Daniel 2:30
But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living, but for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart.
But as for me,.... As to the part I have in this affair, I can ascribe nothing to myself; it is all owing to the God of heaven, the recovery of the dream, and its interpretation:
this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living: not that he thought or affirmed that he had more wisdom than any man living, as the Vulgate Latin version and others suggest; but as the king might think he had, by revealing this secret to him, and that it was owing to that; but that he had not such wisdom, and, whatever he had, which was the gift of God, it was not through that, or any sagacity and penetration into things he was master of, superior to others, that it was revealed to him; and therefore would not have it placed to any such account; this he said in great modesty, and in order to set the king right, and that God might have all the glory:
but for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king; meaning not only himself, and his companions concerned with him, that they might be promoted to honour and dignity, but the whole body of the Jews in captivity, with which they were in connection; that they might meet with more civil and kind treatment, for the sake of the God they worshipped, who revealed this secret to the king: or, "but that they might make known", &c. {x}; the three Persons in the Godhead, as some; the angels, as others; the ministers of God, as Aben Ezra: or rather it may be rendered impersonally,
but that the interpretation might be made known to the king {y} as by the Vulgate Latin, as it follows:
and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart; both what they were, which were forgotten, and the meaning of them.
{x} Nwedwhy-Nhl "sed ut notificarent", Pagninus, Montanus; "indicent", Vatablus.
{y} "Sed ut interpretatio regi manifesta fieret", V. L. "eo fine ut indicetur", De Dieu.