Bible Strands
Daniel 2:27
Daniel answered the king, “No wise man, enchanter, medium, or magician can explain to the king the mystery of which he inquires.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Daniel addresses King Nebuchadnezzar immediately after the monarch demands to know both the dream content and its interpretation. He responds to the royal summons that previously gathered the court's diviners and magicians.
The words — The Hebrew רָזָה (ra.Zah) literally means "secret" or "mystery," denoting a hidden reality inaccessible to human investigation. The verb עָנֵה ('a.Neh) conveys a formal reply to the king’s direct inquiry.
The thread — The text explicitly states that no human expert can explain the king's mystery, which aligns with Isaiah 44:25's description of God confounding diviners and Daniel 2:2's account of the king summoning enchanters for an impossible task. This creates a direct literary link between the futility of occult arts and the exclusive role of divine revelation.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to acknowledge that human wisdom and occult practices cannot access hidden future events. It directs attention solely toward the God who alone discloses what will happen in the latter days.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, shew unto the king;
Cross-references
- Isaiah 44:25 who foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners, who confounds the wise and turns their knowledge into nonsense,
- Isaiah 47:12 So take your stand with your spells and with your many sorceries, with which you have wearied yourself from your youth. Perhaps you will succeed; perhaps you will inspire terror!
- Daniel 2:2 So the king gave orders to summon the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, and astrologers to explain his dreams. When they came and stood before the king,
- Daniel 2:10 The astrologers answered the king, “No one on earth can do what the king requests! No king, however great and powerful, has ever asked anything like this of any magician, enchanter, or astrologer.
- Daniel 5:7 The king called out for the enchanters, astrologers, and diviners to be brought in, and he said to these wise men of Babylon, “Whoever reads this inscription and tells me its interpretation will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around his neck, and he will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom.”
- Job 5:12 He thwarts the schemes of the crafty, so that their hands find no success.
- Isaiah 19:3 Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be emptied out from among them, and I will frustrate their plans, so that they will resort to idols and spirits of the dead, to mediums and spiritists.