“The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, “The word has gone forth from me (or ‘the thing is certain'). If you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you will be cut in pieces and your houses will be made a dunghill (or ‘into ruins'). But if you show the dream and its interpretation, you will receive from me gifts and rewards and great honour. Therefore show me the dream and its interpretation.”
The king was not saying that he could not remember his dreams (as AV suggests). His point was rather that he had spoken and what he had spoken was therefore certain to follow. He was extremely upset, even terrified, and he had already begun to feel that his wise men were unreliable. Now things had reached a crisis. If they could not prove to him that they had not been fooling him, by making known to him the dream (surely no difficulty for those who claimed special powers with the gods, if they were genuine), then he would destroy both them and their houses. Their families would be left in poverty. On the other hand if they could prove themselves, then untold riches and honour would be theirs. The words were typical of a despot who had in his hands the power of life and death. Why should he keep on supporting those who were deceiving him? But in the light of subsequent events they might also indicate someone who was mentally not quite stable. Someone who was extreme.