The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, The thing is gone from me: if ye will not make known unto me the dream, with the interpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill.
The king answered ... to the Chaldeans, The thing is gone from me - i:e., 'The dream is gone from me.' Gesenius translates, 'The decree is gone forth from me,' irrevocable (cf. Isaiah 45:23), namely, that you shall be executed if you do not tell both the dream and the interpretation. The English version is simpler, which supposes the king himself to have forgotten the dream. Pretenders to supernatural knowledge often bring on themselves their own punishment.
If ye will not make known unto me the dream ... ye shall be cut in pieces - (1 Samuel 15:33, "Samuel bowed Agag in pieces").
Your houses shall be made a dunghill - rather, a morass heap. The Babylonian houses were built of sun-dried bricks; when demolished the rain dissolves the whole rate a mass of mire, in the wet land near the river (Stuart). So also Maurer translates, 'shall be made a mud- heap.' Compare, however, in favour of the English version, Daniel 3:29; 2 Kings 10:29; Ezekiel 6:11. As to the consistency of this cruel threat with Nebuchadnezzar's character, see Daniel 4:17, "the basest of men;" thus he slew all the nobles of Judah, and Zedekiah's sons, before that king's eyes, and then put out his eyes and bound him with chains (Jeremiah 39:5-7; Jeremiah 52:9-11).