The colossal image, seen by Nebuchadnezzar in his dream, was a
reproduction of those which met his waking eyes, and still remain for
our wonder in our museums. The mingled materials are paralleled in
ancient art. The substance of the dream is no less natural than its
form. The one is suggested by familiar sights; the other, by pressing
anxieties. What more likely than that, 'in the second year of his reign'
(v. 1), waking thoughts of the future of his monarchy should trouble the
warrior-king, scarcely yet firm on his throne, and should repeat
themselves in nightly visions? God spoke through the dream, and He is
not wont to answer questions before they are asked, nor to give
revelations to men on points which they have not sought to solve. We may
be sure that Nebuchadnezzar's dream met his need.

The unreasonable demand that the 'Chaldeans' should show the dream as
well as interpret it, fits the character of the king, as an imperious
despot, intolerant of obstacles to his will, and holding human life very
cheap. Daniel's knowledge of the dream and of its meaning is given to
him in a vision by night, which is the method of divine illumination
throughout the book, and may be regarded as a lower stage thereof than
the communications to prophets of 'the word of the Lord.'

The passage falls into two parts: the image and the stone.

I. The Image.

It was a human form of strangely mingled materials, of giant size no
doubt, and of majestic aspect. Barbarous enough it would have looked
beside the marble lovelinesses of Greece, but it was quite like the
coarser art which sought for impressiveness through size and costliness.
Other people than Babylonian sculptors think that bigness is greatness,