw)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 6032: To answer

a second time,
תִנְיָנ֖וּת (ṯin·yā·nūṯ)
Adverb
Strong's 8579: The second time

“Let the king
מַלְכָּ֕א (mal·kā)
Noun - masculine singular determinate
Strong's 4430: A king

tell
וְאָמְרִ֑ין (wə·’ā·mə·rîn)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Participle - masculine plural
Strong's 560: To say, tell, command

the dream
חֶלְמָ֛א (ḥel·mā)
Noun - masculine singular determinate
Strong's 2493: A dream

to his servants,
לְעַבְד֖וֹהִי (lə·‘aḇ·ḏō·w·hî)
Preposition-l | Noun - masculine plural construct | third person masculine singular
Strong's 5649: Slave, servant

and we will give
נְהַחֲוֵֽה׃ (nə·ha·ḥă·wêh)
Verb - Hifil - Imperfect - first person common plural
Strong's 2324: To show

the interpretation.”
וּפִשְׁרָ֥ה (ū·p̄iš·rāh)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular determinate
Strong's 6591: An interpretation


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OT Prophets: Daniel 2:7 They answered the second time and said (Dan. Da Dn)
Daniel 2:6
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