‘Then came in the magicians, the enchanters, the Chaldeans and the soothsayers and I told the dream before them, but they did not make known to me its interpretation.'
This is confirmation of what we have said above. He knew from experience that it was no use asking these men to tell him his dream, so he accepted second best and informed them of the content of the dream. He was in a hurry, and he could always consult Daniel later. But even so they could not help him. It is possible that they had no idea what it meant, because it was not mentioned in their Babylonian books of dreams. But it is more probable that they had a very good idea of what it meant and dared not say so. For it was not so difficult to interpret, for men used to dealing with dreams. But who was going to tell the king what it meant, and face the consequences? (Even Daniel did it fearfully). Nebuchadnezzar might well have believed that they could not simply because of his poor opinion of them.