They answered a second time and said, “Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will show its interpretation.”
Here the excuse of the Magi is narrated. They state the truth that their art only enabled them to discover the interpretation of a dream; but the king wished to know the dream itself. Whence he appears again to have been seized with prodigious fury and became quite implacable.
The date troubles many readers, but Daniel likely finished his schooling early and entered the king's service in just one year rather than three, making this event fall in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign when he was already trusted with high matters. The dream itself, forgotten yet troubling, is what brought this great need upon the king.
AI summary
Commenting on Daniel 2:1-13
They answered again, and said,.... Or, a "second" (e) time; repeating the same words, having nothing more to say: let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation thereof; the first part was but right and reasonable, though the latter was mere boasting and arrogancy. (e) Sept.; "secundo", Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; so Ar.